Maison Martin Margiela extended its approach to clothing into the materials surrounding each presentation. Show invitations were made from existing printed matter, handmade materials and ordinary objects, with the practical details incorporated into their original formats. Many also referred directly to the venue or structure of the event. Produced between 1989 and the Spring/Summer 2006 season, these examples show how the house reconsidered what an invitation could be while retaining its basic function.
1. The Classified Page
The house’s second Paris show was announced through a classified advertisement in Paris Boum Boum, a free weekly distributed around the city. Placed among personal advertisements and second-hand listings, the notice provided the date and address for the March 16, 1989 presentation at Le Globo on Boulevard de Strasbourg. The advertisement reportedly cost 25 francs. Members of the team collected copies of the newspaper, removed the relevant page and mailed it to invited guests. Instead of producing separate stationery, the house used an existing piece of mass-printed information as the invitation.
2. Children’s Drawings
For Spring/Summer 1990, the house worked with schools to create individual invitations drawn by children on pieces of corrugated kraft cardboard. “Martin Margiela été 90” appeared among coloured flowers, stars and other illustrations, making each version different. The card was accompanied by a photocopied map of Paris’s 20th arrondissement, marked with an arrow toward Rue Josseaume, and a calendar page for Thursday, October 19. The show took place on a disused playground, where children from the surrounding neighbourhood joined editors, buyers and other invited guests.
3. Black and White Invitations
Access to the Spring/Summer 1993 collection was divided between two simultaneous presentations at locations on opposite sides of Montmartre Cemetery. One showed the collection in white, while the other presented it in black. Each guest received an invitation corresponding to one of the two versions, along with a note stating that it was valid only at the address provided. Those who arrived at the wrong location were refused entry. The colour and address printed on the invitation therefore determined which half of the collection each recipient was able to see.
4. The Conciergerie Medal
When Maison Martin Margiela and Comme des Garçons presented consecutive shows at the Conciergerie on October 14, 1997, invitations for both houses were delivered together in the same envelope. Margiela’s invitation consisted of a gold-coloured Conciergerie medal placed inside a stamped transparent plastic coin holder. Inside the venue, twenty men in white coats pushed covered clothing racks toward five tall structures wrapped in white cotton, while film and sound introduced the collection. Using an object associated with the Conciergerie connected the invitation directly to the location of the presentation.
5. The Porcelain Plate
For the Spring/Summer 2006 menswear presentation, the house printed its invitation directly onto a plain white porcelain plate measuring approximately 20 centimetres across. Black handwritten-style text listed the presentation dates, appointment hours, telephone numbers and address at 175 Rue du Faubourg Poissonnière in Paris. It also included the entrance and door codes required to reach the space. The plate retained the restrained typography of the house’s printed communications while replacing paper with a familiar domestic object.
