Maison Margiela Spring/Summer 2018

When John Galliano’s creative eccentricities are tapped into in the right headspace they can really turn out some delightfully inspired collections. This season a little people watching at the airport in Mexico City provided the inspo for haphazard dressing. The precursor to his show was a soundtrack of airport noises—he’d been thinking about spending a day in transit at Mexico City en route from Thailand, watching travelers from all over the world passing through in various states of unintended disarray. The beautiful mess showed itself in tops, coats, and dress overlays cut-out to nothing but bonelike structures or in a pair of electric blue cowboy boots thrown on with a sensible suede jacket and a pair of tweed shorts. The fun part, was of course the airport inspired accessories including a model who trotted out with her neck pillow and eye mask accenting her look or another model whose purse doubled as a pillow (a wonderful travel idea by the way).

Meanwhile, it was the ever pervasive trench coat that got the season’s most thoughtful update. It came as a strapless dress, a belted mini, or a bustier top and the best version of all—another take on the skeleton theme—closed the show adorned in mirrors. When Galliano derives high-minded ideas from the everyday dredges of so-called normal dressing, is when he is at his finest.