Maison Martin Margiela Elastic Jacket, SS 2008

During the 1980s, the Japanese avantgardists, with Rei Kawakubo—creator of the label Comme des Garçons—had turned the fashion scene upside-down with their eccentric and ground-breaking designs. Martin Margiela and the Antwerp Six would carry on the work, revolting against the luxurious fashion world with garments of oversized proportions such as long arms, and with linings, seams and hems on the outside. The concept of deconstruction (also embraced by Kawakubo) is important for the understanding of Margiela’s fashion statement. Margiela famously redesigns by hand objects such as old wigs, canvases and silk scarves into couture garments.