Martin Margiela, who has wanted to open a store here for a long time, searched both uptown and downtown for that one space with an "I'll-know-it-when-I-see-it" quality. The edgy Belgian designer finally lost patience with the process and decided to open a temporary store in the West Village while the search for a permanent space continues.
"We decided to go ahead," said spokesman Patrick Scallon in a telephone conversation from Paris, where Maison Martin Margiela is based. The 2,075-square-foot boutique at 803 Greenwich Street here will be unveiled to the public today.
How temporary is temporary? "We don't know yet," Scallon said. "It could be for one or two or three seasons. If we want to, we could keep it. We haven't made any of those decisions yet."
The new store is temporary in style as well, befitting Margiela's design philosophy. Boxes, only partially unpacked, are used to support displays. The space is meant to feel like a fly-by-night photo shoot, a conceit achieved though the use of strategically placed photo-studio light umbrellas. A freezer is used as a cash register.
Images of architectural details such as doors, stucco and cornices are projected onto the walls trompe l'oeil-style. The furniture is salvaged from shops and houses across Europe.
The temporary store caps a year of frenetic activity for the fashion house, which is backed by Diesel and had revenues of about $37.2 million last year. The most recent store opened in Taipei in a former fast-food restaurant. In keeping with its dictum to respect existing surroundings, the company retained the burger joint's original fixtures and painted them white. A third store in Paris opened in September on the Left Bank's Rue de Grenelle.
"New York is the third store we've opened in quick succession," Scallon said. "We've launched quite a lot of things in the past year," he said, referring to new men's and women's shoe and accessories lines, which launched in the fall.
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