Vice Style

Before he left the company sometime in the last two years, Margiela was never seen or officially photographed, a bit like how you never see Daft Punk without their helmets. All correspondence between what would have normally been him and journalists, stylists and buyers, was carried out via fax and always written as if from the whole Maison.

The headquarters and shops are entirely painted, floor and ceiling in a very slightly off white, as are the desks and chairs. The staff at Maison Margiela are all, always, dressed in lab coats, white again, echoed by the shop staff throughout each store, in each country, worldwide. The lab coat uniform is not just about an aesthetic though. It is also a nod towards an experimental scientific approach. With all the raw finishes, neutral matt colours and distressed and deconstructed aesthetic Maison Martin Margiela is doing its best to channel Joseph Beuys to the fashion world.

All this boils down to an overall Margiela message that the wearer isn’t in thrall to a celebrity obsessed, possibly vacuous fashion world, and the clothes, if not quite art, are serious craft, that being something a lot of art, design and fashion people value highly for some reason. While all that stuff and the bits you can buy in the shops are amazing, Margiela’s Artisanal line of handmade items is the really crazy stuff. Look at these.

Blonde Wigs Jacket Autumn/Winter 08
Pretty much exactly as described, a jacket made of blonde wigs, which resembles a sort of human fur coat. The piece uses a series of shorter wigs to make up a 'bold shoulder' combined with longer straight hair for the body that drops down to the top of the thigh.

Broken Plate Waistcoat Autumn/Winter 89
One of the earliest items on show, this bolero jacket is made of shattered porcelain plates woven together with a network of fine wire, first shown in 1989, the debut year for the label. Taking a total of 32 hours to create and made specifically to order, the waistcoat came in one size only. No one could say if this had anything to do with Greek weddings.

Sandals Jacket/Waistcoat Spring/Summer 04
Composed of a combination of both men’s and women’s summer sandals, the piece uses straps, buckles and detailed patterned leather to formulate a short jacket with removable arms, turning it into a waistcoat. Created over 30 hours, it comes in three-color ways, black, white and natural tan, and is available in two sizes. Tagged simply 1 & 2, the sizing is another nod to anonymity.

Compressed Paper Jacket Spring/Summer 08
One of the more genuinely wearable items from the Artisanal line, this jacket references classic tailoring in it's design. Made, in an act of genius, from press clippings about Maison Martin Margiela dating back twenty years, cut into thin strips, compressed to form a durable material and applied to a leather base with sticky tape. Multi-colored due to the nature of the material used, the jacket took 29 hours to produce in a strict run of five.

Gloves Top Spring/Summer 01
This halter-top is made up of vintage white kid leather gloves intricately sewn together, this piece was shown as part of the collection and has been reproduced a couple of times over the years.

Disco Ball Top Spring/Summer 08
This single sleeved top took a grand total of 42 hours to make. Individual squares of glass mirror tile were hand glued to an open backed leather vest for the collection. The top is pieced together in a circular fashion across the body and comes complete with a single ring above the left shoulder, referencing clearly its previous disco-ball incarnation.

An exhibition of these hand-made pieces, pulled out of the archives and presented fittingly in glass vitrines, runs from 3 June – 5 September 2010, at the Somerset House.