Martin Margiela

Martin Margiela [ maʀtɛ͂ maʀʒiɛlɑ ] (born April 9, 1957 in Genk ) is a Belgian fashion designer who founded the fashion brand Maison Martin Margiela in 1988 and achieved international fame through his intellectual - avant-garde fashion creations .

life and work

Martin Margiela studied at the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts, where he graduated in 1981. In the early years, Margiela initially worked as a stylist. From 1984 to 1987 he was Jean-Paul Gaultier's assistant . In 1988 he founded Maison Martin Margiela as Neuf SARL together with Jenny Meirens, a Brussels retailer . In 1997, the then CEO of Hermès , Jean-Louis Dumas , surprisingly appointed Margiela as head designer of the company's women's fashion, where he was replaced in 2004 by Jean-Paul Gaultier.

Margiela is considered a modernist and a deconstructivist : Existing, recycled items of clothing are taken apart and reassembled, the seams turned outwards. When he started doing this in the late 1980s, his approach was considered spectacular: He made visible what had hitherto remained hidden in fashion - its constructional character. Oversized sleeves he sat on narrow shoulders on, off old ladies gloves he made blouses from VHS - tapes elegant stoles , west of individual pieces of fabric he held with brown tape together. One of his trademarks are hoof -like shoes in Tabi shape.

For the fashion show gala on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of designer colleague Sonia Rykiel in 2008, to which numerous well-known fashion designers contributed their own designs, Margiela created a wig- style coat that not only reflects Sonia Rykiel's red- blonde hair, but also alluded to Margiela's growing up "in a Limburg parental home trading wigs and perfumes". Wigs kept appearing as a motif in Margiela's designs.

Margiela's favorite color, white , can also be found in his Paris studio and his own boutiques, for example with antique furniture painted over white to white lacquered coffee machines , whitewashed walls or plain white packaging materials ( shopping bags ).

At the end of 2009 Margiela, who had gradually sold his company from 2002 to Renzo Rosso , owner of the Diesel Group, withdrew into private life.

Margiela was known for not having herself photographed and for not giving personal interviews . In other interviews conducted by fax , Margiela spoke of Maison Martin Margiela in the first person plural (“we”) instead of herself. He did not appear on the catwalk at his fashion shows . It was said that this should shift the focus away from the person of the designer and towards the creations themselves. Apparently there is only one recent photo of him published by the New York Times in 2008 in the media .

Through numerous exhibitions , for example in museums , Margiela was firmly established in the art world. An overview of his 20 years of work was on view from March 20 to June 1, 2009 in the Haus der Kunst in Munich .

In June 2018, the two major Parisian fashion museums dedicated an exhibition to Martin Margiela at the same time. The Musée Galliera offered an overview of all of his women's wardrobes, which he created between 1989 and 2009. The Musée des Arts Décoratifs juxtaposed creations he conceived for his own house with models that he designed between 1997 and 2003 as artistic director of the ready-to-wear women's collection for Hermès. One critic wrote: “It's hard to believe that the exhibitions show works by the same creator. Not only do the products of the Margiela and Hermès houses seem to come from two designers with fundamentally different, even almost opposite aesthetics, the scenographies and the contextualization of the two shows could not be more different. […] Even the visitors have a distinctly different profile - there are great museum visitors, here weird fashionistas and aficionados ”.

Web links

• Website of Maison Margiela Paris

Individual evidence

1. ^ At the ateliers , The New Yorker, March 30, 1998.
2. ^ Gaultier becomes a designer at Hermès , Textilwirtschaft, May 19, 2003.
3. ^ Katrin Kruse, Nameless Visibility , ZEIT ONLINE, June 8, 2006.
4. ^ Margiela channels Rykiel , New York Times, October 4, 2008.
5. ^ On Martinstag der Modewelt , FAZ, October 1, 2008.
6. ↑ http://www.dasmagazin.ch/index.php/das-unbekannte-gesicht/ ( memento of November 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) dasmagazin.ch, September 26, 2008.
7. ↑ Alfons Kaiser, Martin Margiela leaves his brand , faz.net, December 11, 2009.
8. ↑ Nameless Visibility , Die Zeit, July 12, 2006.
9. ↑ Maison Martin Margiela , muenchen.bayern-online.de, March 2009.
10. ^ Fashion's Invisible Man , The New York Times, October 1, 2008.
11. ↑ Maison Martin Margiela - '20' - House of Art , lealoves.blogspot.com, March 19, 2009.
12. ↑ Metropolis of April 4, 2009 ( Memento of the original of April 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , arte.tv, April 4, 2009. 
13. ↑ Birgit Sonna, Exaltierte seams and ponies ( Memento of the original from March 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Art-Magazin.de, March 23, 2009. 
14. ^ Martin Margiela - The last cry , Süddeutsche Zeitung, March 20, 2009.
15. ↑ Marc Zitzmann: The thimble handed over . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , No. 133, June 12, 2018, p. 12.