The Fashion Businesscompiled’ from Margiela’s ready to wear collections from 1989.^33 There are
no illustrations, so it is not possible to relate individual garments to the
meanings they are supposed by the author to convey.
I found it interesting that none of the articles in Fashion Theory dealing
with or referring to Margiela include information or quotes directly from
the designer. Margiela’s refusal to ‘explain’ his clothes has been noted but
when I approached Maison Margiela for some information for this chapter,
my questions received useful and thoughtful answers, returned by fax and in
the third person, which is the company’s preferred way of conducting
interviews. Maison Margiela revealed to me, first of all, that the company
currently sells a total of 111,500 garments per season.^34 Since the total
circulation of Fashion Theory is around 1,000 copies, we can assume that
only a small fraction of those who buy Margiela’s clothes do so armed with
insight gleaned from theoretical analyses like Gill’s; the clothes clearly
communicate in a different way.
I also enquired how Maison Margiela thought its customers learned how
to understand and interpret its products. I was informed that ‘For those for
whom this is a priority, the information on the collection tends to transfer to
them through the sales teams of the shops as well as the video of the show at
each shop.’ The sales team is in turn said to be informed by the fashion
show, or presentations of the collections at the company’s showrooms in
Paris, New York, Tokyo and Milan. The company’s response emphasizes
that there are a number of customers ‘who react to the garments in a more
emotional way, either to the piece itself or to a certain piece in relation to
their existing wardrobe’.^35
The great web of erudite discourses that has grown up around fashion
may shed light on questions of a philosophical or intellectual nature, but
from a practitioner’s perspective, it is less able to explain the enormous power
and occasional magic of which Margiela is an example.
- Ibid.
- Reply to written enquiry received by fax from M. Patrick Scallon, Director of
Communications on behalf of Maison Margiela (February 2000) revealed the approx. number
of pieces sold by the company per season to be 7,500 ‘artisanal production’ for women, 31,400
‘collection for women’, 45,000 ‘basic garments for women’, 25,000 ‘wardrobe for men’ and
2,000 ‘artisanal production for men’. Artisanal production was described as ‘the reworking
by hand, at our ateliers in Paris, of vintage or new existing garments, fabrics and accessories’. - Ibid.