Welcome to The Museum at FIT's "Reinvention
and Restlessness: Fashion in the Nineties" virtual symposium.
My name is Tanya Melendez-Escalante
and I am Senior Curator of Education and Public Programs.
It is my honor to introduce Alexandre Samson,
who will present the talk, "Martin Margiela, 1989 to 1999."
Alexandre Samson is a fashion historian, curator,
and Head of Haute Couture and Contemporary Design Department
at the Palais Galliera, Paris Fashion Museum.
A graduate in Museum Studies and History of Fashion
from the École du Louvre,
in 2018 he presented the "Margiela Galliera
1989/2009" exhibition and published his first book
in collaboration with Martin Margiela,
followed by the traveling exhibition
"Back Side, Fashion from Behind,"
presented in Brussels and then Paris in 2019.
We hope you enjoy the show.
So hello, my name is Alexandre Samson,
and I'm very happy to be here,
to be invited by the FIT for this talk about Martin Margiela
during the '90s.
At Palais Galliera the Fashion Museum of Paris,
I am the Curator in Charge of Haute Couture
and contemporary creation.
So I had the chance to work on the pieces
on the collection of Martin Margiela,
and Palais Galliera at the very early collection of pieces
because it started to collect clothes from designers
directly from the showroom,
since his second collection for Fall/Winter '89.
In 2018, I had the opportunity and chance to curate
the retrospective dedicated to Martin Margiela,
at Palais Galliera,
which presented his work on women design
from his first collection Spring/Summer '89
to his last for Spring/Summer 2009.
Margiela was born in Belgium in 1957,
and studied from 1976 to 1980
at the Antwerp Fine Arts Academy.
And when he applied, teachers recommended him
not to work on fashion, but to work on arts
after checking his files.
But Martin Margiela's explicitly clear
that he wanted to work on clothes.
There, he was one year older
than six of his fellow students,
who will later be known as the Antwerp Six.
The designers are Ann Demeulemeester, Marina Yee,
Dries Van Noten, Walter Van Beirendonck,
Dirk Van Saene, and Dirk Bikkembergs.
In spite of their friendship,
Margiela won't follow this group
and will work on his carrier alone.
He won several prizes such as, (indistinct)
a Belgian prize,
where the jury was composed by,
Jean Paul Gaultier and Jenny Meirens,
the owner of a fashion boutique in Brussels
who'll become soon his business partner a few years later.
And in 1984,
Martin Margiela insisted in working with Jean Paul Gaultier as
an assistant designer for his second brands,
such as Gaultier jeans.
This experience teach Margiela how a fashion house works,
home making connections, with the most important actors
and meet the suppliers.
But Martin Margiela got also inspired
by some Gaultier signature creation,
such as this can transformed as a bracelet.
And he learned how to work with repurposing material.
In 1987, he left Gaultier and worked alone
doing one year on the opening of Maison Martin Margiela,
gathering collaborators and manufacturers around him.
He started with Jenny Meirens
and asked her to become the director of the house
in charge of the administration and commercial parts.
One of the key to understand Margiela's work
and his importance for the story of contemporary fashion
is the consistency of his work,
started with his very first collection.
Since then, Margiela favored the anonymity of his models
by covering their faces with chiffon veils.
This echoed, of course, the increasing success
of the rise of the supermodels during the decade.
Even if he gave the quick bow at the end
of his very first show,
Margiela quickly decided to step back from public life
to give no portrait and no interview.
This to preserve his private life and his freedom,
when designers gained in the '90s
superstar status proved by intense exposure,
such as the one which happened when, um,
during the murder of Gianni Versace,
which was highly covered by the major in 1997.
This process of anonymity, Margiela applied it
also to the clothing itself by choosing a white blank label
attached by four stitches,
visible on the neck of the non-layered jackets
and pants, meant to be removed.
Although his lawyer prevented him to use this label,
Margiela had no problems and even protected
both his label and stitches in 1998.
Another key to understand his work,
is that he didn't lack the ideas at all.
And especially all the design models of the '80s.
When he created his first design
for the Spring/Summer '89 collection,
everything was in reaction to this decade he hated.
