John Galliano is back in the atelier: The Spanish retailer Zara has signed the design legend to a two-year creative partnership which will see him “re-author” the brand’s archives, returning Galliano to fashion after an absence of two years following the feat of bravura and viral sensation that was his final Artisanal show for Maison Margiela in 2024.
“I’ve been curating some of Zara’s recent archives,” Galliano told Vogue during Paris Fashion Week. “The idea is that I will re-author them.” The project came about via Galliano’s conversations with Marta Ortega Perez—the chair of Inditex, Zara’s parent company, and the daughter of Inditex founder Amancio Ortega. “I met Marta through MOP [the Marta Ortega Perez Foundation] and the wonderful exhibitions that she does—Steven Meisel, Irving Penn,” Galliano explained. (The MOP, established in 2022, presents photography and fashion exhibitions in A Coruña, Spain.) “Through those exhibitions, we started to strike up a friendship. I just like how open she is.”
Since Ortega Perez was named chair in 2022, Zara has collaborated with other high fashion designers, among them Narciso Rodriguez and Stefano Pilati. It’s also released capsule collections by fashion notables like Kate Moss and Meisel, but the partnership with Galliano is unique in that it will extend over two years.
“I’m super excited, because it’s not something I’ve done before, so that kind of tickles me—the newness, the excitement, the actual process,” Galliano noted. “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.” In January, Galliano was seen front row at Jonathan Anderson’s haute couture debut for Dior. Before his ten years at Maison Margiela, he was creative director of Christian Dior from 1997 to 2011. “When I was at school—even before I went to school—John was a hero of mine,” Anderson said at the time, noting that Galliano designed Dior for a longer period than the founder himself. “For me in the modern-day world, he is Dior.” Anderson’s collection was indebted to Galliano, with references to his past designs and the incorporation of cyclamen—of the kind Galliano presented to the younger couturier at their first meeting—across many pieces, as well as the impressive Musée Rodin set.
Galliano has spent the two years since his exit from Margiela—having gotten off “the crazy merry-go-round,” as he called it—“going to museums, walking through the woods without my phone, getting lost but not being afraid to get lost, and relying on instinct again, reconnecting with instinct, like breathing correctly.” He went on: “It’s been precious time to just really think about what I would like to do next. You think, Oh, that’s what you have to do, and, Oh, you’re going to be this for the rest of your life, you’re going to be that. Well, no—at some point, it’s quite good to just step off and think, if you can.”
He’s been secretly working in an atelier “somewhere around Paris” since January. “It’s early days at the moment, but I’ve launched quite a few toiles, and when we see them back, we’ll be able to see how far I can push it safely, if you know what I mean.” Though he doesn’t want to give away too much about the work in progress, he will say it’s “informed by form and proportion [without] falling into any categories. One could safely say it’s beyond gender and beyond seasons.” The first collection will arrive in stores in September. And of course, the thought that his clothes could suddenly be accessible to a whole new range of people tickles him too: “To deliver fashion through that enormous platform—that, of course, that’s thrilling. And to be able to work with the kind of resources they have as well, that’s equally thrilling,” he said. So, how does he feel about getting back on the merry-go-round? “They say act three of your life is the most important,” Galliano mused, “and can be the most fun.”
