The 2023 ‘clean girl’ has been pierced. Make-up influencers are putting down their sad beige palettes, and painting themselves in layers of colour and gel face masks. From aloe-vera, honey, vaseline, to even egg-whites, make-up lovers have been experimenting in an attempt to achieve Pat McGrath’s iconic shiny finish. This collection marks a dramatic semantic shift for what we once thought of as ‘glass skin’, moving away from the ‘clean girl’, and to a more anti-fashion interpretation. Mcgrath and John Galliano’s Spring/Summer ‘24 Maison Margiela show has dominated fashion- and make-up-tok, being unavoidable online. But why?
With a gloomy strut, models begin to emerge under a bridge; their gaze pensive yet cocky as they move through the rancid Paris streets. Their faces are barely illuminated through the fight between the fog and réverbères. Distant hums of the nearby river, city life, and traffic gave the atmosphere of the SS24 an amplified edge. John Galliano captures an image depicting the line between grace, and anarchy.
Despite the show’s categorical femininity, Margielas avant-garde roots blurred the lines into androgyny. Models – or who Galliano refers to as muses – were clad in corset cinched waists, flowy see-through materials, messy wool wigs, and a dark lip. It was all undeniably suggestive – a type of femininity that dares the viewer to try and pigeonhole them. My affection towards SS24 comes from Galliano’s knack in artistic direction where clothes embody an unsexualised sexuality. Having the display of the erotic, omitting objectification and gender norms. Of course, I can’t forget my much loved avant-garde takes on historical fashion; always best served by Galliano.
Though one aspect of the show took the internet by storm: Mcgrath’s make-up. The models’ faces were inhuman, otherworldly. Porcelain-like flesh mimicking venetian ceruse, jordy blue shadow reaching up to the C shaped pencil brows, and the viral plasticy glaze. It captivated the audience, and soon thereafter forced the internet into a chokehold. If I were to describe the look, it would be best summarised as a 16th-century alien harlot in couture, reminiscent of Tim Burton’s Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland.
When taking into account the prominence of the post-pandemic ‘clean girl’ with her slick-back-bun-8-step-korean-skincare-routine-iced-matcha-latte-pilates-routine, this fashion inversion seems to have come out of nowhere. Both the Margiela and clean girls appear to have a parallel with their skin’s synthetic sheen, though the defining difference is the shift from minimalism to maximalism.
If we were to break this conversion down into two parts, it would be best summarised by the return of individuality over hegemony, and western cultural shifts.
TikTok has played a tremendous role in trend-setting since its release in 2017, and has facilitated the birth and return of many fashion-based subcultures. From cottagecore, to the revival of 2010s emo, and more recently indie sleaze. TikTok has grown to become a major player in the fashion industry. Trends now move faster than ever as a consequence of their short-form content – cut up and ready for consumption.
The Coronavirus had us all locked inside our homes. Conveniently, during the isolation, TikTok’s downloads surged. The app offered escapism, and in relation to the clean girl, simplicity and some kind of order. Negin Mirsalehi, amongst many other clean girl influencers during TikTok’s peak in 2020-2022, were aspirational. Influencers flashed their opulent collections of Gisou and Drunk Elephant products, which were sterile and symmetrical. Ironically, just like them. Their hair was shiny, their clothes immaculately pressed, and for three years the clean girl was a symbol of control during a time of great uncertainty. Whilst beautiful, the clean girls seemed to carry a uniform. Their dress left little room for individuality or self-expression, instead opting to be understated and restrained. The fashion is certainly luxury-leaning, meaning it might be inaccessible to those of lower-income backrounds. A fact reflective of the clean girl aesthetic’s broader emphasis on minimalism and exclusivity.
The Maison Margiela SS24 show was a complete disruption to the conventional beauty-standard presented online. The punk-influenced DIY accessories and tattered fabrics came to embrace imperfection and to celebrate it. The over-the-top silhouettes and deconstructed garments felt like a rejection of the picture-perfect influencer lifestyles. It was raw, and unfiltered. Galliano invites the audience to become a part of this moody theatrical performance, and question their own self-expression in this fluid environment.
The cultural shift I’d like to emphasise is the hetero- and cis-normative aspect of the clean girl, and the move towards the celebration of femininity regardless of one’s sex. In Galliano’s fashion design and creative direction, the concept of gender in fashion is completely disregarded. The show has immersive theatrics, and reflects contemporary western discourse surrounding the (in)validity of binary notions of masculinity and femininity. As I’m sure many others did, I felt seen – not as a man or woman, but as someone that enjoys a feminine gender performance. The collaboration between Galliano and McGrath spoke to my desire for practising femininity in a way that is haunting, strange, and beyond labels. Through fashion and make-up, Galliano and McGrath inspired many to use style as rebellion. Not only against the algorithmic and superficial trend engine, but the rigid gender norms which are limiting, and frankly, boring.
Since this show’s release in September 2023, I’ve had two bottles of white foundation sitting in two empty shopping baskets. They languish alongside the 20 browser tabs I can’t bear to close, each one a reminder of the creative urge lit by this mesmerizing collection.
One question remains: Will the SS24 continue to captivate and inspire, or will it fade alongside the countless trends and fads once dominant across the internet? Truth be told, I’m not sure. In any case, the SS24 collection, to me, stands as a manifesto; for the weird girls, and the non-conformists.
Words by India Lloyd James
Featured image courtesy of Clem Onojeghuo via Unsplash. No changes have been made to this image. Image licence found here.