MARTIN MARGIELA AND THE MEDIA
‘An experience that changes nothing is hardly worth having’
MARTIN MARGIELA
MARTIN MARGIELA Martin Margiela was born on April 9, 1957 in Leuven (Belgium). He grew up in Genk with his Polish father and Flemish mother. In 1984 he became an assistant to Jean-Paul Gaultier (a French fashion designer). Years later he started his own label in 1989 together with Jenny Meirens in Paris called Maison Martin Margiela. His work considered as shocking and intriguing by the media because of deconstructing and recycling in an intelligent and sleek manner. By refusing mass media culture, Margiela became an anonymous designer that has hardly ever been photographed or interviewed. The designer has also worked for Luxury fashion brand Hermès from 1997 until 2003. In 2002 he sold Maison Martin Margiela to Renzo Rosso, the Italian owner of Diesel, Marni and Viktor & Rolf, among others. Martin left the label in 2009, after that a ‘faceless’ team was supposed to continue producing surreal and challenging collections. After that Margiela has lived his life without any trace. Through his career Margiela made major changes in the fashion world.
RUNWAY SPRING 1998 READY TO WEAR
RUNWAY FALL 1995 READY TO WEAR
MEDIA In 2008 Martin Margiela decided to leave the fashion world. He never came back since then but there are a view documentations of him talking about the reason why he decided to leave the faahion world in silence and never showed himself. In 2008 the Belgian Fashion Awards awarded Margiela with it’s Jury Prize in honor of “his entire career and his obvious impact on the history of fashion, today’s collections, and more than likely the ones to come.” he didn’t turn up to claim his award but he did break his long silence with a short letter in acceptance of the award. ‘A beautiful tribute to a period of hard work and dedication starting at early age and lasting for more than 30 years, until 2008—the very year I felt that I could not cope any more with the worldwide increasing pressure and the overgrowing demands of trade. I also regretted the overdose of information carried by social media, destroying the ‘thrill of wait’ and cancelling every effect of surprise, so fundamental for me.’
MARTIN MARGIELA INTERVIEW (1998) In 1998 Martin did an interview for view on colour. In these questions and answers you see a clear philosophy and mind behind his concept as an artist in the fashion world. But that is not the only interview Martin Margiela did. In the same year, Margiela sent Vogue a fax. In 2015, Vogue Runway undertook an archival project to digitize some of Martin Margiela’s most influential shows. In a inset of the July 1998 issue was a simple, to-the-point fax from the man himself. Margiela had granted the magazine a short Q&A over fax about his debut at Hermès. His answers to six questions appeared alongside a polaroid from the fall 1998 Hermès show.
Why did you take the job? It’s so un-you. Hermès is old and you are avant-garde. What’s the connection? At first this idea seemed really abstract to some people. But now that the collection has been seen, it’s no longer a question of two worlds—young/old, avant-garde/conservative—or opposites; it’s more about a shared point of view.
What is avant-garde these days? A pigeonhole into which the point of view of some is placed when it is considered difficult to assimilate into the lives of many.
What could you possibly create that they haven’t already thought of over at Hermès? An atmosphere of collaboration and mutual respect between our team and that of Hermès that allows us to express our point of view as to what Hermès should propose to its customers.
One sentence to sum up the state of fashion right now? A series of propositions, some more personal than others, others more creative, yet all propositions that may coexist without the overriding structure that has become known as “fashion.”
One thing you would change about the fashion business if you could? The almost unerring focus on the individuals considered to create collections, the merchandising of these individuals—their private lives, opinions, and lifestyles—to sell clothing, often at the cost of any real consideration of what it is these individuals have created or proposed in name.
One thing you would change aboutyour first Hermès collection? We’re happy with the collection!
MARGIELA’S INFLUENCE oftentimes credited as one of the most influential fashion designers of all time, his works challenged almost every convention within the fashion system, as well as those who consume them. With his view on vintage clothing, repurposed garments, oversized silhouettes, anti-fashion, and authencity Margiela created a new style that was never seen before. There was a new perspective on fashion. Not everything needed to be glitter and glamour. His fashion was made for the real people. That’s why Margiela never focused on models and worked with make-up (by covering the face) and face masks. And when Margiela was showing the models, they were always ‘normal’ people. What real people were like, because the real people have to wear it as well.
COMEBACK? Listed in September 2020: programme of a gallery in Paris is an artist by the name of Martin Margiela. “Lafayette Anticipations invites Martin Margiela to take possession of all its exhibition spaces”. This means Margiela will show his work again. But that does not mean he is making a comeback. Although Margiela himself said in his own documentary that he wanted to tell the fashion world more then he already did. Which is a good sign for a designer, who has been absent in the fashion industry for a decade, those publications are maybe an answer to the question on everyone’s minds: Where is Martin Margiela?