Glenn Martens' Margiela Debut Gets Back to (Un)Basics
Glenn Martens' tenure at Maison Margiela was always destined to be good. Martens is too talented, too dynamic for it to be anything otherwise. The real question was, instead, how much Margiela would appear in Martens' Margiela?
Answer: Plenty.
Martens' debut Margiela presentation, held in the same venue that hosted Martin Margiela's final runway show in 2009, made overt paeans to greatest hits — some of the skin-tight corseted "suits" recalled the inimitable Stockman corset — but the real order of the day was dramatic material experimentation.
To the strains of the Smashing Pumpkins' "Disarm," the signature Margiela mask was reinterpreted through gemstones and textiles to match the garments that accompanied them. Richly dyed and almost gravity-defying gowns clung to the arm and scraped the floor while hue-splatted shirts and skirts lead an array of apparel so transformed through manipulation that they're almost unrecognizable,
Coats that looked practically dip-dyed in rubber, feathered and faded leather jackets, dresses in a richly reflective material that looks all the world like super-powered satin, and many elements of drapery that revealed the waifish human form as easily as they hid it. Several pairs of white-painted trousers, another maison motif, were graced by more vivid splatters, a blending of old and new.
This is Martens getting back to Margiela's (un)basics, demonstrating that the designer has the chops to create newness without abandoning the cues that came before. By gently tipping the hat to the past, Martens can busy himself with setting up Maison Margiela's future.
Martens' skill as a reframer of fashion was demonstrated unceasingly at Y/Project. There, the hyper-superlative Belgian designer dished garments so equally wild and wonderful that most casual observers likely thought he was the house founder, given how inextricable Martens' hand was from its oeuvre.
Seven years after taking the reigns at Y/Project, Martens was hired to direct Diesel in 2020. There, he's put into place so many free-floating fashion-forward innovations — recycled denim outerwear! Shoes to match! Bags big enough to sit inside! — that it's almost unrecognizable when stacked up against its prior iteration. Same could be said for Y/Project, really.
And likely will be said of Martens' Margiela.
Martens has the rare honor of being only the house's second major public-facing creative director since Martin Margiela himself, the first being predecessor John Galliano (it was wise of Martens to opt for a more personal couture debut as opposed to one that directly competed with Galliano's bravura couture swansong).
At a company once synonymous with anonymity, that's quite a feat. It's also quite a concern for any designer keen to hide behind unrecognizable design. That's very much not Martens' concern, mind you.
Plus, with Margiela largely pushing into a more commercial realm, one that's bigger than bags, it's only beneficial to have a proper name shaping its future. Especially when that name is Glenn Martens.
“In my opinion, it’s about having fun and having a no-bullshit mentality. It’s about having all this — risking and doing things.” Martens once told us of his time at Diesel. Of course, that attitude could just as easily apply to his Margiela.
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