Rub + Rubbing + Clubbing

Maison Martin Margiela Spring/Summer 2015

The most amazing menswear collection that has happened in a long time. And although the Rosso Diesel system has taken ownership, the team around Matthieu Blazy delivers high quality true to the eponymous founder.
/HORST

Chain Reaction II

fig a. A panel dress by Martin Margiela. And a panel dress by Maison Martin Margiela. Restaged in the latest pre-collection lookbook that looked back to the label's beginnings.

fig b. A trench coat by Veronique Branquino. And a trech coat by Veronique Branquino, accompanied by variations of Anderson and Anonymous (Maison Martin Margiela).

fig c. A black suit and the iconic image of Stella Tennant by Mark Borthwick. Two classics that set the tone for the retro-designer-triptych.

fig d. A pinstripe dress. A striped dress. A checked suit. And a shirt bra. The chronological emancipation of menswear, seen here pushed furthest by Anderson who always bows to and borrows from Kawakubo.

1. Maison Martin Margiela Spring/Summer 2006
2. Maison Martin Margiela Pre Spring/Summer 2015
3. Veronique Branquinho Fall/Winter 2004
4. Veronique Branquinho Pre Spring/Summer 2015
5. J.W. Anderson Pre Spring/Summer 2015
6. Maison Martin Margiela Pre Spring/Summer 2015
7. Maison Martin Margiela Spring/Summer 1999 & Mark Borthwick Stella Tennant, 2000
8. Maison Martin Margiela Pre Spring/Summer 2015
9. Veronique Branquinho Pre Spring/Summer 2015
10. J.W. Anderson Pre Spring/Summer 2015
11. Maison Martin Margiela Pre Spring/Summer 2015
12. Comme des Garçons Fall/Winter 1995
13. J.W. Anderson Pre Spring/Summer 2015
14. Veronique Branquinho Pre Spring/Summer 2015

The world is a faded cloth. Designers are looking back to their origins, their founding years. The 1970s via the 1990s. Even if they weren't there. Together, they are recreating classics.

Veronique Branquinho 2015 = Veronique Branquinho, circa 1995 (regaining)
J.W. Anderson 2015 = Comme des Garçons, circa 1995 (redoing)
Maison Martin Margiela 2015 = Martin Margiela, circa 1995 (remembering)

Their colours are beige, black and blue. Their garments are tailored and masculine with softened volume and deconstructed details. Everything is nostalgic like blurry sepia images in a family album. But unfortunately, those photos aren't real, they are the result of filters.
/HORST

Image credits Vogue

Fashion Charts III

1. Prada Fall/Winter 2014

2. Maison Martin Margiela Fall/Winter 2014

3. Walter van Beirendonck Fall/Winter 2014

Longing for torso bondage, from Eskimo to psycho. Cozy in fur (Miuccia), recycled in nylon (Martin) and strapped in leather (Walter). An iteration by the queen of fashion, a disappeared icon and resurrected teddy bear. My top three.
/HORST

Shilver II, 2013

or 'I Do Not Own Silver Trousers, Yet'

Coat Maison Martin Margiela
Shirt Bruno Pieters
Shoes Maison Martin Margiela
Socks H&M

The complete works of an incomplete look. In this reissue of Shilver, the artist explores the possibilities of an idea repeatedly applied on top of itself - similar to the process of silver coating.
/HORST

Now & Then XI

1. Jil Sander Spring/Summer 2013
2. Maison Martin Margiela Fall/Winter 2000

Fill in the circle. Don't cross the outline, don't look back. Carefully apply a shimmering layer. Place the circles, loosely stitch them onto the base. For quick results, apply glue. Stick to this routine.
/HORST

History X-Neck

1. Maison Martin Margiela Fall/Winter 2013
2. Carven Fall/Winter 2013

Something solid becomes manifest when it is repeated at least twice. Synchronously. Mark these words with an 'X' – or wrap yourself in the latter. 'Cross' dressing, symbolically. As unisex proposition, the neck is herewith declared the focal point.
/HORST

Post Paris XXVIII

A 'False Encyclopaedia' double feature with Alexander Fury, discussing:
Céline Fall/Winter 2013

Céline has always been about a reality of dressing. You could call it rational - like that dowdy mid-nineteenth century movement that encouraged women to cast off the shackles of their corsets and don by-and-large shapeless velvet garments that could have been sported by Mrs Arnolfini circa her Van Eyck portrait. Incidentally, she featured in the bumper inspiration book Phoebe Philo placed on every seat to unravel her latest offering. But of course, her garments were neither dowdy, nor shapeless, even when they seemed crafted from chequered laundry bags. That felt like an Arte Povera touch, a reversal of luxury - like Gabrielle Chanel lining her drab woollen coats in sable, the luxury hidden for the wearer. Likewise, those coats that looked like plastic pound-shop schmattes are probably amongst the most expensive of the entire season. And, somehow, along that route from laudromat spin-cycle to Céline catwalk, they have been magically transmogrified into the most desirable. It's a fashion miracle. Except there's nothing inexplicable about it.

/ALEX

Phoebe Philo's maximalist minimalism turns models back into mannequins. Clinging to clutches. Making sure the product is perfectly visible. The message "We are for sale!" is worn on their sleeves. Margiela's merchandise as jewellery comes to mind. The 'cheap' and mundane transformed into a luxury it-item. Infused with a 'slash' of vagina feminism. You need a bag?
/HORST








1. Céline Fall/Winter 2013
2. Hyacinthe Rigaud Louis XIV, 1701
3. Rachel Whiteread Embankment, 2005-6
4. Robert Mapplethorpe Patti Smith, 1973
5. Maison Martin Margiela Spring/Summer 2002
6. Céline Fall/Winter 1975
7. Ida Applebrook Group H #4, 1969
8. Céline Fall/Winter 2013

More about Alexander Fury LOVE Magazine

The Dalton Simons Scandal, The Roach Kawakubo Scandal, And Another Scandal

0. Neo Rauch Wahl, 1998










1. Lee Roach Fall/Winter 2013 & Comme des Garçons Spring/Summer 2001
2. Lee Roach Fall/Winter 2013 & Helmut Lang Spring/Summer 1998
3. Lee Roach Fall/Winter 2013 & Raf Simons Fall/Winter 2010
4. Lou Dalton Fall/Winter 2013 & Raf Simons Fall/Winter 2010
5. Lou Dalton Fall/Winter 2013 & Raf Simons Spring/Summer 2005
6. Lou Dalton Fall/Winter 2013 & Maison Martin Margiela Fall/Winter 2012

I am angry. Although we all like the end product, I cannot hold back a certain disbelief in our time's aesthetic capabilities and originality. A generation that has lost itself in the search for creation.

We are not witnessing fashion collections but a remix of previous, now iconic ideas. London Collections: Men has proven that education through design has been replaced by simulation through sampling.

A decade without identity has begun and while 'clothes' cannot be re-invented as such, they should at least reflect a singular thought of its maker. Looking at fashion masters of former days is a necessity, but being 'inspired' should have a deeper meaning.

Artists like Man Ray, Keith Sonnier and Neo Rauch have proven that questioning the own standards and constantly looking for new forms of creativity results in unquestionably relevant cultural 'products'.

A strenuous effort that no one is willing to undertake anymore.
/HORST

See also The Farhi Sander Scandal or The Burberry Prada Scandal