Forgiveness and change are as prevalent in fashion as the seasonal runways themselves. Yet anticipation ran high for John Galliano's first return to centre stage after his plummeting fall from grace four years ago.
Once a damning video surfaced of Galliano telling a woman he loved Hitler, it came as little surprise that the fashion world ousted the Gibraltar-born designer from his Dior pedestal in 2011.
But a stint in rehab studying Judaism, and having Anna Wintour as his personal champion, helped Renzo Rosso, the president of Only The Brave group that owns jeans brand Diesel, as well as Marni and Viktor & Rolf, announced that the 54-year-old would be returning from his fashion banishment to be the creative director of Maison Martin Margiela.
The collection, "Artisanal", shown on Monday at the end of London Men's fashion week felt distinctly Galliano, displaying all the whimsy he brought to Dior over the years.
Yet the Maison's staples were accounted for, such as the red, white and black colour scheme, the use of found objects - little toy cars adorning one of the dresses, the occasional clean minimalism of a black suit and, of course, the masks.
But overall the collection displayed distinct hit and miss elements, from the almost shredded leopard print panel red dress to the curious presence of little denim shorts. But all was (almost) forgiven in the grandeur and splendour of the intricately masked, heavily adorned spectacle of the finale red and white dresses.
Twitter took to Galliano's side in force, crying out that "the king is back".
There's little doubt Galliano is indeed back, but whether or not he'll rise to king-like status again is yet to be seen, but make no mistake we'll hold our breath once more to see what will walk onto the runway next season.
- See the full collection on Style.com
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 
