Maison Martin Margiela
Born in Genk, Belgium, Martin Margiela studied fashion at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. In 1988 he founded Maison Martin Margiela together with creative and business partner Jenny Meirens. Despite keeping himself anonymous during his career, everything he did left a mark on the fashion industry: from the unexpected places where he showed his collections – abandoned metro stations and hospitals, supermarkets and even a graveyard – to his signature blank white label, and of course his grounbreaking creations, like the split-toe Tabi boot, the oversize garments, the exposed linings, the Aids Awareness Tee, just to name a few. In 1997 the white label main line was joined by a new label: marked in black with numbers 0-23, the circled number indicates to which line the garment corresponds. The same year Margiela launched Line 6, later called MM6, the contemporary collection for women with a casual and avant-garde approach. Martin Margiela left his label in 2009. Maison Margiela creative director is now John Galliano.