I had the pleasure of interviewing by email for the next issue of Zoot Mag (out in two weeks’ time), the team at Maison Martin Margiela.
I say “the team”, because, as you know, Margiela himself is a sort of ghost in the fashion machine and refuses to be photographed or interviewed in the conventional way, though he answers questions together with his team, making sure that, in this way, the focus stays on the maison.
One of my questions was about the speculations in recent months about Margiela having left the maison.
It was maybe cheeky of me to ask, but they didn’t refuse to answer and kindly stated: “Martin Margiela is the Creative Director of Maison Martin Margiel, but, for personal reasons, he has decided to limit his implication and role in the creative process of the MMM’s collections and projects, entrusting his team of stylists and managers to oversee the design, production and presentation of collections and/or artistic direction and management of projects, according to his instructions and directives.”
In a way, after seeing Margiela’s S/S10 collection, I realised it was maybe almost useless to ask such a question. The collection presented yesterday in Paris was indeed a sort of more commercial collage of Margiela’s best designs.
Margiela’s pieces always showed love of traditional craftsmanship, technical skills and a great knowledge of the main principles of tailoring, even when the designer completely revolutionised the basic and logic construction and pattern cutting techniques behind each garment.
That was indeed the most important thing about Margiela, what distinguished him from the other designers. Yet, when I saw the crumpled paper-like dresses on Margiela’s S/S 10 runway, I shivered a bit, mainly because they didn’t seem to have anything “tailored” behind them, but – with one or two exceptions in which Margiela's white shirt or jacket had been reinterpreted and reworked – looked like masses of fabric piled up on the models.
Things didn’t get any better as the catwalk show progressed: there were realistic shots of postcard-like summery and tropical landscapes in bright colours printed on swimsuits, shirts and dresses, cobweb-like tops à la Rodarte, leather Amazon ankle-length dresses, a hell of a lot of bodysuits that will appear in many editorials and eventually be worn by a few rock and pop stars, Spring versions of the maison's A/W 08 designs in bold colours such as emerald green, metallic dresses and bags that looked like portable versions of Jeff Koon's balloon sculptures and kitsch gold metal chains that crisscrossed cage-style the umpteenth nude bodysuit.
In one of my questions for the Zoot interview I asked to provide anticipations on the new collection and the Maison stated “there’s a lot to do with volume, length and structure and we used materials that are quite surprising.”
I thought “volume” in Margiela’s vocabulary meant sculpted designs that turn the body into a dramatic visual deception revealing the complicated syntax of fashion; “length” referred maybe to asymmetrical hemlines and “materials” indicated an exploration of the most bizarre and innovative fabrics and textiles out there.
Yet the holy trinity of volume, length and materials transformed into shapeless crumpled dresses, occasional appliquéd motifs, dress extensions and extremely thigh-high cumbersome and baggy boots, that in some cases looked almost Rick Owens-y.
Yes, point taken, the beach prints will probably be very saleable, but you don’t need to be Martin Margiela to do them, do you?
Besides, whatever happened to the blanked out faces of the models, usually turned into anonymous creatures so that people watching the show could focus more on the clothes than on the person wearing it? Was it a way to focus more on the models, so that we could get distracted from the clothes?
The dilemma remains as the unity and cohesion Margiela’s maison always tried to achieve somehow disappeared and fans were left wondering if permanence and duration are still the prerogatives of the house. As we are left pondering upon these questions, here's a short extract from the Zoot Mag interview.
Question: Second-hand clothes turn into pieces of unique fashion in your Artisanal collection: do you ever feel like Baudelaire’s 19th poet-ragpicker or Walter Benjamin’s ragpicker while creating it as you scavenge for old and abandoned pieces, recuperating cultural detritus of capitalist societies and turning discarded pieces into new clothes?
Maison Martin Margiela: Honestly, we never thought of it in such a deep and meaningful way. There was no other reason to do it than the creative instinct. It is actually very interesting for us to read and see the meanings that others can give to a process that had no other input than pure instinct. There is and never was any political or philosophical message.
Q: The interior design line “Mat, Satiné, Brillant” presented a while back at Milan’s Salone del Mobile includes lampshades made with bottles, trompe l’oeil wallpaper and rugs shaped like doors. Could the line be considered as a positive hymn to fantasy that goes against the crisis?
Maison Martin Margiela: We always tried to inject humour in all of our collections and that includes the line 13 – objects of interior design. But again, there is no specific social or political message in .
Q: To celebrate Maison Martin Margiela’s third anniversary in Hong Kong, a mahjong set was recently released: are there any plans to release further special items in Europe for Margiela’s fans?
Maison Martin Margiela: We always try to create objects for events like this. It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last. We try to use something that is very popular or traditional and give it a Margiela twist.
Q: Some fans were surprised to see Margiela releasing a fragrance, what inspired the maison to launch it?
Maison Martin Margiela: A perfume is just another way to express our creativity.
Q: Last year an exhibition celebrated Margiela’s 20th anniversary, according to you what’s the best/worst thing about fashion exhibitions?
Maison Martin Margiela: The best: nostalgia; the worst: over-abundance.
Q: If Martin Margiela were invited to a fancy-dress party, how would he disguise himself?
Maison Martin Margiela: He would wear what is required. But he wouldn’t probably go.
Q: Do you feel that it is still possible to create beautiful designs in a world in which fashion houses are more interested in quantity rather than quality and in sales and profits?
Maison Martin Margiela: We don’t think that way: we were never driven by marketing plans or market trends. Yet, we are a business and we have to sell, otherwise, we can not pay our bills and the salaries of the people in the team. It’s a matter of balance between what you want to do and what you have to do, but that compromise never becomes sacrifice.
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