Cloaked in layers of secrecy and misinformation, the designs of Maison Martin Margiela have remained a difficult body of work to decode.This feature in Ryoku Tsushin #468 demystifies the designer’s world in the words of the man himself, containing an overview of the different Margiela lines, illuminating the early goals of the MM6 line, and presenting a timeline of the brand’s history up until 2002. Editorial photographs by Anders Edström, Terry Richardson, Mark Borthwick, and Juergen Teller within the issue present everyday styling of the Margiela wardrobe alongside the oft-reblogged but never cited photo spread of over a decade of Margiela’s tabi footwear taken by Takashi Homma. Pages of the issue can be pieced together to form the pattern for a Margiela dress.
Margiela’s secrecy made deciphering the designer’s world of intellectual fashion a great undertaking, but this magazine issue pulls back the curtain on the designer’s concepts and methods with a flourish - Margiela and his team are presented at their most direct and transparent here. This issue of Ryoku Tsushin is a wonderfully intimate look into the world of Martin Margiela at his peak.
