At the Tribeca Film Festival a couple weeks ago, a short documentary film about Martin Margiela premiered. Now, courtesy of the Yoox Group, you can watch the whole thing here. While Martin himself wasn't interviewed, of course, many of his close friends and collaborators lend their voice to the film, giving us some insight into not just the man, but the fashion barometer of the time.
His former boss, Jean Paul Gaultier, mentions that he "was not his teacher because he didn't need any teacher." His friend Inge Grognard talks about how she and him would go to flea markets and just buy tons of clothes, spending all of their money to the point that they didn't even have enough to buy food. Margiela's deconstructed clothing was not the first of its kind, but felt more believable than others, says legendary fashion critic Suzy Menkes, and his choice of models made editors look at the clothes themselves and not just the person wearing them. The Margiela signature of covering models' eyes in lookbooks was apparently done to avoid paying costs for the models, according to Patrick Scallon, Margiela's former communications director. While other designers of the time were increasingly involved in the media, Margiela did his best to stay anonymous, lessening the pressure on himself while also keeping the focus on the clothes. Even Raf Simons lends some praise for the iconic designer.
There are some nice nuggets in here that shed some light onto the inner workings of one of our favorite designers, so peep the full film above.
