The meaning of Maison Margiela's numbers A practical guide to discover the meaning of these almost esoteric numbers
Martin Margiela.
It is enough to name him and an almost atavistic reverential feeling appears in those who read. Even a blaspheme of fashion, just by saying this name, can only be moved by a shiver, knowing that he has just heard something he knows but can not reference to. The Belgian designer graduated in 1980 at Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp that immediately captured Jean Paul Gaultier's attention with his graduation collection, becoming his assistant in the following years. Enigmatic, eclectic and dodgy designer by definition, Martin is positioned on the same line as industry revolutionaries such as Rei Kawakubo and Junya Watanabe.
Margiela's approach to fashion is cerebral. With the years of experimentation of the Belgian school, which he attended together with the famous "The Antwerp Six" (Dries van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester, Dirk Van Saene, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dirk Bikkembergs and Marina Yee) combines craftsmanship, materiality, gestured gesture. Pure devotion to the form that cannot be contaminated by any form of distraction, that is called color or identity, always hidden by Martin Margiela, in favor of clothes.
White is the color par excellence of Margiela, a blank space to fill. This is the meaning of the famous brand label, first completely white, fixed by 4 stitches at the corners, to be easily removed. To this, in 1997 a new one has been added, with numbers written in black from 0 to 23, arranged in 3 rows. Each number corresponds to a product line and is circled in each case to indicate the collection to which the garment belongs.
To clarify a bit of the mystery and fascination that has always been lurking on the Maison founded in 1988 with Jenny Meiers, we offer you a quick guide to the references of Maison Martin Margiela.
13 Objects and catalogs
14 Man's wardrobe
The male equivalent of Line 4, is a series of basic garments presented on SS04.
22 Shoes
Line 22 concretizes itself as a seasonal selection of footwear taken respectively from Line 1 and Line 10. The first release of this continuous line is in 1998 for female footwear and in 2008 for male footwear.
6 MM6
The 6 line is best-known as MM6 and is a broad-spectrum female collection designed for a wider audience. A rebrand of the MM6 line occurred recently in 2006.
