8. Western ideal of imperfection - Rise of Martin Margiela

15 ~ I love the idea of recuperation. I believe that is beautiful to make new things out of rejected or worn things. ~ Martin Margiela 45

Western ideal of imperfection - Rise of Martin Margiela:

By the end of the 1980s, however, the novelty of Kawakubo’s and Yamamoto’s aesthetic began to wane, usurped by new talent from Antwerp, Belgium. The pared down aesthetic dependent on muted colours and ‘poor’ materials, which in the case of Margiela meant recycled fabric, had precedents in fashion from the 1980s and particularly in Japanese designers such as Kawakubo, whose work borrowed from the Zen aesthetic of poverty namely wabi-sabi. The common elements of deconstruction fashion were crystallised as fabric edges left unfinished, seams stitched on the outside of cloth etc. 46

Figure 5 and 6. Martin Margiela sample cultures and strains, made for the “9/4/1615” installation at Brooklyn Anchorage, New York, 1999. 47

Eighteen dressed dummies represented all previous Martin Margiela collections (Spring/Summer 1989 up to Autumn Winter 1997/8). A collaboration with a prominent Dutch Microbiologist, Dr A.W.S.M van Egeraat, Professor at the Wareningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands. Each outfit was treated with different strains of bacteria, yeast and mould, all isolated from the air and nurtured to provide varying colours and textures. 48

These two designers (Kawakubo and Margiela) strike a particular chord with me, as examples. They are case studies that I use as references not to work with, but work away from. They all go against the very principle of naturally-occurring defects. Ironically in the case of Kawakubo, her work is misrepresented as having stemmed from wabi-sabi; reasons being her Japanese descent and some of her garments bearing ‘the look of the poor people’. On the other hand, Margiela derives inspiration from a false sense of the very aesthetic of wabi-sabi. He adds bacteria to break down the garment, rather than allowing the lifespan of the garment to end on its own.

Although I have shed a rather negative light, I would like to credit these two designers for bringing appreciation to the concept of defected/decaying fabric and for having initiated the conversation about rebellion and undesirability, among critics and consumers alike.

45 Steele, Japan Fashion Now , p.189.

46 Steele, Japan Fashion Now , p. 210.

47 Kaat Debo, Rebecca Arnold and Sarah Mower, Margiela: The Hermès Years (Lannoo Publishers ,Racine, 2017), p. 34.