Creative director John Galliano sent models down the runway wearing iPhone holsters attached to their ankles and wrists. While your ankle might not be the safest place to carry your phone if you’re like me and refuse to get a case — or if you ever need to look at Google Maps — it is what they call a fashion statement.
Rachel Tashjian of Garage wrote an interesting piece titled “John Galliano Is the Only Designer Using Technology to Make Relevant Art.” Alongside bubble wrap headpieces and decadent sleeping bags, Galliano incorporates tech into his designs in a way that feels emphasized yet not gimmicky.
“He’s made it integral to his designs. In January, Galliano used a special fabric that lit up with hologram dazzle when viewed through your iPhone…Knowing that viewers (even in the room) were going to watch the show through their iPhone, he used it as a motive to innovate…”
Galliano also recently launched a podcast where the verbally enchanting designer explains some of his process. He wants, he says, to put himself to do things in the atelier that he hasn’t done before. “The idea of proposing a new glamour,” he muses. “None of us are interested in actually finding a new glamour—it’s the idea that’s exciting.”
For Galliano, perhaps the line is being blurred between man and machine, and I’m all here for it. In an Instagram post for Maison Margiela, the label says that the designer “muses on the word ‘cool’ and shares his observations of Neo-Digital natives.” Either way, this is an efficiency I can get behind — more so than paying $1,000 for barely a quarter of a shirt.