MARGIELA REMAKING
A recent Paris retrospective brought the influence of Martin Margiela into sharp relief. Christian Barker looks at the enduring impact of the reclusive fashion rebel and identifies his inspirations
Many a designer has been inspired by Martin Margiela, the Belgian iconoclast whose eponymous maison reshaped our conception of fashion over a 20-year period from 1989 to 2009. Raf Simons says witnessing one of Margiela’s first shows, in a derelict Paris playground, “is the reason I became a fashion designer.” Marc Jacobs remarked a decade ago, “Anybody who’s aware of what life is in a contemporary world is influenced by Margiela.”
That may be a bit of an overstatement, the comment of someone living in a fashion industry bubble. But within that bubble, Margiela’s influence is clear; his impact is palpable in recent collections from labels as disparate as Céline, Gucci, Erdem and Isabel Marant. Without question, however, it is Vetements and Balenciaga creative director Demna Gvasalia, a Maison Margiela design team alumnus, who is the most notable of the contemporary Margiela imitators, perennially wearing the master’s influence on his (oversized) sleeve.
In design and delivery (via DHL, no doubt) Gvasalia’s work for Vetements consistently follows the Margiela playbook. From a marketing and communication perspective: taking an “anti-fashion” stance; positioning the brand’s product as the creation of a collective, not just one figurehead; holding shows in odd, cramped, unglamorous venues; using street-cast nonmodels. And as for the clothes: slashed and deconstructed/ reconstructed garments; outlandishly supersized silhouettes; exaggerated shoulders; denim patchwork and multi-garment pastiche; repurposing or remaking “trash;” scribbly, public lavatory-style graffiti; Japanese “tabi” footwear …
All of the above are Margiela signatures from two or more decades ago—and all of them were recently recycled by Gvasalia. In life, the pious ponder, “What would Jesus do?” Gvasalia, meanwhile, seemingly thinks, “What would Martin design?” He’s all but admitted this is his approach. When confronted by critics deriding his work as derivative, Gvasalia argues that Maison Margiela is not a man but a philosophy, and he’s simply following its tenets.
Anyway, as Gvasalia’s pal Kanye West tweeted earlier this year, “too much emphasis is put on originality. Feel free to take ideas and update them at your will all great artist (sic) take and update.” Practising what he preaches, Kanye has repeatedly referenced Margiela in his Yeezy collections, via touches such as flesh-coloured bodysuits, ripped, frayed, distressed knitwear, and shows that put critics’ patience to the test. Not shy about his “adoration of the Margi,” he (or should we say Ye?) even turned his Instagram account into a virtual Margiela mood board in 2016, posting no fewer than 99 images of classic designs from the brand.
Covering a comprehensive exhibition earlier this year at the Palais Galliera in Paris, which celebrated and showcased Margiela’s many innovations, Vogue gushed, “Is there nothing Martin Margiela isn’t responsible for having done first?” It’s an interesting question. While his achievements are numerous and his influence profound, we can’t help but wonder whether Margiela himself would agree that he’s the ultimate fashion innovator and originator.
In the 18th century, Marie Antoinette was fond of quoting her celebrated dressmaker Rose Bertin, who said, “Il n’y a de nouveau que ce qui est oublié”—“there
“ANYBODY WHO’S AWARE OF WHAT LIFE IS IN A CONTEMPORARY WORLD IS INFLUENCED BY MARGIELA”
is nothing new except what has been forgotten.” Plus ça change … In Margiela’s work, surely we can sense echoes of the surrealism of Elsa Schiaparelli, the unconventional silhouettes of Cristóbal Balenciaga, the deconstructivism of Vivienne Westwood? Perhaps he was also inspired by the conceptual art of Marcel Duchamp, the action painting of Yves Klein, the creative vandalism of Lucio Fontana, or the magpie anti-glamour of Arte Povera? Who knows? It’s impossible to ask Margiela directly—famed for his dedication to anonymity and refusal to grant interviews or submit to photography, he’s the most enigmatic, hermetic man in fashion.
