Fashion Designer Martin Margiela

Martin Margiela is an avant-garde fashion designer from Belgium.  He worked for Jean Paul Gaultier for two years before creating his own label in 1989.  The Palais Galliera, the fashion museum of the city of Paris, just opened the first retrospective in Paris of Margiela's career, which lasted from 1989 to 2009.

Poster for Margiela Exhibit

Palais Galliera

His first show was staged on a cheap white cloth runway, with the models leaving sticky red-paint Tabi boot prints on the runway.  The next season, he cut a top from a piece of that runway and stuck it together with packing tap. Margiela was the first in fashion to think of recycling.  For the opening of the show at the Palais Galliera, the museum placed a white cloth runway down the stairs to evoke that first Margiela show.

White Runway to Galliera Museum Entrance

View from Inside Palais Galliera

Clothes and Runway with Red Boot Prints

Top Made from Runway from
Previous Show

Tabi Boots and Sandals with the Split Toe

He sewed recycled broken plates as suspenders on a skirt.  And Margiela was interested in showing the construction of clothing.  The darts were sewn on the outside of the garments.  He also rebelled against the big shoulders of the 1980s and developed a narrow shoulder.

Broken Plates Attached to a Skirt

Darts on the Outside and Tabi Boots

He staged his shows in unusual places, such as a construction wasteland in the 20th arrondissement.  When critics said his clothes looked like they were from the Salvation Army he staged his next show at the Salvation Army.  He was definitely in the face of the Paris haute couture scene.  For his 1991 Artisanal line of clothing, he bought garments at flea markets, sorted, washed, overdyed or bleached them and then disassembled the garments to transform them into one-of-a-kind pieces.  This was the first time a designer offered "new" pieces that were entirely made of reclaimed, upcycled articles.

He had no supplier for knitwear so he asked his mother to knit a pullover inspired by punk.  She used broomsticks that had been whittled down by his father instead of needles.  The stitches were irregular and the sleeves had different lengths.  When he received orders for 40 of the sweaters, his mother, with the assistance of some friends, produced them in three colors-sky blue, rose and black.

Sweater knitted with broomsticks

The function of a liner to a garment is to support and finish the interior of a garment, hiding the seams and improving the way a garment falls.  Margiela was the first designer to make the liner a garment in its own right.  The dress, skirt and top liners have their details such as zippers, darts and labels on the outside.


Liner Dresses and Skirt

I loved his sock pullover and the instructions that went with it.  It was made from eight pairs of socks found in a military surplus store.  Margiela said, "For my collection, I wanted and needed pullovers that were very fitted.  As I had no knitwear supplier, I had to come up with something.  The positioning of the socks on the body was carefully thought out so that the heels would correspond to the rounded parts of the torso:  bust, elbows, and shoulders, these last placed higher than the natural shoulder."  Martin Margiela loved do-it-yourself and provided instructions so any woman could make her own sweater out of socks.

Pullover made of Socks

Detail of Instructions

Pullover Instructions

He bought old costumes from a theatre in bulk.  When they arrived, they were not in very good shape so he just recut and used pieces of them.

Reclaimed Costumes

Repurposed Costumes

He used fabric from dressmaker dummies in his clothing.

Clothing from Canvas on Dressmaker
Dummies, Including Writing

He was obsessed with oversized garments after finding an XXXXL dressmaker dummy.  He made dresses from dress labels or leather gloves.

Oversized Dress with Top Made of Labels

Oversized Dress made of Gloves

He turned down comforters into winter coats.  The women said they were the warmest and most comfortable coats.

I guess I have Margiela to thank for all those new jeans sold with holes in them that I hate.  For his 2008 collection, he shredded the jeans until there was almost nothing left.

Shredded Jeans

Yarn Vest and Tights as Outerwear

In 2008, the editor of Vogue asked several designers to imagine their own version of the Chanel jacket.  Margiela created an oversized XXXXL model, designed to be worn over bare skin with legs encased in black tights.

Tribute to Coco Chanel

Margiela never granted interviews and left his fashion house quietly.  Nobody knew quite when he left or how he had worked and what he was thinking.  But this show cleared that up by exhibiting his 20 years of fashion from 1989-2009.  He was the artistic director for the exhibit and wrote the anecdotes describing what he was thinking and doing.  He did the wigs and makeup on the mannequins and dressed them. 
Margiela was the first to do things that are commonplace today in fashion.  And he was the first to question "the fashion system," taking people out of their comfort zone.  His shows were in a disused car park, an abandoned metro station and a derelict super market, among other venues.  He was called the "bad boy" of fashion.  This was an interesting exhibit that made me think.  And when we had that cold snap here in Paris, I think I would have been really happy for one of those down comforter coats.