:: SHOWstudio ::

Maison Martin Margiela interviewed by Penny Martin

Penny Martin: You have been described as making clothes about clothes. Where do you think this fascination with clothing came from?
Maison Martin Margiela: It is from the structure of garments, and the challenge presented to us by the possibility of transforming or displacing the given rules of such a structure. This approach is especially true for our 'artisanal production' for which we rework existing clothes, fabrics and objects to create new garments. We would hope, however, that our work is more about clothes that are about wearing than just clothes about clothes!!

How important do you think your training at the Royal Academy of Antwerp was to defining your practice?
Our design team comes from many different backgrounds and have been students at a variety of design schools. It is true that Martin Margiela studied at the Academy of Antwerp and this was certainly directional in honing his particular approach to garments and the way they may be worn. Any school that is good will play the role of the perfect catalyst in drawing forth and nurturing an individual's talent, yet the practice of this craft is very much learned on the field!

Can you describe the principles behind setting up Maison Martin Margiela (in 1988)? Do you regard yourselves as a collective in the traditional sense?
We are a collective in so far as, by using the name Maison Martin Margiela we are being as transparent as possible in showing others that the result of our work - be this a collection, garment, fashion show or exhibition - is the result of a creative alchemy and not just the work of one individual. Our company however is not structured as a collective, it has shareholders and employees much as for most companies.

How do you research and compile your ideas?
Very gradually and as we go along. Our creative work is an ongoing process that requires constant searching, adding and subtracting. We tend not to work in a thematic manner as many fashion designers can. We rarely start with a blank page at the beginning of any one season.

When there is more than one creative involved in the evolution of a collection, how do you regard the question of authorship?
Easily, the collection has been designed by Maison Martin Margiela!

What criteria do you use to decide which elements you retain from collection to collection?
Gut feeling and a sensibility towards what we feel is right for that particular collection. This is much more an instinctive creative decision than a commercial one.

Please explain the concept underpinning your artisanal collection. What's the difference between reworking an existing garment and pastiche?
Well there you have stumped us! We see pastiche as having nothing at all to do with this process or its results! For us our 'artisanal production' (for men and womens garments they may be identified by the 0 (zero) encircled on their label), as we have said here, we rework existing garments, fabrics and objects to recreate new garments and accessories. We first adopted this approach for our inaugural collection for Spring/Summer 1989 and it has been an integral and important element of each and every one of our collections since. This quest to transform garments is born from a wish to treat the strictures of the structure of a particular garment as a design challenge. Often, more than one garment is combined to produce a new design so one consideration is that the initial garments are used as a raw material of which often only small elements of their original structure serve in shaping the new. Albeit that the initial impetus is one of design and not one of recycling, the result allows that these elements are given a second lease of life.

How do you feel when handing over your designs to photographers? How much control do you exert over the garments usage?
Little or none - we are more than happy to see the result of how our work may stimulate others in theirs. This is very much one and the same for us as when a garment we have designed is purchased and worn by someone, when our work is incorporated into their personal wardrobe. We will of course be more stimulated creatively in return by some creative expressions on our work than others.

You have worked with film before to interpret your collections. Do you see a distinction between viewing them in still imagery and in motion?
We are working with film once more for our next collection (Autumn/Winter 2004-5) to be presented in Paris in March. For us film is in motion yet there are some collections that lend themselves more to a filmic approach than others. Often these are the collections that comprise many individual garments that have a more graphic construction. Other collections may have more of a stylised approach where it is more important for the designer and their team to show how particular garments from the collection can be combined as outfits, within our little world, these are the collections best presented by a fashion show.

What does it mean to say Martin Margiela is a 'Belgian designer'?
That he has a Belgian passport and that he shares a point of view that has become synonomous with designers from Belgium. Though all very individual in their creative points of view there can be said to be a common thread leading through the work of all of the Belgian Fashion designers. Though very difficult to pin point this thread might be described as a particular view on the past, a view that brings elements from another time forward in a way that repositions them as of today.