Martin Margiela enrolled at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp in 1977. He worked as first assistant to Jean Paul Gaultier in Paris from 1984 to 1987, and founded Maison Martin Margiela in 1988. He has never given a filmed interview. The last photograph of him published with his consent was taken in 1983.

The Premise

Margiela's anonymity was an argument. He believed — explicitly, in the few written statements he authorised — that the personality of the designer had become a commercial distortion. His collections were shown in disused parking garages, abandoned métro stations, and the Salvation Army hall in the 11th arrondissement. Models wore masks or black fabric over their faces.

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I have never understood why it is of the least importance what a designer looks like. — Martin Margiela, open letter, 2008

Deconstruction

The 1990 Stockmann collection showed coats made from reconstructed mattress covers. The 1994 collection featured garments enlarged by 200% and worn loose. The 1997 collection showed garments mid-construction, with toile stitches visible. Each show argued that a garment's production history was not something to be concealed but to be exhibited. The four-white-stitches label — two cotton threads fixing a blank tag to the garment — was simultaneously an index and a refusal.

The Tabi

The Tabi boot, introduced in 1988, splits the toe after the big toe, like a Japanese split-toed workboot. It is, arguably, the most identifiable single piece of luxury footwear of the last thirty years.

Hermès

From 1997 to 2003 Margiela served, simultaneously, as his own house's creative director and as Hermès womenswear director. The Hermès work — subtle, understated, almost deliberately boring — was the opposite of his Margiela work. He produced both with equal rigour. He retired in 2009 and sold his share of the house to Diesel. His successors have included a collective; Galliano has run the house since 2014.

Margiela has, since retirement, reappeared as a painter and sculptor. His influence, now, is almost entirely posthumous in the commercial sense — the room is full of his students. Demna, Raf Simons, and much of the current Tokyo and Antwerp fashion curricula proceed directly from his practice.