Martin Margiela menswear

Martin Margiela, the Belgian born designer and another of the innovators to graduate from Antwerp’s The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium, (Ann Demeulemeester would graduate a few years later from the same academy) has been stretching the boundaries of fashion since the early 1980s.

After several years of freelancing with designers including Jean Paul Gaultier, he debuted his first Paris show in 1988. Today, Margiella’s men’s designs under his ‘Maison Martin Margiela’ house are as unconventional as ever, shunning current trends in favour of conceptual designs and striking proportions. There are 11 different lines to the Maison Margiela House, ranging from cutting-edge items to timeless classics, from men’s accessories to casual wear. Considered ‘the designer’s designer’, Margiela menswear, although always leading in its style and creative execution, is never about fashion ‘fantasy’ or fantastical looks that would be difficult to translate into normal, everyday situations for most men, but instead create a cool Gallic look (or should that be Belgian?) that would be difficult to pin down to any particular era of fashion. That’s what makes Maison Martin Margiela’s menswear so special.