Watch John Galliano and Tomo Koizumi Rip Apart—Then Cleverly Upcycle—Each Other’s Signature Pieces

[John] Bonjour, ce va.

[Man] Hello!

[John] Hi!

[Man] How are you [indistinct]?

[John] Did she arrive?

[Man] Yeah, she arrived.

[John] Yes!

[Man] In a box.

[John] Oh my god Gypsy.

[upbeat music]

It was heaven the day it arrived,

look number four.

I thought there had been a mistake

because it arrived in another housse.

What is that?

[Man] I think it s just-

Is that a mistake?

[Man] No, it s just the bag.

Well, someone has got a great sense of humor.

It was actually a really magical day.

God s light was shining through

and then this beautiful wedding dress

was presented to myself and Gypsy

and it was at that point that I felt a huge responsibility.

And, yeah, I thought, how can you up-cycle a dress?

The greatest, one of the greatest days of your life,

that you would wear this, so,

I felt happier with recycling.

All the 2021 forces of,

fashion edition,

Madame Wintour has had this genius idea,

inspired by up-cycling and recycling.

That designers would offer each other, a dress,

where we could recycle, up-cycle.

It was decided that we would have look number four

from Tomo Koizumi,

which is fabulous wedding dress,

with ruched tulle, décorative crisp whites,

and we would send

Rihanna s tulle from Met 2018,

with carte blanche.

So, we need to put our thinking hats on,

what magic we could create,

with this fantastic, piece.

I think at the time, I am still very seriously into this,

concept of inverted snobbery.

So the idea, that you could take a wedding dress,

[speaking French]

to ream it,

into an outsize jumper.

The idea that these memories,

these generational memories could be worn.

[excited shouting]

[laughing]

It was almost like,

old school couture in reverse.

We unpicked everything, every frill meticulously.

Every frill was measured.

Every frill was taken apart.

And then color coded, into balls,

almost like balls of knit wear.

I ll start with creating a volume,

in tarlatan, which is a slightly stiffer,

but light weight canvas,

to help us decide on volume,

and really depending on what fabric,

we re going to the make final design in,

whether it s tweed, or silk, or in this case knitted.

We will then do a half of proto,

just to see that the volume,

is translating well in the different mediums.

Time to un-stitch the fabric strips,

2 days,

5 people.

More or less,

18 hours.

Time to make the balls,

3 days,

5 people.

More or less in time,

120 hours.

Time to make the swatch,

3 days,

1 person.

More or less,

24 hours.

Time to knit the jumper,

11 days,

1 person.

More or less,

90 hours.

Hi nice to me you, I am Tomo.

Nice to meet you John.

Feeling is mutual.

Wonderful to meet you too, Tomo.

I am John.

I wish my dogs were here, Gypsy and Coco.

Cause when you dress arrived,

they went mental.

They went mental.

I have two little dogs, and when they saw,

the frilly dress,

they loved it.

Loved it.

I came running up the stairs because I heard it was coming,

look number 4,

look number 4.

And we were all here,

Raphael and the atelier.

And it was so beautiful, we opened the box,

and there was this beautiful décorative

white dress, with knead like frilling,

oh it s gorgeous.

And the décorative is blue.

And we immediately put it on our fitting muse.

And then we took pictures,

and then we danced around it a bit.

And we started a dialogue with the team,

to see what could do.

But it felt like you were in the room.

Which is quite magical.

And of course being in Maison Margiela,

I had to deconstruct the dress Tomo.

[tender scream]

Okay, gently.

[both laugh]

Which involved,

taking every little frill,

off the dress,

Some serious deconstruction,

started.

I love the idea of creating,

something other,

but with the spirit,

of what was there.

On ethics, recycling, you know,

one our lines Recicla.

All the things we believe in,

so it s truly authentic,

the relationship we had with the original dress,

it was really part of the family,

and genderless too, Tomo.

Boys and girls can wear this one.

Yes.

Yes.

That s so fun.

Yes, it has been fun experience.

I hope you liked it.

I haven t had the chance,

to do it with other designers clothes.

And John s work, so like, I was so nervous.

But I really enjoy cutting and sewing everything.

The only way is to laugh though isn t it Tomo,

discovering, taking things apart, it s the biggest teacher,

that one could have at the end of it.

Most couturier go through that I think, you know.

Yeah, I was really enjoying to do it.

When I saw the dress the first time, I saw,

I saw that it was all white.

So I thought,

I would paint it,

like I would use it as canvas.

Yeah so, used all white colors,

for transformation first.

Then it s still on the process,

then I am going to paint.

So,

the last part is paint and it s going to be really fun,

and joyful to us.

It s one of the early toile but not just in toile fabric,

it was already cut in a fabric,

that simulated,

the eventual fabric, we would use like a pique,

and it was one of the early toile for Rihanna.

And her appearance at the Met.

We always keep a toile for the history books, if you like,

except for this one occasion where we just thought,

the project was so genius,

that we would do this, collaboration.

Tomo it was really fab to meet you.

I really mean that.

It was great.

I hope I can meet you in person someday soon.

Definitely! Definitely.

We will, we will.

Please.

Bye.

Bye bye.

I kind of imagine a couple by the moonlight,

sharing their stories,

the beautiful times they had together.

[clapping]

And those memories, smoothing,

their troubled souls.

The idea really appealed to me,

the idea, of the memory,

that you would be wearing,

this really cool, out-sized, knit wear.

But it had all the memories of yester year.

Touching,

poetic.

[dramatic music]