“His influence in fashion was immediate,” says Alexandre Samson, the curator of a new exhibition Margiela / Galliera, 1989-2009 at Paris’ Palais Galliera, the first career-spanning exhibition of his work in the city, and created with the help of the elusive designer himself. Margiela-philes (of which there are many) traded obscure references they had spotted, post show. Showing his own take on the split-toed Tabi boot alongside scribbled prints, drawn by children, like those Margiela used for early show invitations, the collection was an ode to his legacy. His work continues to resound, as fashion once again looks back to the 1990s – just a few months ago, during Paris’ men’s shows, at Vetements, designer (and former Margiela employee) Demna Gvasalia revelled in the designer’s DIY spirit. Such is the extent of Margiela’s influence that his hallmarks, once strange, and foreign – the roomy proportions, the frayed edges, the hybridisation of garments – now seem less so, absorbed, as they have been, by the designers that have come in his wake. It’s no stretch to say that contemporary fashion – both mens- and womenswear – began with him the way he tore a garment down to its bones and then built it back up to give it new life, or turned trash to treasure, where broken porcelain, drinking straws or shoe laces were repurposed into items you could wear, propositioning an entirely new perspective on what luxury fashion meant in the process. It hardly matters that the Belgian designer Martin Margiela refused to articulate his thoughts behind the clothing he made – save for a rare interview via fax machine, or fragmented explanations passed through the Maison’s “spokesperson” – the collections he presented as part of his namesake label were a fierce vocabulary all of their own.
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