Maison Margiela

History

Formation and early years

Maison Margiela was founded by Martin Margiela, a Belgian fashion designer, in 1988. Earlier, Margiela had studied fashion at the Royal Academy of Antwerp, and although he actually graduated a year earlier, in 1979, he is often mistaken for a member of the university's avant-garde fashion collective the Antwerp Six. Among other influences, during the 1980s Margiela and other Belgian designers such as the Antwerp Six were inspired by deconstructive fashions introduced by Japanese avantgardists such as Rei Kawakubo—creator of the label Comme des Garçons. Margiela began utilizing the deconstructive style in the 1980s while a freelance designer in Milan, Italy, and early on his work would often reveal the garments' structure, for example intentionally exposed linings and seams. In 1984 he became Jean Paul Gaultier's design assistant in Paris, a role he held until 1987.

In 1988, Martin launched his own self-titled design label Maison Martin Margiela with business partner and fellow designer Jenny Meirens. Initially working out of a Paris apartment, they opened their first store in an unmarked white space in Paris, also opening a small studio on 12 Leopoldstraat in Antwerp. New York Magazine wrote that "the designer quickly defined a deconstructed look [with his new label]... Vaguely Dadaist, as if Marcel Duchamp were reincarnated as a fashion designer, Margiela questioned every tenet of fashion and luxury." Vogue would later write that his early ideas "provoked shock and intrigue" in the fashion industry. On the label's garments, simple blank white labels with four white tacks were sewn to signify the brand. Distinct product ranges were given numbers as signifiers, in no particular chronological order.

Early shows and anonymity

With New York Magazine describing the label's early shows as "perhaps more like art happenings than the thematic and operatic productions '80s Paris fashion is known for," in 1988, Maison Martin Margiela presented its debut womenswear collection at Paris Fashion Week for the spring of 1989. Refusing to take bows at his live shows, Margiela began avoiding pictures and began handling all media via fax, with interviews taken collectively by the entire design team and correspondence signed with "we." Many in the fashion media contended that the anonymity was a publicity stunt, although Maison Martin Margiela asserted that Margiela's anonymity was a reaction to an overly commercialized fashion industry and a genuine attempt to return the focus of fashion to the clothing, and not the personas behind it. The press dubbed Margiela the Greta Garbo of fashion as a result, a reference to Garbo's similar avoidance of the spotlight, and in 2008 the New York Times called Margiela "fashion's invisible man."

Purchase by OTB

In 1994 the New York Times commented on the company's influence by writing that its "made-over flea-market clothes put an end to the conspicuous consumption [of the fashion industry] of the 1980s." That year Maison Martin Margiela debuted its first period pieces. In 1998, Maison Martin Margiela debuted a menswear collection, known as line 10. Maison Martin Margiela oversaw creative direction of womenswear for the French design house Hermès from 1997 until 2003, with the design team working under Hermès chairman Jean-Louis Dumas.

In 2002, Maison Martin Margiela was acquired by the OTB Group, a holding company led by Renzo Rosso, also owner of the Italian fashion label Diesel. In December 2004, Maison Martin Margiela moved into a new headquarters in an eighteenth-century convent in Paris' 11th arrondissement. The interior of the headquarters and furniture were painted entirely white with emulsion, creating an aged look. In addition to the white surroundings, employees all wear "blouse blanche", white coats traditionally worn by couture craftsmen. The white coats are both a nod to history and aesthetics, as well as an equalizer, as all employees wear them, regardless of title. Maison Martin Margiela debuted its first haute couture collection in 2006. By the summer of 2008 there were 14 Margiela boutiques.

In October 2009, it was announced that Martin Margiela had resigned as creative director of Maison Martin Margiela, to varied speculation about the reasons. Following Margiela's departure, the anonymous design team continued to design the label, with no single creative director in place. It later became public that future Balenciaga designer Demna was appointed to the womenswear design team shortly after Margiela's departure, but worked anonymously at the time. CEO Giovanni Pungetti stated that "we want to stay avant-garde, and provocative, but without a new creative director. It's a challenge. We know this. We will probably make mistakes, but the most important thing is to learn from them."

The company expanded its homewares and interior design business in 2010, and in July 2011 the house designed several concept hotel suites for La Maison Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Maison Margiela debuted a capsule collection for H&M in 2012, consisting largely of reissued pieces from the Margiela archives.

Prior to the brand's acquisition by OTB Group in 2002, its stores were not listed in the phone directory, and Margiela's name did not appear outside the shops. By the summer of 2008 there were 14 Margiela boutiques operating internationally, with expansion in Dubai, Hong Kong, Moscow and Munich taking place over the subsequent six months. In late 2009 the brand opened a "pop-up store" at the Art Basel Miami Beach art fair. The number of standalone stores had grown to 17 by 2010, with 21 "shop-in-shops" internationally. As of 2017, Maison Margiela has stores in countries such as France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States, and Thailand. In February 2025, the first concession store for Mexico was opened inside Palacio de Hierro department store in Mexico City.