Martin Margiela

• Born: Louvain, Belgium, 9 April 1957.
• Education: Royale Académie of Fine Arts, Antwerp, 1977-80.
• Career: Freelance designer, Milan, 1980-81; freelance fashion stylist, Antwerp, 1982-85; design assistant to Gaultier, 1985-87; showed first major collection under own label in Paris, 1988; launched knitwear line manufactured by Miss Deanna SpA, Italy, 1992; appointed artistic director for Hermés' ready-to-wear women's division, 1997.
• Exhibitions:Le monde selonses créateurs, Musée de la Mode et du Costume, Palais Galliera, Paris, 1991; Infra-Apparel, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993; Belgian Fashion: Antwerp Style, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York City; Martin Margiela: 9/4/1615, Rotterdam, 1997.
• Address: 13 Boulevard St Denis, 75002 Paris, France.

Martin Margiela is a powerful talent in avant-garde fashion. Formerly an assistant to Jean-Paul Gaultier, the Belgian-born Margiela showed his first collection in 1989 and immediately achieved cult status. He was heralded as fashion's latest bad boy genius and the most notorious exponent of la mode destroy. He dislikes the term "destroy fashion" and has insisted he does not regard it as destructive when he slashes old clothes. On the contrary, he told Elle in April 1991 that it is his way of "bringing them back to life in a different form."

The idea of cutting up clothes goes back to the ripped t-shirts of the Punks and the subsequent street style of slicing jeans with razor blades. But the new deconstruction goes much further. Margiela has unravelled old army socks and made them into sweaters, transformed tulle ball gowns into jackets, recut secondhand black leather coats in the form of dresses, even made plastic laundry bags into clothes. He has designed jackets—beautifully tailored and lined with three different kinds of fabrics—with the sleeves ripped off.

Although conservative members of the fashion industry cringed, young trendsetters enthusiastically embraced Margiela's radical look, which had nothing to do with traditional forms of ostentatious elegance and everything to do with creativity and what he calls "authenticity." Exposed linings and frayed threads testify to the internal construction of the garments, whereas the deliberate deconstruction of garments implicitly raises questions about our assumptions regarding fashion. Detached sleeves, for example, hark back to the way clothes were made in the Middle Ages, when mercenaries first slashed their silken garments. A cloven-toed boot-shoe and fingers laced in ribbons are rebellious statements in a world of high fashion orthodoxy.

The freedom of Margiela's imagination also evokes the sartorial liberty of the 1970s (a decade Margiela views in a positive light), especially in contrast to the opulent and conservative 1980s. Like the hippies who pillaged flea markets, Margiela gave a second life to old and rejected garments, recycling them, and giving a priority to individual creativity rather than consumerism. Opposed to the status-hungry cult of the designer so ubiquitous in the 1980s, Margiela chose for his label a blank piece of white fabric, and resisted talking to the press about what his clothes "mean."

Clothing per se interests him less than how styles are created and interpreted. In this respect, he is very much a conceptual and postmodern designer. Yet, like his former mentor Gaultier, Margiela is an excellent tailor who really knows how to sew, and his clothes, although undeniably strange, are beautifully (de)constructed. Margiela's aesthetic also extends to his fashion shows. He staged one show in an abandoned lot in a poor immigrant neighborhood of Paris, with local children dancing down the improvised catwalk along with the models. Another show was held at a Salvation Army hall, at the edge of the city, so that an international crew of fashion journalists found themselves wandering around, hopelessly lost, trying to read the hand-drawn map—and when they finally made it there, they had to perch on secondhand furniture and drink wine in plastic cups. Further, he held two simultaneous shows (one of all-black clothes, the other white) at the edge of a cemetery, with crowds of admirers fighting to get in.

Symbolically powerful colors like black, white, and red have dominated Margiela's palette. In his atelier are posted dictionary definitions of these colors, with red, for example, being associated with wine, blood, and rubies. His atelier itself, on the Boulevard Saint Denis, is near the red-light district of Paris. Like his clothes, his studio is a masterpiece of bricolage. Graffiti decorates the walls, and the floors are covered with copies of old magazine and newspaper articles, which on close inspection turn out to be reviews of his collections.

With Margiela steeped so deeply in the avant-garde sensibility, it came as a perplexing surprise in 1997 when he was appointed artistic director of womenswear for Hermés (which also happens to own a third of Gaultier's business), long associated with luxury and restraint. But the pairing has proved successful, with Margiela continuing the Hermés tradition of quality craftsmanship while playing with conventions of clothing construction and function. His collections for Hermés have been luxurious and subdued but still push the conceptual limits of structure. Dresses are soft and minimalist, sweaters are reversible, and coats double as capes.

