Margiela: Rosso handed the anonymous house to a disgraced showman and doubled revenue

John Galliano was fashion's most famous outcast: fired from Christian Dior in 2011 for anti-Semitic remarks, he had failed attempted comebacks at Parsons, Central Saint Martins and Oscar de la Renta's studio. In October 2014 Renzo Rosso, president of Only the Brave — which had bought a majority of Maison Martin Margiela in 2002 — named him creative director of the house. Rosso called it one of his 'brave, unpredictable choices' and 'a talent beyond definition and time'.

The pairing looked like a contradiction. Margiela, founded in 1988 by one of the Antwerp Six, was the house of anonymity, intellectual deconstruction and clothes made from found objects; its founder had left in 2009 and the label ran for years without a named leader. Galliano was romanticism and spectacle, famous for taking his bows in costume at Dior. He started within a week of the announcement, with his debut set for the January couture season — reviving the house's Artisanal line as his stage.

The bet paid commercially. According to OTB, in Galliano's first five years the brand doubled its revenues to €200 million in 2018 — still unprofitable, but growing on its own terms. Galliano pushed the house beyond ready-to-wear and Artisanal into higher-margin categories: accessories and fragrance. The Tabi boots, Replica sneakers and the pillowy Glam Slam bag drove 60% of total sales, and OTB backed him with new retail, cosmetics and direct-to-consumer e-commerce on the way to a €400 million revenue target for 2024.

Revenues doubled in five years to €200 million by 2018, with Tabi boots, Replica sneakers and the Glam Slam bag driving 60% of sales; €400 million targeted for 2024.

Galliano's exile made the hire affordable and exclusive: no rival could or would touch him, so OTB acquired a proven grand couturier at the bottom of his market.

The house had no founder and no named star after Martin Margiela left in 2009 — a cult label with no face, exactly what a celebrity designer could fix.

Rosso owned the decision. As founder and president of OTB he could absorb the reputational risk that a committee or a listed company would have vetoed.

Galliano's commercial instincts (bags, sneakers, fragrance) monetised the house's codes — the Tabi boot became a 60%-of-sales hit engine — rather than diluting them.

A revival brand can need a banned star more than the star needs the brand: an owner who absorbs reputational risk buys world-class talent at its lowest point; contrast with house DNA is a feature.

OTB renewed Galliano's contract, with a spokesperson describing it as 'envisaged to last for a long term', and kept investing toward the €400 million revenue target: new retail spaces, a move into cosmetics and direct-to-consumer e-commerce. The appointment also rewrote the terms of fashion's cancel-and-return cycle: Galliano's Margiela became the standard citation for a scandal-era career rebuilt inside a heritage house, with the brand's growth vindicating Rosso's owner-bets-on-talent model.