With Re{form}, John Galliano opens Zara&#39;s archives to haute couture and transforms its familiar pieces into new, theatrical and contemporary silhouettes.

With Re{form} , <a href="https://www.lofficiel.com/industry-trends/zara-ouvre-ses-archives-a-la-vision-de-john-galliano" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Galliano</a> opens a new dialogue with the <a href="https://www.lofficiel.com/industry-trends/luca-guadagnino-et-stefano-baisi-imaginent-un-interieur-reve-pour-zara-home" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zara</a> archives. For this first chapter, Vol. 1 09/2026, the designer considers the brand's iconic pieces as prototypes to be deconstructed and reinvented. Shirts, coats, dresses, suits, and accessories are cut, enlarged, reduced, assembled, or repurposed to give birth to a genderless wardrobe, crafted according to the techniques of haute couture.
At the heart of this metamorphosis emerge the Incroyables and the Merveilleuses, exuberant figures of post-revolutionary France who shaped Galliano's imagination. Their silhouettes and attitudes permeate the collection in contemporary forms, somewhere between dandyism, film noir glamour, and horticultural attire. Clothing here becomes a character, capable of altering posture as much as appearance.
The collection is based on a simple idea: Reform rather than reproduce. Each creation begins with a piece or accessory from the <a href="https://www.lofficiel.com/industry-trends/marisa-berenson-ouvre-les-portes-de-son-univers-pour-zara" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zara</a> archives, transformed by Galliano before being crafted in a new material. Physical and digital hacking, cutting, amplification, shrinking, assembly, and bias binding become the tools of a true couture grammar.

Among the most spectacular techniques, Flix layers several garments to create the illusion of a coat, while Shi/ft transforms one category of clothing into another. A shirt enlarged to three times its size takes on the appearance of a leather coat, a lace dress becomes a jabot, and trousers are reassembled into breeches inspired by the sans-culottes. With Deep Pockets, Galliano repositions jacket pockets to infuse tailoring with a new gestural quality.
The fabrics amplify these transformations: chiffon, georgette, tulle, mesh, and charmeuse adorn the Merveilleuses, while the Incroyables borrow from menswear-inspired wools. Poplin, leather, satin, cotton, and vinyl compose a wardrobe where the boundaries between masculine and feminine blur. The palette follows the same path, from black, navy, brown, and burgundy to horticultural greens, before electrifying with orchid pink, violet, turquoise, and acid green.
Accessories extend this logic of repurposing. The Tri-Chic, a reversible bag inspired by the language of the garbage bag, can be carried by hand, over the shoulder, or as a backpack. Archival shoes are stretched, sculpted, or assembled to become elongated toe shoes, patinated boots, or metallic slingbacks. Collars, stocks, gloves, and socks, meanwhile, compose a playful and theatrical Shirtology.

The hats, designed in collaboration with milliner Stephen Jones , continue this dialogue with history: caps are transformed into the bonnets of the Marvelous, fishermen's hats evoke Napoleonic bicornes, and waxed bucket hats conjure up the world of gardening. Each accessory thus seems to carry multiple lives, spans several eras, and serves multiple purposes.
With Re{form} , John Galliano transforms the archive not into a place of preservation, but into a territory for experimentation. By deconstructing Zara's classics in order to better recompose them, he transforms everyday clothing into couture material and brings forth a new generation of characters as free as they are theatrical.

Re{form}: John Galliano’s Couture Metamorphosis of Zara

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