The Invisible Manthe approach in relation to the current climate of the overall aesthetic referred to
as ‘in fashion’ the more that approach may be linked to art.^44The turnover of Maison Martin Margiela in the 1998/99 financial year
was 100 million French Francs.^45 The company supplies a total of 270 stores
in Europe, the Americas, Japan and elsewhere.^46 Cursory examination of
the labels in Margiela’s clothes reveal that the company has licensing
agreements with, for wovens, Staff International, a large Italian manufacturer
and for knitwear, Miss Deanna. The sampling and production facilities,
warehouse and administrative offices of Miss Deanna are located in Reggio
Emilia, which is also where the headquarters of MaxMara are to be found.
The company’s proprietor is a personal friend and I have often visited her at
work. Standing in the warehouse at S. Martino del Rio, surrounded by pile
upon pile of carefully folded, bagged and boxed Margiela sweaters, labelled
and boxed for despatch to Barneys, Bergdorf Goodman and Joseph, any ideas
about art are dispelled; I am compelled to marvel at the creativity and
intelligence of a design which can communicate so powerfully and widely.
The most innovative and inspired clothes on earth are products to be bought
and worn. They are not art, but no less worthy for not being so; if only there
was an opposite critical structure in which to locate their triumph.
The Invisible DesignerI have already alluded to the frustration, from a practitioner’s perspective, of
reading texts which do not quite go to the heart of the reader’s interest, which
miss important points through not looking at clothes or considering their
commercial context. This section deals more specifically with the paucity of
texts, not just by contemporary designers, but even about contemporary
designers. By this I do not mean the many glossy eulogies which people use
to give their sitting rooms a fashionable feel, I mean texts which objectively
consider the research, design process, realization and distribution of clothes
in relation to their meaning. I am not the first to draw attention to this.
Davis notes:
- Reply to written questions received by fax from M. Patrick Scallon, Director of
Communications on behalf of Maison Margiela (Feb 2000). - The faxed reply from Maison Margiela gave the 1998/99 annual turnover as 100,000,000
Francs for ‘women’s’ and ‘men’s’ ready to wear excluding footwear and mail order (for the
moment with ‘3 SUISSE’ a French-based catalogue company similar to Grattans or Empire
stores) (Feb 2000). - Ibid.