Martin Margiela, Spring 2000

[helena]

thanks for this cerfas - I find it interesting & although the clothes (I think) would be difficult to wear, I guess its important to move things forward when designers intellectualise - i.e here the notion of sizing. its important to question our aesthetic norms.

 

[droogist]

and metal-on-metal : yes. The timing is a lot of what is great about this.
Droogist, I agree that they worked the oversize better in later collections, but there I still like the moment when an idea is first realized as something worth doing. It's imperfect, but interesting still. You are right though, many women would wear these and just feel silly. Do you like Spring 01? I think that's a gorgeous one, but it's even later than this.

I did like S/S 2001, in fact my wedding dress came from that collection (it was a very low-key wedding)

It's not even the look of the S/S 2000 collection that irks me so much as the blind simplicity with which the concept was executed. I understand that they were trying to make a point, but for me the "oversizing" was so literal that some of the results bordered on cynical. For example those sunglasses: they were identical in every respect to the giant cheap gag sunglasses you get at fairs, and MM were selling them for $50 or so. And there was really no discernable difference between the tees and oxford shirts made for this collection, and the ones that are produced on a regular basis in size XXXXL for unusually large men.

Actually, once the clothes hit the stores, the concept kind of turned out to be a moot point. I worked in a shop that sold Margiela when this collection was current, and I can attest that the majority of the oversize pieces sold to, well, oversized people. Even then, it was a tough sell; you try convincing reasonably sane and fashion-savvy adults to spend exorbitant amounts of money on clothes that they could get for a tenth of the price at the nearest men's big & tall shop. You can talk about "quality" until you're blue in the face, but the fact is that sometimes a really, really, really, really, really big shirt - even one with a Margiela label on it - is just a really, really, really, really, really big shirt.

 

[cerfas]

You're welcome, Helena

 

[SanDiego]

shoes are great silhouette horrible. I can just see the public doing this all wrong!

I agree with droogist!