MARGIELA TOKYO STORE SET TO OPEN
PARIS — Enigmatic Belgian designer Martin Margiela is set to open his first freestanding store, WWD has learned.
To be opened on Sept. 22 in Tokyo, the shop will occupy a residential building and showcase the iconoclastic designer’s women’s and men’s ready-to-wear collections.
A spokesman for the house confirmed the opening, but declined to give the location or provide further details.
The store opening represents a major public step for the intensely private designer, who refuses to be photographed or interviewed face-to-face. In spite of his secretive nature, the Belgian-born designer has a reputation for stirring up controversy and pushing fashion ideas to the extreme.
For his fall collection, he continued to experiment with aggressively oversized silhouettes, including gargantuan trousers and cardigans.
Besides doing his own signature collections, Margiela designs women’s ready-to-wear for Hermes.
One of the group of Belgian designers that became known as the Antwerp Six, he got his start in fashion working as an assistant for Jean Paul Gaultier. Margiela founded his own house in 1988.