That One Margiela Artisanal Collection Is Everywhere (Again)
Maison Margiela's 2024 Artisanal collection was whimsical, haunting and one of the best well-received couture collections of our generation.
And now, it's shaping up to be perhaps the most accessible as well. Now, don't pull your cards out just yet. Purchasing Maison Margiela couture is still very much a one-percenters' game.
But true lovers of Margiela's mold-breaking craft will now be able to interact with it in a manner effectively unheard of in the typically exclusive realm of couture.
For instance, the Dover Street Market store in Japan's upscale Ginza neighborhood is hosting a Maison Margiela Artisanal installation through November 26, designed to further immerse fans in the artistically deceptive garments with a thoughtfully immersive presentation.
Akin to the short-lived Margiela podcast series, a comprehensive audio guide recorded by Maison Margiela's creative director, John Galliano, will guide visitors through exhibit, presumably breaking down the fabrication in detail.
And most interesting is the accompanying manga window installations created by manga artist Tite Kubo, likely best known as the man behind the wildly popular Bleach franchise.
It's a mingling of culture and couture the likes of which you've never seen before.
Amplifying this thread of enduring (and well-deserved) hype, Margiela's Artisanal collection was also recently shot by Paolo Roversi — who also shot one of the rare headshots of DSM head Rei Kawakubo — for Luncheon magazine.
And only weeks ago, Margiela premiered a feature-length film, Nighthawk, with characters costumed exclusively in its Artisanal garments.
Not only is it rare that a couture collection would receive a rollout this expansive — these things are typically made to order — but that it's lensed like a stylized seasonal campaign is doubly unusual.
To truly understand why all of this is so impressive, you need to understand why this show was such a standout in the first place.
Back in February, renowned makeup artist Pat McGrath transformed the runway models into plaintive porcelain dolls in a manner so meticulously deceptive it sent beauty experts into a frenzy as they attempted to unlock the method to the porcelain madness.
(Spoiler alert: airbrushed face mask).
But ceramic-mimicking makeup was far from the only factor making this assortment of historical Parisian vintage-inspired clothing hit as hard as it did.
Through impossibly cinched waistlines, exaggerated silhouettes and trompe-l'œil layers, Galliano created one of the most inspired collections in couture's recent history.
It was fantastically eerie, scandalous and curiously historic all at once.
This was a generational collection and that it's getting the communal treatment it deserves is as surprising as it is welcome.
