Maison Margiela Artisanal: A Folk Horror Tale

A Folk Horror Tale is a 70-minute picture on the “power of time and nature,” which showcases Maison Margiela’s Artisanal co-ed collection, written by John Galliano.

Credit: Youtube via Maison Margiela

John Galliano, creative director of Artisinal couture at Maison Margiela since 2014, states in the opening scene of his brand new haunted horror,

“As a child, and even today, there’s nothing that thrills me more than to be outside and in the moonlight.“

Source: AnOther

This sinister feature presentation premiered earlier in the month at a venue on the Champs Élysées. The film serves as a stand-in for a live co-ed Maison Margiela 2021 Artisanal presentation. Its awe-inspiring production values delve deep into the conceptual areas of contemporary fashion. This communication sees Galliano embrace a fresh tone thanks to multiple award-winning French filmmaker Olivier Dahan and a self-penned narrative by the designer. Galliano says of the experience,

“I’m loving this medium,” he declared. “It helps me express so much.”

Source: Vogue

Dark and Intriguing

Credit: Vogue

The film replaces a runway presentation, so it’s not only about presenting a tale; viewers are able to view the collection and its finer details. Within this concept, the picture has a significant edge. The characters exist to animate the gowns. There is no dialogue. As the film unfolds through the dark and intriguing narrative of a cursed coastal village, Galliano reveals the Artisinal collection on-screen over the course of the 70-minute presentation. Dahan explained,

“It’s surreal, somewhere between a dream and a nightmare,” Dahan says of the film. “There are three parts, all with the same characters: one part that takes place in the 18th century, one part that takes place 100 or so years later, and one part in the present day. Nonetheless, the whole aesthetic is broadly surrealist and symbolist. It has to be deciphered.”

Source: AnOther

The story of the film is integrated into the apparel’s designs. The Artisinal offering encompasses an appropriately bleak, primaeval aesthetic. Topped with large, insulating layers and reconstructed Dutch fisherman caps, the fabrication is worn, weathered, and visually doused in moonlight. The designs are imbued with echoes of ancient history, including visual cues to Arthurian stories, cross-generational folklore and Anglo-Saxon ritualistic cults.

Cutting-Edge Cinematography

Credit: Vogue

This on-screen partnership is a marriage of cutting-edge cinematography and the untamed imagination of a designer who creates his Artisanal designs by hand. Three-dimensional photorealistic backdrops give the illusion of reality, courtesy of technological capabilities derived from video game and real-time technologies. With everything shot in Paris, stock library footage and an LED backdrop bring the set to life.

“The artistry involved has been the most incredible experience. It’s mind-blowing,” Galliano enthused. “It meant that if I wanted to shoot in the Outer Hebrides, or see a lunar eclipse, I could. I poured in all these thunderous clouds with pink and gray undertones—f it was on location, that would be over in three minutes. Honestly, the director of photography is like royalty. He left me speechless.”

Source: Vogue

John Galliano’s A Folk Horror Tale can be viewed below:

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