Margiela has also continued with his own label, and revenues in recent years have steadily increased, allowing La Maison Martin Margiela to expand. The label moved into mail order sales in 1999 and opened its first freestanding boutique in Tokyo in 2000, with further openings projected.

Margiela himself is famously reclusive, communicating infrequently with the press and then only by fax. In keeping with his ideological convictions, he prefers not to become a public fashion personality, allowing the craftsmanship and design aesthetic of all his fashion collections to communicate his conceptual visions for him.

Publications

By Margiela:

Books
• Margiela et al, Martin Margiela: 9/4/1615, [exhibition catalogue],Rotterdam, 1997.
• Maison Martin Margiela Street, Special Edition, Volumes 1 & 2, Paris, 1999.

On Margiela:

Books
• Le monde selon ses créateurs [exhibition catalogue], Paris, 1991.
• Martin, Richard, and Harold Koda, Infra-Apparel [exhibition catalogue], New York, 1993.
• Stegemeyer, Anne, Who's Who in Fashion, Third Edition, New York,1996.
• Borthwick, Mark, 2000-1: La maison Martin Margiela, Paris, 1998.

Articles
• Allen, Elizabeth, "Marvelous Martin," in WWD, 22 March 1989.
• Cunningham, Bill, "The Collections," in Details (New York), March 1989.
• Paz, Ricardo Martinez, "Los Margenes de Margiela," in Impar (Spain), No. 3, 1991.
• Voight, Rebecca, "Martin Margiela Champions the Seamy Side of French Fashion," in Blitz (London), March 1991.
• O'Shea, Stephen, "Recycling: An All-New Fabrication of Style," inElle (London), April 1991.
• "La Mode Destroy," in Vogue (Paris), May 1992.
• Betts, Katherine, "La Nouvelle Vague," in Vogue, September 1992.
• Spindler, Amy M., "Coming Apart," in the New York Times, 25 July 1993.
• ——, "Four Designers in the Vanguard Hold the Line," in the New York Times, 11 October 1993.
• Zahm, Olivier, "Before and After Fashion," in ArtForum (NewYork), March 1995.
• Spindler, Amy M., "Beyond Sweet, Beyond Black, Beyond 2001," in the New York Times, 17 March 1995.
• Evans, Caroline, "The Golden Dustman," in Fashion Theory, Vol. 2,1998.
• Mead, Rebecaa, "The Crazy Professor: Why Was Paris Persuaded That the Radical Martin Margiela Was Right for the Venerable House of Hermés" in the New Yorker, 30 March 1998.
• Mower, Sarah, "Margiela Does Hermés," in Harper's Bazaar, June 1998.
• Braunstein, Chloe, "Martin Margiela, Couturier," in L'Architecture d'aujourd'hui, January 1999.
• Alexander, Hilary, "At Last: Margiela by Mail Order," in the Daily Telegraph (London), 19 July 1999.
• Murphy, Robert, "Margiela: Time to Step Up," in WWD, 15 February 2001.
• White, Jackie, "The Belgian Influence on Display: Designers Focus on Innovation and Design," in the Kansas City Star, 18 February 2001.

— Valerie Steele; updated by Megan Stacy

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2009)

Martin Margiela (born April 9, 1957 in Genk, Belgium) is a Belgian fashion designer. He studied at Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts along with the legendary avantgarde fashion collective the Antwerp Six. Many still consider him to be the "7th" member of the collective.

Contents 1 Life and work 2 Ranges 3 Stores 4 Trivia 5 References 6 External links

Life and work

After graduation in 1980 he worked as a freelance designer for five years. Between 1985 and 1987 he worked for Jean Paul Gaultier, before showing his first collection under his own label in 1989. In 1997 he became, despite his non-traditional design, the creative director of the Hermès women's line.

During the 1980s, the Japanese avantgardists, with Rei Kawakubo—creator of the label Comme des Garçons—had turned the fashion scene upside-down with their eccentric and ground-breaking designs. Martin Margiela and the Antwerp Six would carry on the work, revolting against the luxurious fashion world with garments of oversized proportions such as long arms, and with linings, seams and hems on the outside. The concept of deconstruction, also embraced by the aforementioned Rei Kawakubo, is important for the understanding of Martin Margiela's fashion statement. Mr Margiela famously redesigns by hand objects such as old wigs, canvases and silk scarves into couture garments.

Throughout his career, Martin Margiela has maintained an extremely low profile. He has never had his picture taken and remains backstage after his shows. All media contact is dealt with via fax. Maison Martin Margiela’s ultradiscreet trademark consists of a piece of cloth with the numbers 0-23 (see table below). The badge is attached to the inside with its four little white pick stitches, exposed to the outside on unlined garments. For the 20'th anniversary the anonymous tag was replaced by a classic logotype.

