Maison Martin Margiela is a generally pretentious label. This is usually easy to forgive-and even love-because for a while, the collections were so great they made up for this. They made you think about clothes, fashion, people, among other things. Margiela was once the believer's way of converting fashion grumps and getting them to appreciate the art of clothes. Now, we don't even know who is designing the clothes. I'm hoping it's not The Martin himself, because it's a lot easier to be disappointed in a team of people I don't know than a man I'm obsessed with, and whose work I've admired so greatly since I got interested in fashion. Now, the pretension of the label-the mysterious invites, the fact that nobody outside the house knows what goes on inside-is harder to like. This season the label showed pieces that I think are supposed to be so ironic that we're supposed to think that there must be some genius Margiela-esque concept behind them, but the end result is just tacky. How else do you explain those terrible Copacabana prints? Ironic, sure, but why? Those prints-and most of the collection-are for the "high fashion" hipster. It's as if whoever designed it all thought, okay, as long as there's big shoulders, stuff looks really deconstructed and folded, and something so bad it's good, maybe I/we can pull it off. 
I'm not one of those sourpusses that thinks clothing always has to have a meaning, but the collection isn't even visually appealing. Not nice on the eyes, and no thought behind it, so what's the point? Maybe this is just a "we'll be right back" collection, and things will get back on awesome, minimalistic track soon. I sure hope so.
EDIT: It IS a new design team. Well. That's gross. It's like Diesel adopted Margiela's baby and made it ugly and wear tacky clothes.
dudes I feel like such a grump, 2 eh reviews in a row! positivity soon
*I don't get it either. Seriously, the book I have from his MoMu exhibition calls it that. Quite the puzzle!
I'm not one of those sourpusses that thinks clothing always has to have a meaning, but the collection isn't even visually appealing. Not nice on the eyes, and no thought behind it, so what's the point? Maybe this is just a "we'll be right back" collection, and things will get back on awesome, minimalistic track soon. I sure hope so.EDIT: It IS a new design team. Well. That's gross. It's like Diesel adopted Margiela's baby and made it ugly and wear tacky clothes.
dudes I feel like such a grump, 2 eh reviews in a row! positivity soon
*I don't get it either. Seriously, the book I have from his MoMu exhibition calls it that. Quite the puzzle!
38 comments:
Yeah really. The only look I liked is that crazy green shoulder-vest thing. Boo on Margiela this season.
This collection has sat on me for the past like four hours and I'm still contemplating its odd significance to me.
Some weird conflicting sense of me likes it. There is something awkwardly feigned and satirical about it, maybe that's what intrigues me. It is just interesting, somewhat hard to put into words.
IDK why you're so down on this collection, especially the prints. I think MMM did a pretty hilarious manipulation of tacky americana; those white flower pants are also pretty amazing.
fantastic looks, loving every bit of this
GORGEOUS!!!
-cma
check out my blog @
cosmicaroline.blogspot.com
@ CMA.. are you kidding? Bleh!
aww i know how you feel.....it's like being in a modern art museum and looking at a collection that is suppose to be so deep your not suppose the understand its bizzareness! i just started a blog so i hope you can check it out!
I really did almost cry when I saw this. It just totally lacks EVERYTHING margiela is, there's cheek and it's witty(well not really)but its completely unrefined. And, as you said, it's just not aesthetically pleasing. I also did not respond well to yohji's wierd balmain like collection. I just feel that he wanted money(did you hear about the brands economic troubles?)and threw some holes in just to make it vaguely yamamoto. The good news is that tao, comme and junya were all good. Especially comme, its perfect, well not as emotionally moving as last season but that and the bride collection were basically the best on that aspect so I wasn't expecting it. Oh my long comment.
agreed on this one. chaps and ill-fitting thigh high pants? no no no. why, margiela why?
I agree with everything you said about MMM, I find the prints especially ridiculous given that Prada just did such a great tongue in cheek interpretation of a similar aesthetic viewpoint.
Aaron
http://drawingisthenewheroin.blogspot.com/
I liked this collection when I first saw it, but now I have my doubts. Why did I like it in the first place, is it because all it did was refer back (ironically) to itself? Fashion is about progression and that's something sorely lacking here. The Yamamoto collection, however, I love. The 'mothball' holes as opposed to the nonchalant grungy rips of late are actually a stand-out for me, haha.
to me, there's too much crap everywhere. i'm not gonna lie i actually quite like the first three photos, but wtf is going on in the last four?
i wouldn't apologise... sometimes we have to just say eh...when it comes to fashion. esp, if we know peeps can do better. i'm sure they'll get back on their feet soon.
but seriously, it looks like a hangover collection.
What's up Tavi!!! I love your blog, love your personality, and am glad to have stumbled into your mind.
Tavi, I don't quite know how you do it, but you always manage to give the perfect run-down of anything fashion-wise, and are completely unaffected by any of the designer hype, you are completely honest and tell it like it is. You are the bomb :D
Tavi i love your thoughts on the collection!! haha i love MMM and this is kinda sad to see i dont mind a couple of the things.
http://ForYourSATISFASHION.com
I didnt like the collection. Doesnt feel like it's Margiela.
Btw "Maison" means "house"
Tavi I agree!!!
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I'd say the same about Balenciaga. Please say you agree with me.
