Maison Martin Margiela

Maison Martin Margiela was a Belgian fashion house founded in Antwerp in 1988 by Martin Margiela, operating until his departure in 2009. The house became one of the most conceptually rigorous and influential forces in late twentieth-century fashion, known for its anonymous presentation, deconstructed garments, blank labels, and systematic refusal of conventional fashion spectacle. Its shows, lookbooks, invitations and printed communications were themselves objects of design intelligence — often photocopied, handwritten, or deliberately unmarked.

The objects gathered here are printed ephemera and publications relating to Maison Martin Margiela: invitations, lookbooks, artist books, and printed matter issued in connection with the house’s collections and collaborations. Each piece records a specific moment in the house’s practice and the printed form through which it entered circulation.

  • nterior spread of c. 2002 Mark Borthwick Social Documentaries Amid this Piste, self-published photocopy edition. Double-page spread showing two grayscale Xerox photographs of a woman standing facing the camera against a plain studio wall: left image showing her in a dark zip-up top and a pale pleated midi skirt with white cuffs or wristbands; right image showing the same woman in a dark belted jacket and trousers with white cuffs, standing slightly further from the wall. Both images printed as horizontal ba Interior spread of c. 2002 Mark Borthwick Social Documentaries Amid this Piste, self-published photocopy edition. Left page showing a typed poem headed 'In order of things.' in small serif type, thirteen lines of verse beginning 'The margin of flowers, hope-cause afterwards / by events dirty fucking away.' Right page showing a grayscale Xerox photograph of a lone young conifer tree in an open flat landscape, two thin bare saplings beside it, dark treeline and pale sky in the background. Page number 4 at low

    MARK BORTHWICK — Social Documentaries Amid this Piste, Self-published, c. 2002

    MARK BORTHWICK — Social Documentaries Amid this Piste, Self-published, c. 2002

  • Original c. 2002 Mark Borthwick Xerox edition of 2000-1, Maison Martin Margiela. Front cover showing a plain unprinted tan-beige softcover with no title, text or image — only the warm, slightly uneven surface of the photocopied paper wrapper, with a faint inset rectangular panel visible at centre, and visible age toning and handling wear. 21.0 × 27.2 cm. nterior spread of c. 2002 Mark Borthwick Xerox edition of 2000-1, Maison Martin Margiela. Double-page spread showing two near-identical grayscale Xerox photographs of a woman seated in profile on a white folding chair against a plain pale ground: left image showing her in full-length dark trousers and ankle boots, right image showing the same pose with a shorter skirt and ankle boots, hands resting on knees, hair in a low ponytail. The diptych presents the same body and posture with a single change of garme

    MARK BORTHWICK — Xerox: 2000-1, Maison Martin Margiela, c. 2002

    MARK BORTHWICK — Xerox: 2000-1, Maison Martin Margiela, c. 2002