Exhibition of the month: Martin Margiela The Hermès Years

It’s already been eight years since Belgian designer Martin Margiela took a bow from fashion, and yet his legacy has never been so evident as in today’s collections. A good reason for MoMu, the Antwerp fashion mu­seum, to devote an exhibition to him. “We’d already marked the 20th an­niversary of his label, but had never celebrated the magnificent collec­tions he designed for Hermès,” ex­plains Kaat Debo, the museum’s director and the curator of the show. 

When, in 1997, the venerable brand hired a designer renowned for his avant-gardism and his intelli­gent deconstruction of everything to do with fashion, the general reaction was one of surprise. Some feared that Hermès’s tradition of excellence would be squandered in a risky re­vamp attempt. But in fact it was to the definition of luxury itself that Margiela applied all his celebrated radicalism. “He invented a new life­style for the Hermès woman,” ex­plains Debo. “Because these were expensive, luxury garments, he wanted to create a very high-quality, timeless wardrobe, all the while of­fering versatile clothes that could be worn in different ways. He decided to work on a very neutral colour code of black, brown, grey, white, ivory and beige. It was revolutionary, be­cause Hermès was known for its prints and bright colours. He also put on fashion shows in the Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré boutique so that clients could see close up the very high quality of these anti-spec­tacular clothes.”

While Margiela has long been labelled “conceptual”, the MoMu show reminds us of the love of cloth­ing that underpinned his vision, and brings out all the richness of its many facets. While Margiela may have been imitated a thousand times, he’s never once been equalled.

Margiela. The Hermès Years, ModeMuseum Antwerp, 31 March–27 August, www.momu.be

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