08/01/2015

Anonymity as Fashion Power at Martin Margiela

As the year 2015 begins, it is natural to wonder what it might bring. The fashion debate of the year may very well be John Galliano’s return to the industry, as he gets ready to take over Maison Martin Margiela as its creative director. Surely, one of the most surprising choices of the year, Galliano’s return to the fashion world, and no less in charge of the controversial Belgian brand, might be the source of many curious fashion wonderings.

In the roaring Nineties, a dominating force of mass media reigned the public sphere and, in a dismissal of this culture, Martin Margiela embraced anonymity as a designer, for he was hardly ever photographed or interviewed. Instead, he decided that the collective “Maison Martin Margiela” would anonymously front the label. With the founder Martin Margiela’s departure from the brand in 2009, a new “faceless” group continued to generate its typically surreal collections. However, Masion Martin Margiela recently let their Haute Couture show bring the designer Matthieu Blazy out in the spotlight, in a calculated and smart media action – far from the brand’s origins – intended both as a farewell to the young talent (who subsequently apparently moved to Céline) and a clever showstopper which left people wondering about the maison’s future.

It is interesting that the brand shifted from a faceless designer to an infamous creative. After his fall from grace, John Galliano has much to prove, but also has little to lose and may therefore be the excellent vessel for the provocative creativity Maison Martin Margiela desires. Fashion, art and commerce travel hand in hand with this company dedicated to originality and surprise. Even though much can be said about Galliano’s personality, his work has often been provocative and fresh, and yet the question of ‘blending in’ will naturally haunt the designer and the label at least until the first collection is revealed. While having a very public face for the brand may become beneficial, its buzz value is only fictional and must be nurtured through time. Margiela’s determination to eliminate the public face of its design tea shifted the focus on the work itself, while it also brought a powerful blow to the illusion of an ‘almighty’ head designer being singlehandedly responsible for the success of a fashion house. In fact, Maison Martin Margiela proved what the power of collectivity really meant, but may now have fallen dependent to the trope itself.

Victoria Edman 
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06/02/2014

Pre-Fall 2014 Back to Boldness

When the new collections are shown on the runways, we look out for some key points which are strong trend indicators for the coming season. Silhouettes are one of them. With the pre-fall 2014 shows in full swing, we have been catching up with the new trends for next pre-fall 2014. A particular silhouette which has caught our eye so far is the architectural upper silhouette, with bold square voluminous angles which are formed in various ways combined with a tailored slimmer lower shape. The trends have lent towards a more sculptured silhouette the last few seasons anyway but what is updated this season is the wrapped and tied idea with a protruding back.


Designer Jonny Johansson at ACNE Studios has created some bold combinations with clean cut lines, molded and sculpted in new forms for the upper body, creating juxtaposed design lines.


At Thomas Tait, oversized shapes and extreme proportions set the scene in bold colours. New proportions for the biker jacket created a rather masculine feel to the style. Longer coats were cleverly cut to give angular shapes, re-shaping the female form and accentuating the back.

At MMM; Maison Martin Margiela, Renaissance inspired shapes were hinted at. Colours were tonal and subdued, as expected but the textures and forms cleverly made a bold distorted statement to the female form with the back clearly being a focus point.



Tamsin Cook – Image courtesy of Jonny Johansson for ACNE Studios, Thomas Tait and Maison Martin Margiela 
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04/07/2013

Child’s Play

There has been a comeback for the one-piece. Different interpretations of the jumpsuit have been seen on the runway, season after season, Fall as well as Spring. How come such a childlike silhouette has become almost a must in our closets?

The jumpsuits in the Diane von Furstenberg 2013 Fall collection tell the story of a comfortable elegance through prints in somber colors and luxurious materials. The construction and use of the fabrics are creating a silhouette that is still young but more feminine and less junior, a key element in elevating the style from the play pen to the runway.

The monochromatic trend has been another vocal trend for many seasons. In the Viktor & Rolf pre-Spring collection for 2014 the LBJ – the Little Black Jumpsuit – is exemplified in all its simplicity; the black silk bow and the bottom cut at mid-calf has the look of giving a coquettish wink to a suit a boy in the early 20th century might wear. However the tailoring brings the mind back to the fashionable 2014.

At Maison Martin Margiela the collaboration of a plunging sweetheart neckline with a long wide pant legs give a feminine touch to formal wear without ever really crossing the line, making the garment accurate for both night and day. At Emilio Pucci the black jumpsuit became the canvas for uniting an urban silhouette – like the mid-calf cargo pants – with an Asian print.