Fortunately, in working closely with the designer on the Margiela/galliera exhibition, curator Alexandre Samson did manage to gain some valuable insights, which he was kind enough to share in a half-hour telephone conversation with Hong Kong Tatler. Insofar as potential artistic influences go, Samson says Margiela recalled, “When he first came to the Antwerp academy to study fashion design, after his first examination, the teachers there told him, ‘You should be an artist, not a fashion designer.’ And Martin Margiela replied, ‘But I don’t care about art—i like art but I don’t care about it, I only want to do fashion.’ He is so intrigued by clothes, so passionate about clothes. He’s aware of all the major artistic movements and artists, but it’s viewed through the lens of fashion, the lens of clothes, the lens of fabric—that’s very important, the key thing to understand.”
Of Margiela’s direct fashion influences, Samson says, “There are three great inspirations in his work and they are also fundamental to fashion history. The first is Jean Paul Gaultier—margiela was his assistant for several years and gained from Gaultier his sense of creative freedom and the concept of repurposing objects. And then, Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo, for the incredible structure and deconstruction of their clothes. To Margiela’s mind, those are the three masters.”
Of initially meeting Margiela, Samson says, “The first thing that struck me was his incredible kindness and simplicity as a human, as a man … He was clearly kindhearted, very polite and generous to everyone in the museum.” Given this humility, one wonders, does Margiela embrace or shy from his status as the era’s great fashion
SAMSON BELIEVES MARGIELA’S GREATEST IMPACT CAME IN MAINSTREAMING THE RECYCLING AND REPURPOSING OF USED CLOTHING ... NOW RECOGNISED AS RESPONSIBLE, SUSTAINABLE BEHAVIOUR
innovator? “He is a very humble guy,” says Samson, “but he’s very aware, a very cultured person… He has very deep roots in the history of fashion, and he drew from those roots to make new ideas. He is very aware of fashion history, but he is also aware of and proud of the liberties he took, imposing his own way of creation.”
Samson believes Margiela’s greatest impact—“he didn’t invent it, but he institutionalised it, made it a signature”— came in mainstreaming the recycling and repurposing of used clothing. At least in the realm of high fashion, this was seen as being a tad grotty in the early 1990s, but is now recognised as responsible, sustainable behaviour. Conversely, he feels that among all the attention-grabbing conceptualism, Margiela’s sartorial bona fides haven’t been duly acknowledged. “Martin Margiela is a tailoring master,” Samson says. “He’s a god of tailoring. That was one of the first things journalists recognised; Suzy Menkes and Cathy Horyn noticed it during his earliest womenswear collections. Here was this guy doing something very ‘grunge’ but with this sense of tailoring and proportion, this sense of precise cut. As a designer, Margiela invented more than 12 different shoulder lines—there are very few designers in history who’ve invented shoulder lines, because that is the most difficult element of clothing to construct. Every tailor will tell you that.”
In contrast with the complexity of the de/reconstruction of Margiela’s garments, the concepts behind his work are in fact very straightforward, Samson believes. The idea of women as living dolls or mannequins. Questioning whether tailoring is about perfect fit. The commodification and overconsumption of fashion. Creation through destruction. Luxury style as class signifier. Museum pieces made from refuse. “Martin Margiela is a very simple person; this simplicity implies a simplicity of creation also, because everything is spontaneous in his way of creating clothes. Everything comes from a simple gesture,” Samson says.
His biggest takeaway from the experience of working on the Margiela exhibition was a realisation that “the simplest ideas and most obvious ideas are always the best.” They’re also the easiest to appropriate. Samson reckons the internet and Instagram have made ideas so easily accessible that many younger people believe proprietorship or copyright of a concept no longer applies—everything’s up for grabs. “But it’s not the case. There has to be an effort to discover, to produce new thought. This is culture. We discussed that with Martin Margiela and he is in agreement.”
Duchamp having the simple idea in 1917 to scribble “R. Mutt” on a urinal and label it art was a stroke of genius. Someone doing the same today would merely be taking the … well, let’s just say the concept would be terribly watered down. In art as in fashion, origination is key.