Margiela - the Hermès years at Artipelag

Martin Margiela was appointed by Jean-Louis Dumas, then CEO of Hermès, as artistic director of the Parisian fashion house creating the women's ready-to-wear collections between 1997-2003. This collaboration turned out to be one of the most exciting in fashion history (which most did not see at the time) and it is now presented in the exhibition Margiela, The Hermès Years at the state of the arts exhibition center Artipelag 
situated a short boat, buss or taxi ride from Stockholm city center. 

Entering the Margiela exhibition the two different doors take you to the two dimensions of the House of Margiela with the white boxes and the Parisian House of Hermès naturally represented by the orange boxes clearly and simply telling how it was a bold choice of Dumas to appoint the avantgarde deconstructionist that Martin Margiela was and is. 

Standing on the desk making a clear statement the Margiela way.

The Martin Margiela way of deconstructing a turtleneck into a 4 piece garment inviting the wearer to co-design the flexible look giving many options possible to personal interpretation. 

The attention to detail in the exhibit is remarkable. 

Feminine, fragile and macho eclectic all at once. 

The photos accompanying the Margiela exhibition is zooming in on the designdetails in the best possible way and adds a higher level of understanding of the bold details like these shoes covered in packing tape. 

The supreme quality materials along with the no button, no jewelry, clean cut shapes and plain styling elevates the Hermés fashion created by Martin Margiela.  

Just adore the fact that Martin Margiela designed for fully grown women. 

The youngest model in this exhibit is 40 years old which is representativ for the strategy of how the fashion for Margiela was shown and for whom he designed for Hermés during the years he was head designer for the women's pret-a-porter collections. 

Being a avant-garde hero does not in any way hold  Martin Margiela back from letting the 1700´s historic garments inspire his deconstructed contemporary fashion sense. The contemporary side bags being a user friendly storage garment instead of just giving the large skirt the right lift as in the 1700´s. 

Margiela enjoys dressing  women in comfortable  clothes in genuine materials combined with the classic art of tailoring. 

Maison Margiela at Artipelag

 A Margiela type of reuse long before it was fashionable for the rest of the world.

Margiela, the Hermès Years was originally created by Kaat Debo and Martin Margiela for the MoMu - the museum of modern art in Antwerp 2017.

To get the right random worn&wonderful type of knit for this clash look of exclusive cashmere fibers made into a worn statement look long before it caught on and made into a international fashion statement, Margiela asked his mother to do the prototype after failing to have it produced professionally. The sweater to the left is artistically created from a bunch of army socks. 

The exhibit is overall so well planned, designed and well lit. Full of many details like this seat that i just love and that is so Maison Margiela.  Margiela´s objects collection has had furniture and decoration through the years. 

Finding so may inspirational objects and material in this one exhibit that I do recommend highly seeing it before it closes the 10th of March 2019. 

Margiela - the Hermès years will put Artipelag on the world map as a Kunsthalle/Art Gallery to be reckoned with in the future which we need to thank Cay Bond for making the connections for it to be possible to create this astonishing exhibition imported successfully by artistic director Bo Nilsson and the governing owners of Artipelag.   

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/Jimmy