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Colin Hill.
Martin Margiela: A Lexicon of Style

A study of the work of one of the most enigmatic and influential fashion designers of the late twentieth century.

In a special commission for V–A–C Press, the fashion researcher and curator Colleen Hill has compiled a style lexicon of the work of Belgian fashion designer Martin Margiela. By dividing her book into three parts, entitled “Memory, ” “Deconstruction” and “Play and Improvisation, ” Hill offers an insight into Margiela’s paradoxical and elusive art, bringing out key concepts of the Maison Martin Margiela brand while keeping faith with the designer’s own principles.

Все фото: Дарья Избаш

Colleen Hill (b. 1982) is Curator of Costume and Accessories at the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She holds an MA in Fashion and Textile Studies and is working on a PhD at the London College of Fashion. She is the author of several books: Exposed: a History of Lingerie (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014); Fairy Tale Fashion (Yale University Press, 2016), and Paris Refashioned, 1957–1968 (Yale University Press, 2017).

The pre-existing imperfections in Margiela’s clothes imbued them with a sense of intimacy and insouciance that is rarely found within high fashion. Over time, the evidence and scars of use only served to deepen the emotional connection between object and wearer.

– Colleen Hill, excerpt from “Wear and Imperfection, ” part “Memory” in Martin Margiela: A Lexicon of Style

In “Memory, ” Hill considers the frayed and deformed garment aesthetic of Maison Martin Margiela, connecting it with socio-economic changes and the democratisation of fashion in the second half of the twentieth century. In his collections, Margiela challenged the cyclicity of the fashion industry, which encourages people to purchase and throw away, by working with pre-worn clothes and by highlighting faux scuffs, seams and lining.

“Deconstruction” focuses on Margiela’s innovative approach to the recycling of garments by giving them new cuts and pursuing endless metamorphoses of style and material. The effect was a shift in the understanding of how to sew and wear clothes, a shift that traumatised the traditional image of haute couture.

In the final part, “Play and Improvisation, ” the author looks at the designer’s experiments with proportion and image elements: hairstyle, make-up and accessories. The book ends with a short chapter, in which Colleen Hill reflects on the legacy of the Margiela brand and on what has happened at his fashion house since the departure of its founder in 2009.

Martin Margiela: A Lexicon of Style is the first book in the Atelier series dedicated to fashion designers and to critical thinking about fashion and the history of costume. The series consists of works by contemporary fashion theorists and visual scholars commissioned by V–A–C Foundation.

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