Maison Margiela
| Private company | |
| Industry | Fashion |
| Founded | 1988 |
| Founder | Martin Margiela |
| Headquarters | Paris, France |
|
Key people
|
John Galliano, Creative Director |
| Website | www |
Maison Margiela, formerly Maison Martin Margiela which commonly abbreviated as "MMM", is a French luxury fashion house headquartered in Paris and founded in 1988 by Belgian designer Martin Margiela. It is known for its luxury Italian-made avant garde and deconstructedready-to-wear and leather accessories.
Martin Margiela is considered the honorary seventh member of the Antwerp Six group of designers who emerged from Antwerp Fashion Academy in 1980 (though Margiela himself graduated in 1979). Margiela moved to Paris in 1984, working for three years as a design assistant to Jean Paul Gaultier. In 1988, Maison Martin Margiela presented its debut womenswear collection. In 1998, Maison Martin Margiela debuted a menswear collection, known as line 10.
In 2002, Maison Margiela was acquired by Italian fashion conglomerate OTB Group, led by Diesel founder Renzo Rosso. In October 2009, it was announced that Martin Margiela had resigned as Creative Director of Maison Martin Margiela. Insiders speculated that Margiela's departure was the result of a struggle within the company resulting from Rosso's desire to make Maison Martin Margiela an international brand, which Margiela felt compromised its integrity and mission. Following Margiela's departure, the anonymous design team continued to design the label, with no single creative director in place.
In 2004, Maison Martin Margiela moved into a new headquarters in an eighteenth-century convent in Paris' 11th arrondissement. The interior of the headquarters is entirely white, with furniture painted with white emulsion. In addition to the white surroundings, employees all wear "blousons blanche", white coats traditionally worn by couture craftsmen. The white coats are both a nod to history and aesthetics, as well as an equalizer, as all employees wear them, regardless of title re. Maison Margiela's runway shows are notable in that the models' faces are often obscured by fabric or long hair, in an attempt to direct attention to the clothes, and away from the models themselves.
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Wikipedia