Martin Margiela is considered the honorary seventh member of the Antwerp Six group of designers who emerged from Antwerp Fashion Academy in 1980 (though Margiela himself graduated in 1979). Margiela moved to Paris in 1984, working for three years as a design assistant to Jean Paul Gaultier. In 1988, Maison Martin Margiela presented its debut womenswear collection. In 1998, Maison Martin Margiela debuted a menswear collection, known as line 10.

there was something cathartic about watching as bonkers a show as the one John Galliano put on for Maison Margiela’s Artisanal collection—a place where he can be free to channel nonsensicalness and throw fabric around to his heart’s content.