Four white diagonal stitches, completing a hollow square; this ambiguous anti-label has become the iconic mark of Maison Martin Margiela, the "faceless" brand. Since launching in 1988, the label has inspired an architectural up-cycling approach to fashion, where classic silhouettes are torn, deconstructed and re-sewn with a continuing hanging sense of anonymity. Martin Margiela, who left the brand in 2009, was a mysterious character, rarely photographed or interviewed. The current design team remain equally incognito, with an cryptic question mark hanging over their identity.
"Margiela adopts a similar concept taken by architecture, where the sole purpose is to protect and shelter"
In recent seasons, the brand has adopted various faces: the bejeweled crystal masks of A/W12 couture or the recent S/S13 couture candy-wrapper guises. S/S11 offered hair-swept hidden faces, while for their 20th Anniversary S/S09 collection models were de-faced by stockings and wigs. Margiela adopts a similar concept taken by architecture, where the sole purpose is to protect and shelter. Referencing the Trompe-l’oeil and surrealist painters of the past, the brand defines itself by objects and shapes as opposed to a person or a word.
Maria Loks, who documented her New York Fashion Week experience through a series of personal illustrations for AnOther Magazine, illustrates this concept below, after walking in the A/W13 show.
Margiela hungry? Read AnOther's Margiela Cheat Sheet here.
