The truth on Martin Margiela

For a few days now, the spotlight of the fashion world has been focused more than ever on Maison Margiela and its founder, the ineffable, invisible Martin Margiela. Not only because, like a bolt from the blue, John Galliano, who has designed the brand’s couture for ten years, and Renzo Rosso, president and owner of OTB, announced their «amicable separation», leaving fans of the brand and the designer in shock. But also because just a few hours ago, a historic event was announced that is already sending the social media machine into overdrive: on January 27 in Paris, during the Men’s Fashion Week, approximately 300 creations signed by Martin Margiela, the revered and controversial father of deconstruction, will be auctioned by Kerry Taylor Auction. The event comes just days after the brand will be the special attraction of the 107th edition of Pitti Uomo in Florence with a major event. This is another revival for the brand and its designer, as it has been since 2006 that the visionary Belgian fashion designer, mentor to figures such as Demna and Matthieu Blazy (the new creative director of Chanel), has not showcased his dazzling and dystopian chalk-white creations in Italy, particularly on the prestigious stage of the historic Florentine menswear showcase. This gives devoted and resolute fans of the brand one more reason to try to acquire, at all costs, some unique and never-before-seen piece from his incredible archive, carefully preserved over the years by sisters Angela and Elena Picozzi.

In addition to founding Castor Fashion, a gem of the Made in Italy production system near Mantua, Angela and Elena Picozzi are also the daughters of Gabriella Picozzi, who played a pivotal role in Martin Margiela’s creative journey. This remarkable talent scout was the first to invest in Martin’s disruptive genius: after completing a three-year collaboration at Jean Paul Gaultier’s Paris studio in 1987, Picozzi entrusted him with consulting for her Deni Cler clothing line. Amazed by his talent, she encouraged Margiela to launch his own brand, contributing with her visionary craftsmanship to the success of his early collections between 1989 and 1994. «The meeting between our mother and Martin Margiela was a pivotal moment for both» says Gabriella’s daughter Angela Picozzi. «We have always considered these pieces an important part of fashion history that should be preserved. We believe the world needs to know Margiela’s early creations.» The vinyl top, the panier bag, those oversized vests, as well as fabric or paper prototypes developed but never worn or sold in stores, will all be included in the January auction, designed by Margiela for both his personal line and the no-logo line that predated the designer’s global fame.

In short, this is not just recycled archaeology, as we’ve often seen on the runway in recent years, but a passionate quest to carefully recover something rare and precious that prompts reflection on the relevance of Martin Margiela’s creative universe today. «I love clothes I didn’t invent» the designer used to say. And fittingly, the term recovery applies more than ever to this visionary, who can legitimately be considered the true prophet of recycling and reuse, as well as the much-debated and alleged circularity. When his inside-out pieces, ruthlessly turned inside out to reveal seams, linings, and the intricate, hidden craftsmanship of tailoring, began to parade in abandoned parking lots, subway stations, and smoky Parisian bistros, the fragrant and chatty fashion world lost its compass. «I adhere to two principles: don’t hide and don’t focus on wealth,» Margiela declared at the beginning of his career. And although those creations seemed to be born out of chaos and delirium, behind the surreal visions of this designer, allergic to interviews and obsessed with Comme des Garçons, there was a precise method, devised by someone who, for the first time in the Western fashion scene (apart from the Japanese and post-atomic designers), dared to prioritize concept over product.

In addition to being one of the pioneers of conceptual fashion—and for this reason, comparable in some ways to the work of artists like Maurizio Cattelan and Piero Manzoni—Martin Margiela is also one of the most Duchampian fashion creators of all time. Not to mention that, in his Parisian atelier, he even kept a work by Marcel Duchamp. His total deconstruction aims to decontextualize an object from its conventional and everyday setting to give it a new, unpredictable function. An example is Duchamp’s iron fitted with sharp nails, while at Margiela’s, the curtain, wig, and capitonné sofa were all converted into different and highly alternative garments. Margiela's performative operation of ready-made fashion is practiced today on the runway by couturiers like Daniel Roseberry, who transforms computer microchips and taxidermy lion heads into haute couture dresses, or Demna, who, following in his master’s footsteps, has elevated the generosity of volumes to a hallmark of contemporary clothing.

Even before taking the helm of Hermès as creative director in 1997, Margiela experimented by imprinting model footprints or trompe l’oeil photos of 1940s dresses on the pristine gauze of two-dimensional tunics. He indulged in unbridled experimentation, creating four-sleeve garments, vests made of socks or gloves, or assembling pieces using fragments of porcelain plates. He even crafted those iconic Tabi shoes that elevated the footwear of Japanese workers. By erasing traditional forms and heavily employing white, Margiela reduced garments to skeletal structures, championing anonymity and invisibility, a philosophy he himself practices. Martin Margiela was, willingly or not, a forerunner in rejecting physical corporeality linked to digitalization. This unstoppable revolution, which gained momentum after the pandemic cyclone, through the metaverse first and artificial intelligence later, is plunging humanity into a parallel world, perhaps more hallucinatory and unsettling for ordinary people than Margiela's fundamentalist and intrinsically honest aesthetic.