Showroom, 2 Bis, Passage Ruelle,
Paris, 18th Arrondissement
March 4-19, 1999, by appointment
The Martin Margiela collection was presented in the Paris showroom at 2 Bis, Passage Ruelle. Instead of an invitation, guests received a tax with a date and time to visit the showroom They arrived to find a small painted white screening room with three rows of old movie seats set up in the artisanal" studio.
Before the screening began, guests were offered popcorn and red wine. The him was made by photographer Marina Faust, following Margiela's concept. It had been shot in the same screening room two weeks earlier and featured Paula Girardi and Kristina de Coninck, to a soundtrack of "Why Can't We Live Together?" by Timmy Thomas. Outside, a laminated poster for the him, showing a models legs clad in jeans covered with thigh-high socks, was displayed on the door. Stills from the film were also on view. Once they'd left the screening room, the audience found "the white-coated staff clinically deciphering the collection beneath the former tactors white gauze-encased lights.”
Serving red wine was a Mason Martin Margiela tradition. Associated with happiness and celebration, the drink was handed out in plastic cups at each show to attendees who were more accustomed to drinking glasses or champagne. The cork was iconic. In France, to display the origin of exceptional vintages, the cork is hung over the neck of the bottle and placed sideways between two metal prongs on a chain.
One of the accessories from the Fall-Winter 1999-00 collection was a necklace with a single pendant inspired by these pique-bouchons.
This memento was inscribed with the words: "Place the cork from the first bottle of wine you drink in the year 2000 here." As with the champagne cork necklace from Fall-Winter 1989-90, the pique-bouchon necklace summed up Margiela’s interest in transforming an object into a piece of clothing or accessory, a concept he'd return to throughout his career.
Dress linings worn as dresses appeared once again. They were embellished with necklaces made of the same material and attached to the back of the dress. Jeans, Tabi shoes, and jackets were painted in an antique silver color. A model wore a large retro brown corduroy mens vest with a shawl collar and crossover closure at the waist with an attached shirtfront covering the deep décolleté. Another had on a long, enveloping dress that crossed over like a shawl at the bust and wrapped around at the hips. Four ties knotted in back held each of the knit Shetland, wool, and Lurex panels in place.
Once again, the collection’s true point of pride was an object morphed into a garment: a down-billed comforter that had been transformed into a winter coat. Two long, detachable sleeves were inserted with zippers into an actual cotton-baffled eiderdown. The edges were bordered with brown cotton cord. The printed label of the Italian duvet and comforter manufacturer. Feather Light, appeared on one of the coats bottom corners, as world on an actual comforter. In the him tor the collection, old floral designs were projected onto the white surface of the coat. which could be worn alone or encased in a duvet cover. The covers were made from old 1970s-era floral sheets that had been over-dyed. and old khaki army blankets. A special opaque PVC bag with a Christmas garland that the designer had slipped inside was used to protect it from the rain.
The ensemble could be worn with a pair of minimalist jeans, whose details had been removed and high wool gaiters meant to be worn over the shoes. The duvet coat was such a success that the New York Times featured a two-page spread by Bill Cunningham, illustrated with pictures of women wearing the coat in the street.
While the approach of the new millennium had prompted worries of an apocalyptic recession due to a potential bug in global computing systems, Margiela sought to end the 1990s on a positive note. At the end of his film for the Fall-Winter 1999-00 collection, an odd, long black leather glove was shown with a clenched fist. As it unfolded, the shape of the glove was revealed. It was a Tabi mitten, dividing the hand into three parts by separating the index finger and thumb from the rest of the hand. It held a message written on a small strip of paper, similar to those found in Chinese fortune cookies: "You will be fortunate in everything you put your hands to."
