Maison Margiela

Maison Margiela is a French luxury fashion house headquartered in Paris and founded in 1988 by Belgian designer Martin Margiela. Known for deconstructive and avant-garde designs with unconventional materials, Maison Margiela has traditionally held live shows in unusual settings, for example empty metro stations and street corners. Models' faces are often obscured by fabric or long hair to direct attention to the clothes and design. With Maison Martin Margiela going public in 2002, Margiela resigned as creative designer in 2009 and John Galliano was appointed to the role in 2014.

Margiela studied fashion at the Royal Academy of Antwerp; along with contemporary graduates like Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester, he was heavily influenced by the deconstructionist aesthetics of Japanese avantgardists such as Rei Kawakubo — creator of the label Comme des Garçons. In 1984 he became Jean Paul Gaultier’s design assistant in Paris, a role he held until 1987. In 1988, Martin launched his own self-titled design label Maison Martin Margiela with business partner and fellow designer Jenny Meirens. Initially working out of a Paris apartment, they opened their first store in an unmarked white space in Paris, also opening a small studio on 12 Leopoldstraat in Antwerp. Martin cultivated an aura of anonymity, refusing to take live bows at the end of his shows and handling his press via fax. This was derided as a publicity stunt by certain critics, though the maison insists it was the designer's reaction against an over commercialised industry. Maison Martin Margiela oversaw creative direction of womenswear for the French design house Hermès from 1997 until 2003, with the design team working under Hermès chairman Jean-Louis Dumas.[1] After going public in 2002, the majority of Maison Martin Margiela's shares were purchased by the OTB Group, a holding company led by Renzo Rosso, also owner of the Italian fashion label Diesel. By the summer of 2008 there were 14 Margiela boutiques. In October 2009, it was announced that Martin Margiela had resigned as creative director of Maison Martin Margiela, to varied speculation about the reasons. Following Margiela's departure, the anonymous design team continued to design the label, with no single creative director in place.By the fall of 2014, sources estimated that the brand generated about $126 million in annual revenues, with around 50 directly owned stores. In October 2014 it was announced that John Galliano would take the position of creative director, after having previously served in that position at Givenchy, Dior, and his eponymous line. With Galliano focusing on the haute couture element of the company, by the end of 2015 revenues were up 30%.

Maison Margiela celebrates unconventional aesthetics and aims to interrogate fashion through conceptual designs that are nonetheless wearable.

The Margiela vision is that fashion is an artistic expression rather than a cult for personality.