LONDON The klieg lights went up on Act III of John Gallianos career on a rainy Monday here, on the fourth floor of a brand-new eco-sensitive glass and steel office tower just around the corner from New Scotland Yard and behind Buckingham Palace. In case you missed it: new building, new businesslike beginning.
It was the final day of the London Collections: Men. But many attendees had flown in from parts far-flung, buoyed by an anticipation so great it found its own hashtag: #MargielaMonday.
They were holding their breath for the first day of the rest of Mr. Gallianos fashion life his debut womens wear Artisanal (read couture without the couture strings attached) show for Maison Margiela, the Martin dropped in a stealthy branding change. The former Belgian fashion label is now owned by the Italian mogul Renzo Rosso, who anointed Mr. Galliano its creative director in October, more than three years after the designer was fired as artistic director of Christian Dior because of a drunken anti-Semitic rant years in which Mr. Galliano had gone to rehab, studied Judaism and made Ms. Moss wedding dress. Among other things.
How much of a difference would those years make? Had the designer moved on aesthetically from his signature history-heavy bias-cut fantasias the way he supposedly had moved on personally? Would the consummate fashion showman pay any attention at all to the identity of a brand built on discretion and irony, or would he ignore it utterly? Would the show be not good Mr. Galliano is always good but, more important, relevant?
Beyond the excitement of today, would, or should, anyone care?
It was, rather, more of a slow stretch, a warm-up.