Maison Margiela's New Short Film Enters an Inverse Reality
Maison Margiela now has a new film embodying John Galliano's reinvention of the house over the past few years. Entitled "Reality Inverse," the collaborative project with SHOWStudio highlighted a digital vision of glamour when it fittingly premiered during forward-thinking London Fashion Week.
Nick Knight directed the film, but created the concept itself alongside Galliano. As the title may suggest, imagery entirely uses inverted colors to follow Duckie Thot and the glimmering pieces around—when flipping a device's display colors, the video will suddenly look normal. A score by Jeremy Healy mixes the 1960s vocals of Roy Orbison's "In Dreams" with a futuristic soundscape, arguing that this altered vision could be a new classic in the Margiela world. Holographic outerwear, sparkling jewelry, and over-the-top sneakers shine just as brightly amidst the reverse vision, but the film's true sartorial star is the Glam Slam bag. It shines like a beacon of light as Thot holds it up out of a smoky haze before taking it on a spinning journey resembling astronaut training (naturally, complete with a fashionable helmet).
Altogether, the visual experience aims to comment on the technological age, in which people travel through a sea of curated information that often becomes uncomfortable or ultimately an illusion. The inverted colors highlight this growing need for authenticity and the new glamour Galliano has created over recent seasons through concepts of reverse dressing and tactile forms. Those who visited London's Serpentine Gallery over the weekend had the opportunity to truly immerse themselves in these concepts, as a 360-degree version of the film was on view via virtual reality headsets.
This is just the first time Margiela will make waves this fashion month, as the brand's vision for Fall 2019 is set to debut in Paris next Wednesday. Until then, fans can continue dreaming of alternate realities through the trippy film, which is just as captivating in the non-VR version that's viewable everywhere.
