Graduating from Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts in the 1980s, Martin Margiela (and his contemporaries in the Antwerp Six) transformed global fashion with his aggressive restatement of traditional fashion design and a polemical approach to luxury trends. Working first with the house of Gaultier, Margiela absorbed the radical design of Japanese deconstruction, making it wholly his own with the founding of his own label in 1988. Margiela propounds a singular, enigmatic look, moving beyond the recognizable tropes of deconstruction - a monochromatic palette, outsized garments, non-traditional fabrics, exposed seams, or roughly appliquéd details - to develop a fully considered worldview, one with elegance, mystery, and menace in equal measure.

This book provides an inside look at the design process from a craftsman who creates pieces prized for their originality, delicacy, and daring. In the spirit of Margiela’s garments, the book is a work of art in itself, designed exclusively by Margiela and complete with silver inks, ribbon markers, a variety of lush paper types, twelve booklets, and an embroidered white-linen cover. This book provides a window onto the intimate, handmade world of a unique designer.

About the Author

Martin Margiela, born in 1957 in Leuven, Belgium, is the principal designer of his own Paris-based fashion house.

Graduating from Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts in the 1980s, Martin Margiela (and his contemporaries in the Antwerp Six) transformed global fashion with his aggressive restatement of traditional fashion design and a polemical approach to luxury trends. Working first with the house of Gaultier, Margiela absorbed the radical design of Japanese deconstruction, making it wholly his own with the founding of his own label in 1988. Margiela propounds a singular, enigmatic look, moving beyond the recognizable tropes of deconstruction - a monochromatic palette, outsized garments, non-traditional fabrics, exposed seams, or roughly appliquéd details - to develop a fully considered worldview, one with elegance, mystery, and menace in equal measure.

This book provides an inside look at the design process from a craftsman who creates pieces prized for their originality, delicacy, and daring. In the spirit of Margiela’s garments, the book is a work of art in itself, designed exclusively by Margiela and complete with silver inks, ribbon markers, a variety of lush paper types, twelve booklets, and an embroidered white-linen cover. This book provides a window onto the intimate, handmade world of a unique designer.

About the Author

Martin Margiela, born in 1957 in Leuven, Belgium, is the principal designer of his own Paris-based fashion house.

A breathtaking survey of 20 years of fashion designs by Martin Margiela

Timed to coincide with a major exhibition, this volume revisits the years during which celebrated designer Martin Margiela achieved the status as one of the most important designers at work today. One of the "Antwerp group of six" who changed the face of contemporary fashion, Margiela created 41 runway shows between 1989 and 2009 which promoted a unique vision of understated luxury -- monochromes, oversize volumes, and his signature "constructed-deconstructed" cuts - whose credo is comfort, timelessness, sensuality, and authenticity.

Famously reclusive, Margiela never showed his face even at his own shows in order that the work could stand purely on its own, free from any link to celebrity or self-promotion. This volume chronicles these amazing fashion shows in careful detail: the extraordinary spaces, the music, the designer's intentions, the iconic pieces. Over the years, recurring motifs and inspirations become more apparent including anonymity, whiteness, past and anteriority, diversion. The book reveals the sensitive, poetic and incredibly innovative universe of this most influential contemporary fashion designer.

About the Authors:

Alexandre Samson is a curator and manages the Palais Galliera contemporary collections. 

Olivier Saillard is a noted fashion historian and author and was the director of the Palais Galliera from 2010 until 2017. He is currently artistic director of J.M. Weston, a men's luxury shoe brand.