Martin Margiela is back and talking. Thirty years after he first mystified and enthralled fashion with his nonconformist brilliance, and 11 years after he walked away from the industry following his 20th anniversary runway show, the designer is the subject of Reiner Holzemer’s documentary film “Martin Margiela: In His Own Words,” which premieres tonight at the DOC NYC Film Festival. The director’s previous works include films on William Eggleston, Juergen Teller and, most recently, the 2017 “Dries” (as in Van Noten).
Margiela is widely considered one of modern fashion’s most important designers, his influence continuing today in all sorts of arenas — deconstruction, streetwear, repurposed vintage, down-off-the-pedestal haute couture, alternative show venues. Anyone with a casual interest in the edgier aspects of fashion’s recent past should find plenty of interest in the documentary; serious fashion-history obsessives will be all aflutter to hear firsthand the designer’s perspective on his career. Margiela’s conversation volleys between esoteric musings and pragmatic dissection of craft and problem-solving; from the start, he distinguished himself as both renegade creator and skilled artisan. He was also a designer who for two decades navigated the uneasy terrain of a challenging industry, and he offers a brief, stinging assessment of why
Margiela is widely considered one of modern fashion’s most important designers, his influence continuing today in all sorts of arenas — deconstruction, streetwear, repurposed vintage, down-off-the-pedestal haute couture, alternative show venues. Anyone with a casual interest in the edgier aspects of fashion’s recent past should find plenty of interest in the documentary; serious fashion-history obsessives will be all aflutter to hear firsthand the designer’s perspective on his career. Margiela’s conversation volleys between esoteric musings and pragmatic dissection of craft and problem-solving; from the start, he distinguished himself as both renegade creator and skilled artisan. He was also a designer who for two decades navigated the uneasy terrain of a challenging industry, and he offers a brief, stinging assessment of why