Your cart is currently empty!
Martin Margiela: an Ode to Anti-Fashion’s Founding Father
—
by
START
body
For a man behind one of the world’s most niche fashion cults, Martin Margiela is relatively unknown.
The Belgian designer rarely talks about himself, all knowledge of the acclaimed creative director coming from secondhand stories or brief, once-in-a-lifetime interviews. Operating anonymously in the fashion sphere– quite the paradox for an industry so obsessed with validation and external appearances–Margiela has become a staple in our current style discourse. Perhaps the enigmatic nature is what has made his success so apparent.
The 64-year-old designer was born in Genk, an industrial town in northern Belgium. After finishing a fashion foundation course, the young creative enrolled in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp– no doubt prestigious if you’re familiar with its alumni like Dries Van Noten, Raf Simons, Walter Van Beirendonck, and Ann Demeulemeester, and others. Margiela was Antwerp Six adjacent, graduating in 1980 with some members of the crew.
He went on to work as a design assistant five years after graduating. Under the helm of fashion’s enfant terrible, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Margiela doubt picked up the intricacies of outlandish and otherworldly couture. Gaultier became a father figure and friend, calling the freshly graduated designer the best assistant he’s ever had.
Just like his mentor, Margiela’s mind was filled with visions of going against the rigid hierarchy that the industry propelled.
In 1988, he founded his eponymous label, Maison Martin Margiela, headquartered in Paris. Following in the footsteps of Gaultier, Margiela’s approach to design was unconventional, to say the least. While his mentor was set on highlighting the beautiful, hyper-sexual female form of his muses, Margiela took his mind in the complete opposite direction.
The designer began his garments by destroying, not creating. Loose, exaggerated silhouettes aimed to shield a model’s form from the world under distressed layers of fabrics. Unlike fashion’s gatekeepers, androgynous wasn’t just a word thrown around by Margiela, but an intentional part of his designs. Seams, intentionally jagged and misshapen, were exposed along with boning structures and sewing to deconstruct the notion of what a traditional shirt or pair of slacks would be. Unorthodox materials like car seat belts, sports gloves, and blindfolds were all integrated into garments’ silhouettes.
The label’s progressive and thought-provoking nature extended far beyond its wearable items.
In one of the shows that cemented Margiela’s place as a notable figure in fashion history, the brand’s Spring/Summer 1990 collection in a children’s park on the outskirts of Paris filled with graffitied walls said all you needed to know about the label: this wasn’t your mother’s couture.
The sun was setting on the haughty, distinguished legacy houses with sterile and uninventive clothing. The new dawn had arrived, one orchestrated by Margiela himself
Margiela’s chaotically curated aesthetic, hell-bent on the rebirth of individuality and style for the ’90s grunge kids coming-of-age in a nihilistic society, is what we now call anti-fashion. The movement towards abandoning traditional systems of structure and nepotism to be replaced with dark clothing woven with grim undertones sounds a lot more goth than it is. Sure, anti-fashion’s biggest supporters were your typical societal outcasts–black trench coats and all– but bleak, destroyed garments don’t mean much without the proper punk attitude.
At its core, Margiela’s birth of the anti-fashion genre is one that feels anti-capitalistic. The movement is a large rejection of modern-day consumerism, aesthetics, and market trends in the industry. It’s a big middle finger to the multi-billion dollar corporations, rigorous production schedules, and high-end glossies that provide a strict rulebook to what is “in” and what’s “out.” The outward refusal to adhere to these standards is what sent the movement’s foundation. Who cares if a garment is too big? Or too messy? Or too cheap-looking? For the wearer, all that matters that it suits them.
Anti-fashion isn’t comprised of sweeping ballgowns or beautifully tailored three-piece suits, it’s massive headpieces that resemble birdbaths and tops five sizes too big that bears a striking similarity to sculptural art.
After years at his label, Margiela took an offer to jump on board to the Hermès team as its creative director. From 1997 to 2003, the designer established a look of chic, modern luxury, and femininity at the French legacy house– tame in comparison to his avant-garde beast at Maison Martin Margiela. The inspiration? To make women feel comfortable in their clothing, similar to how he made misfits feel like themselves at his other line. His work was that of a quiet genius, again transforming the way we view comfort and expression hand-in-hand with the pieces of fabric we chose to put on our backs. Once more, no one was waiting for the press at the end of the catwalk before the lights go up. Margiela was a man, but more importantly, a myth to the masses.
With the guise of anonymity, one can argue Margiela’s secrecy contributed to the rise of his house. Both faceless and nameless (as the brand’s press releases used “we” instead of “I”), the designer answered to no one. While critics bashed his work at times, the public loved it. Without a persona to approach the world, Margiela’s sole focus was curating each collection, not his public image that the industry wanted so desperately to pick apart.
After decades of radical experimentation and style-defying garments, Martin Margiela retired from fashion in 2008, citing growing inner frustrations about the state of the industry.
In an acceptance letter published after the designer won the Jury Prize at the Belgian Fashion Awards, Margiela reflected on his choice to leave. “… I felt that I could not cope any more with the worldwide increasing pressure and the overgrowing demands of trade,” the designer wrote. “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.”
Honestly, what’s more Margiela than leaving an industry you helped pioneer? The move is still regarded as Big Anti-Fashion Energy. BAFE, if you will.
From Martin Margiela’s departure to the global impact spawned from his elusive nature begins to beg the question: is anti-fashion clothing? Or simply, is it a state of mind one can aspire to have?
After abandoning his role as the head of his maison, Margiela’s label began to operate under a collective of anonymous designers, reinstating the collaborative nature of the house and himself. Then fallen-from-grace John Galliano joined the label in 2014, three short years after departing Dior and nearly six since Margiela’s exit. In an effort to fall back into the public’s good graces, Galliano’s work at Margiela once again began to show the world what he was capable of.
Much like his predecessor, Galliano’s work at the house continues to innovate and inspire fashion’s weird, fringe kids. Theatrical, colorful presentations once again proved there was a genius commanding a team of expert couturiers and seamstresses. However, Galliano is a public figure, his whimsical, childlike wonder dominating fashion circles, much like he did during his Dior tenure. Is the world-shunning, anti-capitalist, middle-finger waving energy still there? In spirit, maybe.
Much like modern-day criticism towards punk, fashion’s finest can allege our current anti-fashion world is a watered-down version of the original. But fashion constantly re-invents itself, right? Although we’ve come a long way from our anti-fashion roots, it doesn’t mean our current version is any better or worse.
Whether there is a figure that eclipses’ Martin Margiela’s genius or not in our current landscape, the fashion legend has inspired countless others. bright stars in his wake. Raf Simons, a young furniture designer, turned to garment making after watching Margiela’s playground runway. Marc Jacobs, one of the United States’ most influential designers, constantly affirms his love for Margiela’s impact on avant-garde couture. For us normies, the labels iconic Tabi shoes are making a comeback–no doubt a surprise if you’ve scrolled on your TikTok For You Page for less than ten minutes. It’s legendary, anti-fashion cameltoes for days.
As we look forward into our current mystifying fashion landscape, digital or not, we have to toast to Margiela’s out-of-the-box creations that electrified a generation.
END
prev link: https://www.crfashionbook.com/fashion/a36041473/martin-margiela-anti-fashion/
createdAt:Tue, 06 Apr 2021 20:27:55 +0000
displayType:Long Form Article
section:Fashion