Lasting Appeal

Slow fashion is a term that’s used a lot today but it was 20 years ago that MARTIN MARGIELA explored the concept at Hermès. Antwerp’s MoMu may be honouring his work with Margiela, The Hermès Years but, rather than being a retrospective, it showcases just how ahead of his time the designer was. 

- Priyanka Khanna

“Twenty years ago, in 1997, Martin Margiela was invited to present his project to be the artistic director of women’s ready-to-wear at Hermès. When he met Jean-Louis Dumas, my father, he described Hermès in seven words: Hermès is comfort, quality, everlasting, hand-made, tradition and elegance in movement. Martin put the right words to describe Hermès, and he got the job!”

It’s one of those perfect summer days in Antwerp, and Pierre-Alexis Dumas, the current artistic director at Hermès, is addressing the 250-odd journalists who have flown in from across the world and been whisked away by train to this surprise destination. A lunch of fresh cheese and fish is being served under twinkling chandeliers in the courtyard of St Felix Pakhuis, a large warehouse space, while Dumas throws light on the significance of the Hermès theme for 2017: ‘Le Sens de l’Objet.’

He continues, “Twenty years later, it dawned on me that we need to question once again who we are, where we come from, where we are going, our roots, our identity, our strengths. We need to understand Martin Margiela’s legacy in order to continue to reinvent ourselves and be Hermès, nothing less, nothing more.”

SETTING THE STAGE

That Antwerp is chosen to reveal this year’s theme made sense on many levels. The Belgian city is the home of the original Antwerp Six, the group of legendary designers who graduated from Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts and were known for their avant garde style. Other graduates include Martin Margiela (who served as creative director of Hermès from 19972003 and whose work was being celebrated at the Mode-Museum Provincie Antwerpen or MoMu) and the house’s current artistic director Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski.