Martin Margiela

On my trip to Paris a couple of weeks ago I went to see an exhibition on a designer I had never previously heard of "Martin Margiela". The artist proved to be very inspirational.

Lets start by saying a little bit about this designer who stood out others in surprising ways. Margiela worked from 1989 to 2009 with two collections per year who were not put in boxes by seasons. In some ways he was a revolutionary, his runways weren't in fancy rooms but in cafes, tube stations, abandoned parking lots .... On numerous occasions the models walking the catwalk would have a black veil over their faces. Margiela did this because he wanted the soul focus to be on the clothes not the beauty of the models.

His designs revolved around colours like black, nude and white. He was extremely critical of this new consuming society and showed this by the use of cheap materials in his designs.

This look is part of his earlier work. A vest made only by bits of broken plates found in the street. Margiela really liked the idea of shortage he believed that if you have less you get more creative. This is why some of his designs can sometimes be seen as slightly bizarre. Simply by observing this design we can guess that he was very into recycling. An idea that today we are all interested in though he was 20 years ago.

This collection was one of my favourites. Margiela did not buy expensive materials so here he took pictures of designs made in them and printed the picture into fabric though he kept everything even the imperfections of the picture. I believe this collection really represents this designer as he shows his immense creativity through this idea of shortage.

In one if his later collections Margiela focused on the idea of transparence. He of course used plastic. This use of his plastics was seen in fashion shows to this day. Margiela was one of the first to use it.

Margiela was very against stereotypes. He did not like this idea of criterias for beauty. This picture shows the model used for a few of his oversize collections. We can see that he began this idea of oversize again 20 years ago. I believe this designer was in some ways futuristic.

This collection from the year 2000 was also one of my favourites. The idea behind it was people feel the most relaxed and stress free in their beds under their duvets. Margiela wanted to re-create this comfort by making duvet coats.

This designer really opened my eyes on fashion and if one day you have the time I suggest you research further since their are many more interesting collections to know about.