Maison Margiela is an haute couture brand, founded in 1988 by the Belgian designer Martin Margiela. With an important focus on tailoring and an extremely refined design, the Maison Margiela collections are pure avant-garde, starting from the Maison Margiela women's shoes collection, where we find the famous Tabi Boots, boots with separate toes then declined in moccasins and sneakers, as well as at Replies. The Maison Margiela women's clothing collection consists of jackets with large shoulder pads, maxi coats and knitted or quilted jackets with a characteristic design, such as for the "Work in progress". Then we find silk pants and pleated or cut out jeans, satin shirts, logo t-shirts, sweatshirts and dresses. Also for the women's accessories collection we find bags and pochettes with a refined design, padded scarves, printed foulards and obviously women's jewels, with bracelets and necklaces imprinted with the number of the line which are part of. For the Maison Margiela men's clothing collection we find maxi quilted jackets, trench and coats, logo t-shirts, knitwear and sleeveless vests, knitted polo shirts, dresses with a recognizable design, pants, jeans and shorts. Also present are the pochettes and bags in the men's accessories collection, with small leather goods always characterized by the four white stitching on the back. For the men's shoes collection we find sneakers, loafers and boots.
Brand focused on tailoring, Maison Margiela stands out for the principle of recycling and the use of unusual materials, such as cork or plastic bags; and it is precisely this that gives the Maison great exclusivity which, unlike other brands, does not focus on noble materials, but gives new life to past ones through sartorial skill and design. The designer Martin Margiela is often referred to as the father of deconstruction, in fact the garments produced often reveal their technical structure. Another central theme of the Maison is undoubtedly anonymity: the attention is in fact focused on the clothes rather than on the people. Martin Margiela himself avoided appearing in public or going out at the end of the fashion shows, and anyone who works at the Maison wears a white lab coats, a symbol of both professionalism and fair relevance. Finally, mention goes to the particular labels of the Maison, which in addition to having accompanied the history of the brand, can be recognized by the numbers of the collections on them, until they become four white dots on the back of the garments.
A pupil of Jean Paul Gaultier, Martin Margiela founded the Maison Martin Margiela in 1988, revolutionizing the fashion industry and presenting his first collection of women's prêt-à-porter, which will lead to the opening of the first store in Tokyo. Gender Fluidity is certainly one of the pillars of the Maison's identity; the collections are not in fact designed according to the categorical division, but masculinity itself is called into question. On the other hand, the training of Martin Margiela alongside Gaultier could not have been otherwise. From 1997 to 2003 Martin Margiela was appointed artistic director of Hermès and in 2002 Renzo Rosso with Only the Brave acquired majority shares, until Martin's definitive exit from the maison in 2009, thus changing the name to Maison Margiela and the label in a totally white one. Since 2012 the Maison has enjoyed the title of Haute Couture and in 2015 the brand passed under the guidance of John Galliano, who despite being a public icon has been able to fit perfectly into the Margiela school of thought.
