Martin Margiela is one of my favorite designers, bar none. This little video is a great glimpse into his Paris atelier, and, in a little over three minutes, it lets you see why he’s one of the most creative and brilliant designers around today. I’ve mentioned that I’m strangely mesmerized by watching designers/their teams at work. There’s a part of my brain that just latches onto the creation of clothes; I’m like a child watching a magic show. My brother has been bringing up his argument that high fashion is just clothes made purposefully “weird” and “different” so that the designers can charge exorbitant prices for them, but I think this video is a bit of a counter-argument to that. I can understand when some people look at a garment made out of bungee cords and say, “Ok, he’s just trying to make clothes out of weird materials.” There is, of course, a lot more to it than that, but I can’t say I necessarily expect the average non-fashion-obsessed person to understand that. But, for some reason, I feel like if you see Margiela’s team at work, meticulously cutting and piecing together mosaic jacket pieces (oh, that mosaic jacket! my heart nearly burst with joy at that), you can see that it’s not just a matter of using unusual materials, it’s a careful crafting in a way that’s both meticulous and simply ingenius. This isn’t some slapped-together paper mache top, a grotesque stab at clothing, it’s approaching an art form (fashion as art quandaries aside). I’m so sad Msr. Margiela’s retired now, I really do hope his team can maintain his level of innovation and vision.

Maison Martin Margiela : Atelier Artisanal from Materialiste Paris on Vimeo.