Superbly designed by Irma Boom, this book debut of Margiela's art exemplifies his fascination with corporeality Published for his first solo show as an artist at Lafayette Anticipations in Paris, this book presents, for the first time, more than 40 artworks by Belgian fashion designer Martin Margiela (born 1957). Reproducing images of installations, sculptures, collages, paintings and films, the book also advances the thesis that Martin Margiela has always been an artist. Internationally renowned in the fashion world since the late 1980s, throughout his career as a designer Margiela has deliberately upended the conventions of fashion through his materials and his runway shows. The works at the Lafayette Anticipations exhibition, most of which were made in the Foundation's studio, return to the artist's obsessions. The body is very much in evidence here, from anatomies inspired by the academic tradition to hair and skin in almost abstract form. The catalog was designed by Irma Boom in close collaboration with Margiela as a "making of" the show, presenting both final and in-progress pictures of the works.

Graduating from Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts in the 1980s, Martin Margiela (and his contemporaries in the Antwerp Six) transformed global fashion with his aggressive restatement of traditional fashion design and a polemical approach to luxury trends. Working first with the house of Gaultier, Margiela absorbed the radical design of Japanese deconstruction, making it wholly his own with the founding of his own label in 1988. Margiela propounds a singular, enigmatic look, moving beyond the recognizable tropes of deconstruction—a monochromatic palette, outsized garments, non-traditional fabrics, exposed seams, or roughly appliquéd details—to develop a fully considered worldview, one with elegance, mystery, and menace in equal measure. This book provides an inside look at the design process from a craftsman who creates pieces prized for their originality, delicacy, and daring. In the spirit of Margiela’s garments, the book is a work of art in itself, designed exclusively by Margiela and complete with silver inks, ribbon markers, a variety of lush paper types, twelve booklets, and an embroidered white-linen cover. This book provides a window onto the intimate, handmade world of a unique designer.

Akira Tatehata

Martin Margiela's pioneering and timeless designs made for the luxury house of Hermès between 1997 and 2003 are the stars of this book, highlighting this period in the iconic and enigmatic Belgian designer's career. The first edition was published to accompany an exhibition in the Modemuseum Antwerp. The new edition, accompanying the exhibition in Paris, includes images from the Antwerp exhibition, and more extensive essays by Rebecca Arnold, Kaat Debo and Sarah Mower, and a foreword by Suzy Menkes.This key period between 20th- and 21st-century fashion is evoked through interviews with Margiela's closest collaborators. Never-before-published material from the Maison Martin Margiela archives, numerous striking and exquisitely refined images from Le Monde d'Hermès, as well as new photographic material tell the story of Margiela's supreme wardrobe for Hermès.

Annie Leibovitz began working as a photographer in the early 1970s, which was a volatile and frenetic time in America. The lines had yet to be drawn between journalists and the people they covered, so she had access that would now be considered unusual. This unique collection provides a vivid account both of Leibovitz's development as an artist...

The study of fashion has expanded into a thriving field of inquiry, with researchers utilizing diverse methods from across subject disciplines to explore fashion and dress in wide-ranging contexts. With an emphasis on material culture and ethnographic approaches in fashion studies, this groundbreaking volume offers fascinating insights into the complex dynamics of research and fashion. Featuring unique case studies, with interdisciplinary scholars reflecting on their practical research experiences, Fashion Studies provides rich and nuanced perspectives on the use, and mixing and matching of methodological approaches – including object and image based research, the integration of qualitative and quantitative methods and the fluid bridging of theory and practice. Engaging with diverse subjects, from ethnographies of model casting and street-style blogging, wardrobe studies and a material culture analysis of global denim wearing, to Martin Margiela's design and archival methods, Fashion Studies presents complex approaches in a lively and informative manner that will appeal to students of fashion, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies and related fields.