Maison Martin Margiela, Couture, AW13, Paris.
Never a label to play by the rules, the Maison Martin Margiela couture collections always include elements of subversion that play against the hand worked details and construction elements of the garments. This season it was the use of rubber and denim, used in tandem with flowing silk and heavily beaded headpieces, that helped to make the idea of couture a little less rarefied.
The classic denim jean may be the perfect garment to stand as the antithesis of haute couture. Jeans come from a background of workwear and mass production while couture is of course anything but, with today’s haute couture garments created by hand by artisans specifically to the measurements of individual clients.
In a way though maybe it is our perception of something being custom made to our bodies that has changed over time. Having garments made to your body measurements was a much more mundane occurrence once upon a time, before there even was such a thing as buying something “off the peg". Perhaps todays couture client is going to get as much enjoyment out of a perfectly cut pair of everyday jeans as they will get out of an evening dress that can only be worn a handful of times. After all, why shouldn’t we have the custom fit experience for the clothes that we get to live in the most?
See previous Maison Martin Margiela couture collections including Bejewelled Masks at Maison Martin Margiela Couture» and Tailoring Techniques Exposed at Margiela Couture»
Images from Vogue.co.uk»