The loose fit and the oversized t-shirt sleeves of the one-piece from Stella McCartney’s Spring 2014 collection are resembling the old work clothing from the 1940s, creating an urban feel to the piece and again, the construction and materials give it a modern and fashionable spin instead of a childlike state.


As discussed above, the one piece has – for now – a perfect fit in fashion due to its ease and playfulness, which is always in demand, not to mention its ability to transcend chic to comfort and work in harmony with other trends. It has also given designers a silhouette to a perfect juxtaposition, which is something that can generate unexpected items such as a trenchcoat jumpsuit as seen at the Chanel 2014 Cruise collection in Singapore. Something that is anything but childish.

Victoria Edman 
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27/06/2013

Outer Dark: Continuing After Fashion

During the 90s a group of emerging designers conferred a different shape and value to the fashion of that time. After a decade of excesses, bright and shiny colors – and opulence – there was a need of simplicity and a less superficial approach. It was during that time that names like Ann Demeulemeester, Martin Margiela, Alexander McQueen, Helmut Lang, Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo, just to name a few, changed the common rules by creating something amply defined as anti-fashion. 
The term is also synonym of fashion after fashion and they both indicate an uncertain age when the ideals of beauty were called into question. 
These designers started investigating deeper their own realities by meditating on what occurred along their personal path and trying to turn it into clothes; in doing so they went beyond an aesthetic that was overseen and saturated.


MAK – Museum Angewandte Kunst of Frankfurt has organized Outer Dark: Continuing After Fashion, an exhibition that displays several costumes of anti-fashion designers along with installations, videos, photos and artworks that better describe the universe around them. 
There will be for example two Super-8 films by Erik Madigan Heck that show Ann Demeulemeester’s creations and the documentary “This is my Dream” by Yohji Yamamoto.



The main aim of the exhibit, curated by Mahret Kupka and Matthias Wagner K, is to bring the visitors on the dark side of fashion, a path that ends with light and beautiful creatures; the show gives space to both the memorable avant-garde names and some of new local talents. Erik Madigan Heck, Barbara í Gongini, Maison Martin Margiela, Garland Coo, Leandro Cano, Augustin Teboul, JULIAHEUSE and Alexander McQueen are some of the present designers.



The exhibition is up until September 15th 2013.

Francesca Crippa 
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25/01/2013

Haute Couture Spring 2013

Haute Couture Spring 2013

After the pre-season presentations and before we dive into the month of Autumn & Winter collections, Paris and La Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture let us indulge in Spring one last time during the couture shows – the event that only a few of the fashion houses and young designers are invited to attend.

The annual subject for awe and some tittle-tattle is the Chanel show. We have seen icebergs and seaworlds and the anticipation of finding out what Karl Lagerfeld would do next was as usual big: and big it was. A forest had literally been imported into the Grand Palais, where the Spring 2013 couture show was hosted as usual. Out came models in feathery hair and make up, presenting the exquisite tweed suits and what at a quick glance looked like prints, but in fact were embroideries (and hours of work by a couturiers hand). Focus was put on the shoulders, which appeared bare and slim due to large detailing just below. Though, it wasn’t the collection or the magical show venue that got the most attention at the end of the day, but the grand finale where Lagerfeld brought out not one, but two, spring brides, showing his support for same sex marriage.

There was of course also other “regulars” on the couture schedule worth talking about. Raf Simons did his second couture collection for Dior, inviting the audience into his spring garden of serenity. The short haired models showed a collection of floating materials, suits and layers. Armani Privé flirted with eastern cultures: from the headpieces to the small gilets and rich colour palettes, and Valentino gave a bit of the significant red and that couture perfection that 500 hours (for one piece of garment) of handwork gives.


Maison Martin Margiela, together with the young designers who are not yet fixed on the couture calendar, stood for the edge and the new. Margiela brought out a coat made of, what has said to be, thousands of metallic candy wraps and Rad Hourani showed his unisex collection: something only he has done. Iris van Herpen and
Yiqing Yin, other youngsters in the world of couture, showed their visions for Spring. Sculpted dresses and elaborate pleating came down the runway at Yiqing Yin while van Herpen played with 3D effects and electricity in her collection called Voltage.

It rests to see who stays on the schedule for the next selection by La Fédération, but this legally instated label which is held in reserve for those selected few, will keep the audience to pilgrimage to Paris for this art called couture.

Lisa Olsson Hjerpe – Images courtesy to the respective brands

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