John Galliano is leaving Maison Margiela after a ten-year run as Creative Director. John transformed Maison Margiela into “the most cutting-edge couture house in the world”, as described by the chairman of the brand’s parent company.
John Galliano
John Galliano’s departure from Maison Margiela was revealed through his heartfelt post on Instagram. “The rumours… Everyone wants to know and everyone wants to dream. When the time is right, all will be revealed,” Galliano posted. “For now, I take this time to express my immense gratitude. I continue to atone and will never stop dreaming.”
John Galliano was appointed Creative Director at Margiela in 2014, his first position since his exit from Dior in 2011. In an exclusive interview with WWD, Galliano said, “In inviting me to assume the position of artistic director in the house that Martin built, he gave me the greatest, most precious gift: the opportunity to once again find my creative voice when I had become voiceless…”
“Together we have done something incredible that will be forever engraved in the history of fashion. In a world where collections seem to look more and more like each other, products with no real and distinctive DNA, John gave center stage to the greatness, the culture and the values of product,” Rosso told WWD. “He made Margiela a unique house that embodies the desire for creativity and the dream of fashion, bringing it to a worldwide success based on these rare product values.”
Maison Margiela is part of Rosso’s OTB Group, which also controls Diesel, Jil Sander, Marni and Viktor and Rolf, production arms Staff International and Brave Kid, and holds a stake in the Amiri brand. Margiela has not announced a replacement and there’s no telling what John Galliano may do next. It certainly isn’t farfetched to think that he could be moving to one of the other vacant seats in the luxury fashion industry.
However, there’s no disputing the impact of Galliano on the luxury brand during his tenure there. His Spring 2025 Artisanal Show was a success and he also dressed Met Gala co-hosts Zendaya and Bad Bunny. Per WWD, ‘At the time of Galliano’s appointment, market sources estimated the company generated about 100 million euros annually. It operated about 50 directly owned stores in 2014. Today, the company boasts about 120 stores globally, 50 of them having opened in the last four years, and 43 of those in Asian countries, led by Japan, China and South Korea.’
Maison Margiela
Maison Margiela. Image: maisonmargiela.com
Maison Margiela is a Parisian Haute Couture house founded on ideas of nonconformity and the subversion of norms. Under the creative direction of John Galliano, collectively shared dress codes are inverted and redefined in an analytical wardrobe proposal for the digital age.
Driven by instinct, the Maison is devoted to creativity invigorated by values of authenticity, radicality and self-expression. Revolutionary and cutting-edge, the Maison’s premise observes the philosophies of the Belgian designer Martin Margiela, who founded the house in 1988. Among Maison Margiela’s historical signatures are the blank, white label and its four stitches, the numeric coding, and the use of brush-stroked white paint, which continue to signify the hand of the Maison today.
Maison Margiela has held the Haute Couture appellation since 2012. The house became part of the OTB Group in 2002.
Jasmeen Dugal is Associate Editor at FashionABC, contributing her insights on fashion, technology, and sustainability. She brings with herself more than two decades of editorial experience, working for national newspapers and luxury magazines in India.
Jasmeen Dugal has worked with exchange4media as a senior writer contributing articles on the country’s advertising and marketing movements, and then with Condenast India as Net Editor where she helmed Vogue India’s official website in terms of design, layout and daily content. Besides this, she is also an entrepreneur running her own luxury portal, Explosivefashion, which highlights the latest in luxury fashion and hospitality.
