Margiela

High Fashion, High Art

by Amanda Aldinger, freelance writer, Chicago

In a time when it is encouraged to avoid frivolity, to curb excessiveness and to not flaunt one's consumerist ideals, the fashion industry has taken a huge hit. Daily, we receive new word of designers who are pulling their runway shows from Bryant Park as a nod to the recession, or because of the economic implications of their own houses and funding. Peter Som, Betsey Johnson, Vera Wang...all reduced to presentations. Chanel, a veritable cornerstone of fashion as its known today had to cancel their mobile art exhibit after a mere two stops, while letting go of over 200 employees at their home base. It's rampant, it's scary, and for many, it begs the question: is fashion frivolous? Do we just take ourselves too seriously?

The other day, while I was perusing various blogs, I happened upon a video of a model who was dancing, nude, while wearing the Margiela tan face mask and wig coat from his SS/09 line. The video is beautifully styled and shot, and the combined aesthetic of its components turned an article of clothing that, when standing alone, can be initially regarded as bizarre and excessively avant-garde, into a piece of art. The video was art, the coat was art, the model as performer was art, the way that his two pieces reduced her to this animalistic, earthy, raw representation of humanity and motion was art.

Margiela is widely known for his atypical representations of beauty. His strange proportions, atypically styled accessories, and overall bizarre point-of-view leave most confused, but uncontrollably intrigued. Michael Kors has said, "If you can't afford to buy art, you wear it." I agree, but I fervently think that this philosophy applies to fashion whether or not you can afford to buy art. Fashion is art, and Margiela's designs exhibit that more than most.

The intentions and meaning behind Margiela's wig coat and SS09 line, in general, were researched and applied to the function of the video and in what the two strive to communicate. "Margiela's "Wig-Coat" represents a tussle in the designer's work, and in fashion generally, between the real and the artificial. Artifice is a standard tool of the fashion system, but Margiela is uniquely adept and willing to expose it for all to see. Just as Margiela turns a garment inside-out to flaunt its construction, so the artifice behind contemporary beauty itself is revealed and hence called into question (http://www.showstudio.com/project/makeupyourmind/)."

Margiela enlightens for us the multifaceted way in which fashion can be presented, analyzed, understood. It can be more casual, as in ready-to-wear, which is more intentioned to be worn by the everyday woman, or it can be couture, which is meant to be glorified for its beauty, its originality, its concept, the ingenuity of its construction. Margiela’s work both defines couture and exceeds its very limits, and his avid use of deconstruction, and the way in which he distorts the typical boundaries of couture is genius in its application.

Despite his couture standing, Margiela famously revolts against typical definitions of beauty, distorting the proportions of his garments, and reconstructing his clothing lines from old wigs, canvases and silk scarves. A prime example of his deconstruction at work is this season’s Wig Coat, which “becomes a paradox, a paradox of adornment, of seduction and of fashion. It mimics nature whilst choosing to be artificial; the workmanship is painstaking, costly, yet applied to cheap synthetics; it is adornment which repels and yet, oddly, manages to seduce. Finally, as a luxury good it manages to function on the least luxurious level possible. His defiance of the glamour, sex, and exquisiteness by which high fashion is generally characterized is philosophical in its conceptual brilliance.

Ask anyone about the construction of Margiela’s collections, and they’ll remark that he is one of the most skilled tailors in the industry—the construction of his deconstructed garments always ingeniously and effortlessly flawless, without fail. His SS06 collection was built around the idea of dissolving the structure of clothing, each of his garments exhibited with one side finished, and the other melting off the models into raw, unaltered fabric. His SS07 collection was peppered with whimsical oddities. Bowtie garters worn on one unfinished leg of a trouser pant, images of eyes festooning the breasts of a black tank, tops adorned by giant cut-out stars, and beige tops with the image of a solid navy bra imprinted on the front. Everything he touches shifts in proportion, in color combination, and in the bizarre, yet stunningly successful marriage of elements that any normal, thinking individual would never conceive of aligning.

If Margiela were the only fashion designer in existence, he alone would prove that fashion is one of the most sincere, unadulterated forms of art there is. Art is about expression, about taking raw materials and creating something new. And the greats, while off the cuff, or misunderstood, are never frivolous. To say that Margiela, or the other great designers of the world take themselves too seriously is to refute the power, the art, the importance of fashion. All art should invoke controversy or discussion of some sort, and Margiela has taken all of this and infused a sensational and overwhelming sense of artistic creativity into his brilliant and ever show stopping designs. You may not feel comfortable wearing his clothes, you may find his clothing over the top and excessive, but the art of it all…that, you could never deny.