© Patrick Demarchelier/Maison Martin Margiela

JOHN GALLIANO will restart his fashion career as creative director of Maison Martin Margiela. The move confirms rumours that began last week that Galliano was headed to the Paris-based house.

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"Margiela is ready for a new charismatic creative soul," Renzo Rosso, president of OTB, which controls Margiela, said today. "John Galliano is one of the greatest, undisputed talents of all time - a unique, exceptional couturier for a maison that always challenged and innovated the world of fashion. I look forward to his return to create that fashion dream that only he can create, and wish him to here find his new home."

He is expected to show his first designs for the house in January during Paris Couture Week, and will take charge of all of Margiela's collections, including ready-to-wear. The collection will be the first under Galliano's creative control since he was dismissed by Dior in March 2011.

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Margiela himself, who retired from the house in 2009, was famously reclusive - seldom speaking to the media or appearing in public, and the house has continued in that vein, remaining reluctant to hold a designer aloft as its "face". This may suit Galliano, who has been careful to ensure his re-entry into fashion is a "step-by-step" process, in line with his recovery from addiction issues.