Ensemble

Maison Margiela|Martin Margiela

1997 · linen, cotton, silk, elastic, metal · Costume Institute

This “Study for a Dress” counts as one of the most seminal designs of the Maison Martin Margiela, uniting many of the central design concepts which make up the DNA of the house, such as the unveiling of artisanship and duration in fashion, the détournement of an existing garment into something else, and a critical take on the standardized ideal couture body. The inanimate linen tailoring dummy or ‘Stockman bust’ used by Parisian haute couture ateliers, takes on a new life as a jacket which the real woman wears on top of her body. So, instead of dressing the woman as a living doll, Margiela dresses the woman in the shape of fetishized femininity, thereby showing the artificiality of gender as constructed by fashion. On a base of white elastics, boning retains the shards of silk muslin fabric onto the linen. This concept dates back to Margiela’s student years in Antwerp in the late 1970s, when he took classes with Hiëron Pessers, a master of drape who worked as a “first” assistant in Givenchy’s atelier. Approvingly, Pessers would wear Margiela’s drape studies as a jacket. Inscribed with “42” (the size) on top and “Semi-Couture, breveté S.G.E.G. 35059” on the bottom, the dummy-jacket was worn with dark denim jeans and a version of the tabi shoes which consisted of only the soles, scotch-taped to the bare foot.

Artist

Maison Margiela|Martin Margiela

Date

1997

Medium

linen, cotton, silk, elastic, metal

Culture

French

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Purchase, Funds from various donors, by exchange, 2016