It’s been about two years since John Galliano left Maison Margiela and people are still gaging over his final collection for the brand and desperately searching for vintage pieces from his days at Dior on eBay and The Real Real, where even his Rasta collection — arguably the worst of his career — is somehow once again commanding top dollar.
The antisemitic tirade that cost him his post at Dior has long since been forgiven, forgotten, or deemed unimportant by consumers and fashion executives hungry for his creative output. And thus, after a short hiatus, Galliano is back at the design desk ready to churn out collections for none other than Zara — the vertically integrated Spanish fast fashion brand as famous for its designer knockoffs as for its designer collaborations.
The two year creative partnership will see Galliano “re-author” the brand’s archives through a series of seasonal collections.
“Mr. Galliano will be working directly with garments from Zara’s past seasons, deconstructing and reconfiguring them into new seasonal expressions and creations,” said Zara via a press release. “Guided by a couture process and authorship, the collections will be released seasonally over the course of the partnership beginning in September 2026.”
John Galliano (Photo by Szilveszter Makó)
“I’m super excited,” Galliano told Vogue, “because it’s not something I’ve done before, so that kind of tickles me—the newness, the excitement, the actual process. Even with my team, I have to keep reminding them daily: No, it’s not this, and it’s not that. We are re-authoring. It’s been quite fun, and I just think it’s a very positive thing to be doing at this time, and really sustainable from a creative point of view, which is super interesting to me.”
Galliano is currently at work on his first Zara collection at a studio somewhere in or around Paris and says it will be “beyond gender and beyond seasons.”
The question is: will it be beyond expensive? Not by couture standards, certainly, but Zara’s prices have been climbing for a while now. Could this collection finally push them into the 4-figure dress market? And will Galliano for Zara be Galliano enough to truly satisfy fans of his work at Dior and Margiela? Or will the bias-cut rayon and surged seams Zara is notorious for kill the vibe? Only time will tell!