To show the line, for instance, for his first collection
Margiela invented to show the lines
that he used during the whole '90s.
You show the lines that breaks from the wide shoulders
that had been in style since the late '70s in fashion.
These shoulders were narrow and tight.
The sleeve cap situated well above the actual shoulder
was raised same to allow cigarettes
inserted with minimal gathering.
Below to that accentuated the curve of the actual shoulder
while a gusset on the back
seam allowed the arm to move easily.
This first model developed during the whole decade
proved instantly the tailoring skills of the designer.
While it's quite rare for a designer
to invent a shoulder line,
Margiela will develop twelve different examples
during his career.
So color white is also in reaction of the '80s.
Margiela used it to uniform the interiors
of his fashion studio while other designer
privileged colors such as blue or black
and design objects in glass or metal.
But, moreover, it was also an economic gesture
for this young designer to paint his whole house in white.
The location are also of a major importance.
For its very beginning,
Martin Margiela presented his collection
in unexpected locations.
Until the beginning of the '90s,
more designers presented their collection
in huge white tents set up in the Musée du Louvre.
Margiela will impose underground location
as signature for his shows.
For the first collection of the decade,
the Spring/Summer of '90,
the designer wanted to create a manifesto as a show.
Surprised, shocked, and amused,
guests arrived at the open lot, wasteland,
which was surrounded by buildings,
and a wall covered with graffiti
in the 20th district of Paris.
And Margiela even invited neighborhood children
who helped him drawing the invitations.
Martin Margiela was aware of the importance of this new era.
To mark the change of decade,
Margiela had all this model wear the number 90,
which was taped, drawn, embroidered,
printed, or even painted on the outfits or bodies.
So number nine is a double reference.
At once to the designer's birthday and to the name of his company.
The symbolic impact was so important.
Journalists make comparison with the wall of Berlin,
which fall one month after.
As Bill Cunningham said in the magazine Details,
"In insight this evening in Paris,
in its own way,
foreshadowed the political and social collapse of the Eastern Europe.
Clearly, Margiela's collection signal
not only the dawn of the new decade,
but also that of talented designer,
gifted with the necessary authority and power
to open new pathways.
Again, there was several location such as nightclub
a warehouse, a parking, an abandoned train station in Paris,
or the Salvation Army headquarters
where guests seated on second-hand washing machine.
This love for surprising people,
either linked throughout his career,
and another important key to understand his work.
His creation are showing the same taste for the unexpected.
The trompe l'oeil, for instance,
is very strong in his collection.
For his very first show, he worked on a tattoo shirt
inspired by French Polynesian tattoos.
For Spring/Summer in '96,
he worked on a two-dimensional collection
without [inaudible] structure, negative of photograph
of clothing, where print on fluid or transparent materials
the only volume provided as a trompe l'oeil image.
The trompe l'oeil also worked for all the makeups
he designed with the makeup artist, Inge Grognard.
But one of the most important design motivated by trompe l'oeil
might be the Tabi boots.
As early as his first collection, Martin Margiela
thought to create an invisible shoe
one that would provide the illusion of a barefoot
placed on a sole with a heel.
During a visit to Japan in April '84,
he discovered the jika-tabi,
sock booties with a separated toe
worn especially by construction workers,
artisans, and gardeners.
So Tabi would continue to be featured for the next 20 years,
appearing in many forms and in a wide array of materials.
His first dream came true for the Spring/Summer in '96 show.
The models wore the invisible Tabi on their feet.
So Tabi soles made of black leather,
with a high cylindrical heel,
were affixed with white transparent tape
wrapped several times around the foot.
The work on scale
is also a constant obsession for the designer.
For his Spring '90, he experienced an over size men tank top
enlarged by 200% then worn as a skirt.
For the Fall/Winter '92
he found at the flea market and an American dress form
from 1936,
which was a size 44,
or in Italian size, 78,
and draped the huge plastic dress bag on it
to create a massive floating plastic dress
on a plastic woman body.
Launched in 1994, and produced until 1999,
the doll's wardrobe from the '60s and the '70s
was reproduced and brought up to human size.
The exact cut and its proportions were respected.
The buttonholes became false,
covered by [inaudible] snaps,
were the [inaudible] enlarged to the max.
