Maison Margiela: the most extraordinary oeuvres
- Posted by: angeli.krohmal
A representative of deconstructivism and a rather secretive personality, designer Martin Margiela follows rules in his brand that are not quite clear to the world of haute couture. Nevertheless, the avant-garde creations of the fashion brand are welcome purchases all over the world. Maison Margiela is, first of all, an emphasis on the wearer of the clothes, as well as to the fundamental basis of creating the cutout garments. Let's take a look and feel how the Belgian designer emphasizes human beauty with his clothes.
Hardly anyone can boast more anonymity and unconventional vision of fashion than Martin Margiela. The Belgian invisible designer literally overturned all notions of fashion, putting on the ears of all fashionista back in the 90's and yet remained virtually unknown to the fashion world in principle. How did a designer who denies publicity so much become one of the greatest fashion geniuses, whose creations are hunted by everyone from A-list celebrities to gallerists and movie directors?
You can hardly find more than 4-5 photos of Martin Margiela on the Internet, and even fewer interviews with him. The Belgian designer was born in a small town near Brussels in 1957 and hardly imagined in his youth that he would become the main example of fashion deconstruction, create accents completely opposite to classic haute couture and bring a new breath to the fundamental French fashion house Hermes.
It all started in 1989, when Martin released his first collection. Before that, the guy had graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and found a job as an assistant to Jean Paul Gaultier himself, working for him for several years. Initially, Gaultier did not want to take such a talented designer as an apprentice, assuring Margiela that he needed an independent journey in the world of fashion. However, the Belgian insisted that he needed practice and experience.
The young genius's first collection was shocking and at the same time incredibly alluring. After the show, the audience came out with tears in their eyes - the effect of the performance was so unfamiliar and at the same time as if awakening from a long sleep. Margiela never followed the classical standards of organizing shows, believing that the most important thing is the clothes, and emphasized it with all his might. His credo is not to bring any personal influence to his creations, as well as not to draw attention from the clothes to the models, entourage, location and the like. Guided by such principles, shows were organized in empty hangars, subway stations, abandoned children's and sports grounds. It was Martin and his team who began to pay attention to ordinary passers-by, non-professional models with the most inconspicuous appearance, offering them to demonstrate the brand's clothes. And even choosing such people, Martin additionally "masked" the faces of the models with fabric, paints and masks, sometimes the models had all their hair combed over their faces - all for the sake of concentrating attention on the clothes.
Stylistics
The Margiela brand is not a fabulous investment. They simply had nowhere to take them, because for a long time the brand was independent and there was no external funding. These trivial nuances found their reflection and practical application in the external appearance (or branding in modern language). The abundance of white was equally Martin's passion for clean and airy and the scarcity of additional funds. However, even after the global rise and development of the brand, branded boutiques, furniture and even the uniforms of employees remained white, becoming the DNA of Maison Margiela. The same can be said about the famous tag. Initially it was supposed to be an unnecessary detail and the designer was sure that it would be cut off from the bought clothes. That's why he didn't get sophisticated and simply attached a clean fabric rectangle without inscriptions on 4 diagonal stitches. The brand's lawyer at the time had no ideas on how to protect products from counterfeiting with such a tag and persuaded the designer to come up with something. Over time, already in the new era of the brand's development, identifying marks in the form of numbers began to appear on the famous tag. Many fans appreciated the idea as another art object and often tried to solve the numerical rebus, in which at first glance there is no logic. But everything is genius simple - the number in the table denoted the line of products in the brand - with the development and expansion they became more and more, but to this day on the tag there are numbers that do not denote anything - a kind of visualization of future collections of the brand.
Deconstruction
At that time, the idea of deconstructing objects and clothes in particular was not new, but the fashion trends of the 20th century paid almost no attention to it. Deconstruction was the field of activity of a very small number of unknown designers. But it was Martin Margiela who put this idea at the center of all his products, focusing as much as possible on the structure of the garment. The cut of products is extremely important, it is the basis of all pieces of clothes invented by the designer. Martin literally turned inside out, emphasizing the shape, seams and general silhouette of a particular piece of clothing. Deconstruction in essence is a violation of the usual principles and fashion norms, turns to the origins and the very process of creating clothes (and not only),showing a piece of clothing as an unfinished idea and thought in the object. In deconstruction we see the essence of the philosophy of creating a closet, not the end result.
The logical continuation of deconstruction is the use of recycled materials, cutting costs on fabrics and accessories, following the philosophy of re-consumption. In Martin's clothing collections we can see dresses created from lining materials, vests from leather gloves, accessories from seat belts, reforming one closet piece into a completely different one. So one of the most striking examples of this pattern is the instruction from Martin to create a sweater from 8 pairs of socks. Remembering that Margiela had a professional education, there is no doubt that such an instruction with a pattern can be easily repeated by yourself.
Trompe-l'oeil
Martin Margiela was a fan of illusions. He often practiced optical techniques in the details of his collections: to depict a volumetric image on a flat surface or vice versa, to create a sense of flat on volumetric gave an additional field for fantasy, without expending much effort and without wasting material. Thus pants became the canvas for a painted skirt, and on tops one could often see a supposedly naked body, which prematurely caused a slight shock. The inspiration for such techniques came from Gaultier, who often created "deception of sight" in his collections.
For the benefit of others
After working with Gaultier, Martin became creative director of the great house Hermes. Having spent 6 years in this position he convinced the society in his genius and absolutely unconventional approach to already decades existing trends. The couturier was able to combine work in Hermes and in his own brand, giving the one such a necessary fresh look at the already familiar status and conservative things, and the second - additional promotion and a more classic approach, proven over the years.
People
For all his introversion, Martin Margiela was no loner. In addition to mentoring Gaultier, he willingly maintained a friendship and partnership with Jenny Meirens, whose contribution to Margiela's independent brand can hardly be overestimated. Jenny and Martin met by chance and became close friends. She was the owner of a concept-store, which later became the first to present the brand's things. Thanks to the development of the store and the growing sales of the brand's items, the neighborhood became a real fashion haven for the first fashionistas and streetstylers of the time. Jenny supported Martin in everything he did and dedicated her life to the development of the brand.
A new era
In the end, capitalization and centralization also affected the Maison Margiela brand - the company was bought by OTB Group. As it usually happens, art and free expression had to be adjusted to strategies and strict planning. We can not say that such a change in the policy of functioning of the brand brought harm, but the creator did not agree with everything. Therefore, after a few years, the creator left his brainchild - Martin ceased to be a designer in his own brand. It is said that the employees of the brand far from immediately learned about this - so Martin worked autonomously even on the creation of collections. Margiela's brand was in for a steep change, and thankfully a positive one.
John Galliano - at that time already known for his work in his own brand, Givenchy and Dior, and having acquired a very scandalous fame - came to the post of chief designer. Martin approved the candidacy and wished John good luck, allowing him to modify the concept of the brand as he wished. Galliano kept the basic message and aesthetics of the brand and added his own author's vision of theatrical lushness and drama. In this way the brand develops even today, not slowing down and the degree of desirability among its fans, remaining one of the unique and inimitable phenomena in the world of fashion.
 Image courtesy of net-a-porter.com |
