MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA’S ARTISANAL COLLECTION A/W 2011-12

The Maison Martin Margiela team moved from the archives, managing to inject in the new designs the right degree of originality and making sure that the materials, from accessories to garments, reused in the Artisanal line – among them also polypropylene techno socks employed to create tops, car seatbelts as straps and yellowish tape to create trench coats – weren’t too recognisable.

The see-through nylon suits covered by an over-skirt fixed by black duck tape that functioned like a clothes plastic cover and the sheer and translucent paper-like trench coats all seemed to be made in the kind of blueprint paper used for technical drawings and were the most interesting designs, while the leather jackets reduced to strips by sectioning off bits and pieces, bonded with lamb leather and re-assembled or made with recycled techno rucksacks were perfect examples of the fashion house’s main aim, reinterpreting and reinventing classic wardrobe staples.

By Anna Battista

All photos courtasy Maison Martin Margiela