The designer Margiela pursued his fascination with recycling by cutting
and sewing developing classics such as trench coats, Prince of Wales recycled
suits, patchworks of old jeans or simple dresses with displaced necklines. By
1998, tailoring for both sexes seemed more like modernist couture than urban
oddities. Following a circuitous route, the designer had reached a 21st-century
elegance.
In a showstudio.com interview Margiela answers some questions about his artisanal line:
In a showstudio.com interview Margiela answers some questions about his artisanal line:
You have been described as making clothes about clothes. Where do you
think this fascination with clothing came from?
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!!
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!!
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.
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.
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