Margiela's brand was acquired by the Diesel brand in 2002 and industry insiders quoted in the article suggested that Martin Margiela may desire to leave due to creative differences, or simply, "... a desire to enjoy his life outside the insistent glare of the fashion world."

An article in New York Times dated October 1, 2008, gave many in the fashion world their first glimpse of Margiela's face, as well as breaking the news that he allegedly offered to hand the reins of his company over to Raf Simons, who appears to have declined the offer. Haider Ackermann was later offered the position as creative director, but simularily turned it down.

In October, 2009, Margiela majority stakeholder Renzo Rosso finally made public: "Martin has not been there for a long time. He is here but not here. We have a new fresh design team on board. We are focusing on young, realistic energy for the future; this is really Margiela for the year 2015."

Ranges

• 0 Garments redesigned by hand for women / Artisanal
• 0 +10. Garments redesigned by hand for men / Artisanal

Artisanal garments by Margiela have been part of his collection since the fall/winter 1989-90 collection. Made by hand at the firm's atelier in Paris out of vintage materials, the Artisanal collection is limited in quantity.

• 1. The collection for women

The original Margiela collection, which eschews the numbered tag for a blank, white label. This is Margiela's primary pret-a-porter line for women.

• 10. The collection for men

Introduced in 1999, 10 is made of disparate garments of equally high standards of material and construction, to be freely combined. A T-shirt, jeans, and suit jacket could be worn together.

• 4. A wardrobe for women

First shown for spring/summer 2004, 4 is a line of garments expressly meant for comfort and intimacy.

• 14. A wardrobe for men

Introduced in spring/summer 2005, 14 is meant to "evoke timelessness." To emphasize how 14 bridges the past and the present, each season Margiela produces a set of replica items. These resemble the original as closely as possible and are labeled with their origin and period.

• 11. A collection of accessories for women and men
• 22. A collection of shoes for women and men

MM6. Garments for women MM6 are more casual garments for women, generally less conceptual than the avant-garde 1 line.

• 8. Eyewear for men and women
• 13. Other objects and magazines

Stores

In his stores, salespeople wear white lab coats. Deconstructed store in unusual locations away from expensive fashion streets.

• 23, rue de Montpensier Paris 75001 France
• 114, rue de Flandre 1000 Bruxelles Belgium
• 2-8-13 Ebisu Minami, Shibuya Tokyo 150-0022 Japan
• 23-a Crocus City Mall, Krasnogosk, Moscow, Russia
• Bolshoi Prospekt, 287, St. Petersburgo, Russia
• 803 Greenwich Street New York 10014 USA
• 9970 South Santa Monica Blvd Beverly Hills CA 90212
• 3F, N°300, Sec.3, Jhongsiao E road, Taipei Taiwan (formerly a Burger King)
• Via della Spiga, 46 20121 Milano Italy
• 34, Maximilian str 34 Munich, Germany

Trivia

Nicolas Ghesquiere, the designer of Balenciaga, has said on several occasions that he is a fan of Margiela and often wears Margiela's clothes.^{[citation needed]}

Maison Martin Margiela was invited to curate the first issue of A MAGAZINE curated by in 2004, and has since contributed to further issues.

In October 2008, Maison Martin Margiela celebrates its 20th anniversary. For this occasion, the Fashion Museum Antwerp presents the unique exhibition, MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA ( 20) The exhibition. Conceived in close collaboration with Maison Martin Margiela, this exhibition takes place at the Antwerp Fashion Museum from 12 September 2008 through 8 February 2009. http://www.momu.be

Hip Hop superstar Jay-Z cites his affinity for Margiela's work on his 2009 hit single "Run This Town."

References

• Menkes, Suzy (6 September 1994). "Martin Margiela". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/06/style/06iht-fmargiela.html. Retrieved 6 December 2009. 
• Wilson, Eric (1 October 2008). "Fashion’s Invisible Man". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/fashion/shows/02MARGIELA.html?fta=y&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 6 December 2009. 
• Walker, Harriet (6 December 2009). "Out of sight, not out of mind: Celebrating two decades of Martin Margiela magic". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/features/out-of-sight-not-out-of-mind-celebrating-two-decades-of-martin-margiela-magic-1832810.html. Retrieved 6 December 2009. 

External links

• A MAGAZINE curated by Maison Martin Margiela
• A BLOG curated by Maison Martin Margiela
• Biography from ArtandCulture.com
• Unfinished dress pattern by Martin Margiela
• Martin Margiela's Ligne 6 duffle bag featured on JCReport.com
• Martin Margiela line in San Francisco Boutique

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