Martin Margiela, lauded as a genius in several fashion magazines, showed tailored and draped pieces worn over giant, flattened sandwich-style boards by pale, hollow-eyed models with long, wispy hair brushed into sad, witchy veils over their faces.
He studied at Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts along with the legendary avantgarde fashion collective the Antwerp Six.
After graduating in 1980 he became a freelance designer for five years before joining up with Jean Paul Gaultier between 1985 and 1987. Margiela showing his first collection under his own label in 1989. In 1997 he became, despite his non-traditional design, the creative director of the Hermès women’s line.
