• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.173-182
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• 2022

As consumption pattern and fashion communication become digitalized, fashion houses are being inherited by creative directors owing to their expanding role. While the roles and responsibilities of creative directors have been changing extensively along with the dynamic nature of the fashion industry, researches on creative directions have mostly focused on luxury brands. This study examined the creative direction of John Galliano for Maison Margiela, a conceptual brand to be maintained by a creative director. To analyze this, the authors established a creative direction analysis model constituting five elements: brand heritage, trend, democratization, brand status, and persona, drawing on the luxury brand architecture by Kapferer and Bastien. Thus, Galliano has maintained anonymity as a heritage of Maison Margiela, expanding the existing Replica lines, and introduced fashion shows focusing on current issues or social phenomena. As a democratization strategy, he directed the brand to associate with more popular brands or expanded diffusion lines to secure broader customer base, while demonstrating couturier-like showmanship in the media and establishing his own persona. His direction for Maison Margiela recreates and expands brand heritage by transforming the brand philosophy. Therefore the new creative direction communicates with the wider public and diversifies customer bases through democratization strategies, while building Galliano's own persona.