Interview

Since 1988, Maison Martin Margiela has been exacting its own intelligent revenge on the ordinary inseams of high fashion. Celebrating 20 years this fall,  the maison is still light-years ahead of its time.

Who better to talk with the mysterious conceptual design house than the originator of conceptual art, Joseph Kosuth? Maison, meet studio.

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Twenty years ago, when Martin Margiela started his own womenswear label (his menswear arrived 10 years later), it was as though the Belgian designer counted the brain as part of the human figure. Ever since, the collections have seemed to push and strain and, in some cases, rip apart, resew, and beat up the very definition of clothing. Ironically, as the line has become more and more celebrated, the man himself has slipped farther from the spotlight, eventually disappearing behind the label entirely. Today, it's the -Maison that does the talking, so it only made sense for us to ask the innovator of conceptual art, Joseph Kosuth, and the team at his studio to take on their intellectual counterparts in the fashion industry. The Maison, made up of 71 employees located in Paris, exchanged a series of e-mails with the Studio, comprising roughly 15 assistants split between Rome and New York, plus Joseph Kosuth himself. The two collectives discussed what they would build if they were architects, why all the greatest contemporary artists are women, the upside of anonymity, and how ripping apart a few 1950s ball gowns can make people really upset. An exhibition this September at the MoMu in Antwerp explores the themes and concepts running through the collections. But here's our own happy anniversary to Martin Margiela-wherever you are.

JOSEPH KOSUTH STUDIO: In an interview, Marcel Duchamp was once asked the difference between sculpture and architecture, to which he responded, "Plumbing." We would begin by asking Maison Martin Margiela: In which way would you define the similarities between your
activity and that of an architect? If, for example, you and Frank Gehry traded jobs for a season, would the result of his production be more like his last building or like your last season? Would the outside of your building reveal how the building-or a building-is made? Would the psychological experience of the person living in it be similar to that of one who wears your clothes?

MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA: Marcel Duchamp always had such clever and funny answers! We wish we could answer "Plumbing" too, but this is such an interesting question that we have to find a proper answer. We think the most important similarity between fashion and architecture is that they share the same starting point: the human body. Both disciplines have a function of protecting-if not sheltering-the body, the flesh, and skin, itself. Then, regarding the process, fashion designers and architects both have to think in terms of proportion, structure, volume, and material. It's interesting that you picked Frank Gehry for the trading game, because he's often called a deconstructivist, though he claims no formal alliance with any particular movement-just like us! We have no idea what his production would look like, but we'd be immensely interested in seeing it. About our building, your suggestion of the outside referring to its production process would for sure be part of the project. Also, why not a building made out of other buildings? A replica of an existing building? An invisible building that would use the trompe l'œil technique to disappear into the city landscape? What about your building? We'd love to see you trading jobs with Jean Nouvel! You've already done some interventions, including architecture, like your incredible Figeac work. But what would the building actually look like that you conceived? Could someone live in it? Or dream about it?