No brand's name appeared here,
instead there was a printed cotton tag
explaining the designer's process.
This tag Margiela used the same again for his "Replica" line.
Offered as part of the Autumn/Winter 94/95 collection,
the Replicas offered a concrete manifestation
of Martin Margiela abiding interest,
presented his first collection for replicas
of antique clothing.
"I like clothes, I didn't invent,"
said the designer who went so far as to precisely reproduce
the proportions or disproportions of the selected garments.
A lady's skirt suit
is the first of his career from Belgium,
dating from the late '40s,
and the men's suit, from the early '70s
were faithfully reproduced,
as were men's raincoat and the petticoat from the '30s.
Out of respect for these garments
and their anonymous makers,
Martin Margiela was never to brand these items
with his blank label.
Instead they have a large square of printed cotton
bearing a detailed description of the piece,
its origin and its era.
On [inaudible] articles, his stitches of the label
show through on the back.
Thus was launched Martin Margiela "Replica" line
comprising faithful reproduction of antique clothing.
But the most important Margiela's proposition
was surely the "Artisanal" line
made from reclaimed and up-cycled garments and objects.
Martin Margiela "Artisanal" line
truly became a reality in 1990
when it was rented a dedicated workshop
at the company's head offices.
Objects were proposed as clothing
appeared as early as the designer's second collection
in the form of spontaneous impulses.
But it was receiving in 1990 on down price
that finally made it possible to create a workshop,
bringing together the necessary skills and savoir faire
to develop the "Artisanal" line.
This is how it came to be that for Spring/Summer 1991,
worn garments found at flea markets, among other sources,
were sorted, washed, over dyed, or bleached
and disassembled to then be transformed
into one-of-a-kind pieces.
To the journalist who considers his [inaudible]
[inaudible] plastic, if not outright disrespectful,
Margiela responded, "When I cut up a garment,
whether old or new, I don't think that I'm destroying it.
It's a way of giving it a new life in a different form."
For the first time in the history of fashion
a designer offered new pieces
that was entirely made of reclaimed, upcycled articles,
calling into question fashion's relentless need
to constantly renew itself.
The "Artisanal" line will be recognized
as the Haute Couture manifestation
from the Spring/Summer 2006 season.
But far from civil interpretations,
this process was not motivated by sustainability.
It was before everything,
an economical way of working with unlimited material,
which joined his love for garment from the past.
A gesture of repurposing things
that we could also find in the '70s.
The 1990s are a major moment in the work of Margiela.
Where all his main ideas were developed.
But the acme of the era occurred 1997,
when he presented two collections
known as the "Stockman" collection,
which are still considered the most representative
and the most radical of his work.
All of the outfits were made from a single item,
which forms a basis for both seasons.
The hollowed-out Stockman dress form
worn as a stiff jacket enrolling in.
All of the pieces in the collection were placed
over the Stockman jackets.
Just as in the studios, work is first done on dress form.
Each garments was presented in an incomplete state–
from half skirts and half coats to studies of drapery.
All the collection came from this.
Wishing to understand Haute Couture draping technique,
Margiela took a course with a modeling and draping professor
at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp.
Margiela was so pleased with his initial work
that he used it as a bustier and not a draped dress
as might have been expected.
The Spring/Summer in '97 collection
was one of the most impressive in the designer career,
and one of the most significant proposition in the history
of contemporary fashion.
During the '90s,
Martin Margiela never stopped questioning fashion,
clothing, and its function.
He addressed the concept of scale, enlarging doll's clothes
in oversized styles,
and the deconstruction of clasic garments
to create new shape.
He was one and the only designer to invent a new silhouette.
He revealed the inside of clothes
and the different steps of the fabrication.
He used imperfections as motif,
garments that were, for instance, unfinished, frayed, and torn
and examined the role of vintage clothing.
These last two were specifically addressed
in his "Artisanal" line.
He worked with tromp l'oiel, favored the color white,
the anonymous label, and, amongst other things,
he kind of reconsiders the role played by models
and by the designer.
During the second half of his career,
Margiela will deal with this character is taking death,
staying true to the consistency,
which made him one of the most interesting
and quoted designer of the turn of the century.