By Maison Martin Margiela
Located in Chicago, IL
Contemporary artist Martin Margiela, while initially a fashion designer, gave TheMet's Costume Institute from his seminal 1997 "Wordrobe" collection a couture trio, which he titled "Drapery Study: study of draping on bust, half dress and backless vest", whereafter in 2016 the museum made a rare purchase of another of his 1997 ensembles. Our couture bodice from the Artisanal line "0" by Margiela in 1997 features its iconic "ghost" off-white four-corner-stitched blank brand tag.
But ours is a one-piece variation of the half dresses and backless vests that Margiela famously associated with Stockman dress forms, which have since become some of the most coveted pieces of 20th-Century fashion. This collection earned him the role of Hermes creative director that same year, whereafter his first collection for the venerable luxury brand debuted in 1998.
TheMet wrote about its designer-gifted 1997 ensemble in its summary of New Clothes Acquisition of the 1990s: "to exemplify the conceptual basis of dressmaking Margiela's paramount concern to return to the raw materials of dress often exchanges finish and finesse to something more akin to process in modern art".
Like that ensemble, our satin-finish black rectangular-panel garment can be draped in multiple ways to create different functions because of its unusual non-fabric soft material Tyvek and the way that the two black grosgrain ribbons are attached. Based on our experience with other Martin Margiela limited-edition Artisanal objects, there may be two that exist in black (see our other listing for the boxed set including a white harness/lingerie).
TheMet also acquired from the 1997 Maison Martin Margiela Stockman...
Category
1990s Belgian Evening Dresses and Gowns