The vests and the jeans are just SO Hussein Chalayan, and the way he's been interpreting futurism is just completely Courreges.
I usually love Margiela. But this collection was just plain disappointing.
ohh wow~ I would totally wear the white pants in the first set of photos there! Stunning!
www.unraveltheturtle.blogspot.com
couldn't agree with you more
I was quite annoyed by it. Like it was fake knock-off margiela that we were supposed to think was all him... didn't work, plus he is no longer there apparently... just made me very sad and was quite disappointed at this collection!
take a look at jean paul gaultier!
It's quite ugly, but more and more i'm seeing that it may be a social commentary about 'fashion trends' and how ugly they are vs. true style. but that could also be a stretch... you should def check it out if you havn't yet!
Hi ;)
You are in the ELLE FRENCH
i dont think margielas collections are ever nice on the eyes, the individual pieces might be good if u can style it right but his presentations are always so cheap and...distasteful. i think he could use a better show stylist but most of it is not even about the styling.. like remember the collection with all the nude and black and nothing else, ss08 i think? it was absolutely foul and unforgivable. i always use the word pretentious to describe margiela too . i dunno i guess i have a love hate relationship with him but some of the shit he pulls (like heels that are too big for anyone to wear) i cannot understand and i thought the fashion worlds obsession with him was starting to look like the emperors new clothes
FND said
'Btw "Maison" means "house"'
and I think that is the funniest comment of all time...of all time.
I am not entirely sure about this.. is it really for sure that THE martin margiela left the maison? i thought it was just rumours and no one knows...?
anyways I do like the prints, I am sort of appealed to those tacky carribeanism trash motifs. not for my personal weardrobe, but, you know.
thanks for these two critics by the way, I was starting to spread a discussion on how critical fashion blogs are or, more important, can be - though it's in german. but we're constantly using your blog as a reference. if you don't mind ;)
Dude, you're so right. Martin Margiela is not designing for MMM anymore.
http://fashioncopious.typepad.com/fashioncopious/2009/10/maison-martin-margiela-no-longer-at-maison-martin-margiela.html
That you can watch a collection and just figure that out is beyond me, but it looks as though the new "amazing" design team is not doing so great, huh?
/Caroline
"nobody know who's behind and who is designing"
That is precisely what I am interresting in. I focus on clothes and idea, not on the character who's "selling" me a product/image.
I agree with you about the prints etc and admittedly there wasn't a lot I liked but there were a few good bits in there (I like the 1st pic). Though still doesn't compare to usual MMM
I am in complete agreement. The clothes certainly don't look nice and there doesn't appear to be any real message. I thought Yomamayoto was less eh.
fnd-Haha wow I fail. In the book I have on him they're always saying "house of THE MAISON~~" which is weird.
soren lorenson-OF ALL TIME!
d. winfield norman-Balenciaga was very strictly Balenciaga to me, and not Hussein Chalayan. Nicholas Ghesquiere has been doing such futuristic cuts and shapes and mixing of fabrics since he started at the label, it was a pretty safe collection in that sense, methinks.
eh. this + previous collection have been so crap. he should have gone out with a bang (s/s 09), that amazing collection . it would have been way better than 'him' (though doubt it is), producing this crap. The margiela touch has completely gone away, there doesn't seem to be any clear thread linking this whole collection together .. and it even looks like rip offs of other collections at points (leather chaps- Givechy s/s 09 much?) . :( way to ruin margiela ..
At FIT I did my final project on Margiela... This is the first collection I am totes not feelin... Soooo sad... *tearz*
<3 your blog!!!
http://alanabryne.blogspot.com/
So here's my thought. The first model out at MMM looks as if she is wearing a crumpled up piece of paper (and if I am not mistaken, the dress is made of paper), just like an idea that was tossed aside and into the trash. Could it be that this was a collection of formerly tossed aside ideas? A cleansing of the House, of sorts? And if so, then it makes sense that the finale consists of models in clean white paper dresses, signifying a clean slate for MMM? I have no idea what is going on with the "design team" here, but it seems to me that a fresh start is symbolically in order.
Tavi, MMM isn't really what everyone thinks and hopes it still is - Margiela's been distanced from the designing for an unspecified period of time, though people are speculating that it was at some point in the early 2000s. Oddly, this upsets me.
A quick Google came up with this: http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/daily/091003-martin-margiela-no-longer-at-the-ma.aspx
Yes Tavi. You are on the money. It reminds me of Diesel also. Where has the fantastic tailoring, exquisite fabrication gone? I have loved the menswear though, for the last couple of years. Looking back at my 'Barbie Collection' jumpers and cardigan, mesh dress printed to look like cable knit under a microscope - it feels as though he left the building long ago. This collection feels like a pastiche of all other designer's collections, an incoherent dream. It must feel so hard to think that twice a year you gotta squeeze sometimes so hard to get a collection out that you feel comfortable with.
xx
You are soooo spot-on!
Do you know what "maison" means ?
You are too little for this so GO PLAY WITH YOUR DOLLS !
BAKA ! BAKA ! BAKA !
;)
ahem.
I'm to follow him. Martin is breaking the waves ever. Yes, the models look ugly. He provoke our notion of beautiful. Just think. Tough time-tough clothes. To show him thumbs down? C'est tres facile!
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