For Martin Margiela there was nothing that couldn’t be turned into jewelry: a nut or a bouquet of boxwood branches picked up in the park just before the fashion show.

The “Picque-Bouchon” necklace is made with a cork stopper, AW 1989-90.  the instructions for use are delivered in a film you can see above, and during the exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. ‘The DIY option runs throughout the work of Martin Margiela,’ explains curator Marie-Sophie Carron de la Carrière from Musée des Arts Décoratifs. She referred also to the dress and the neo-mesh top formed by assemblages of rings or chains, and vintage pearl necklaces – revealing a constant obsession with objects that have lived…

The recovered objects were hung, threaded or tied on a braid or a ‘bolduc’, a cotton ribbon cut on the bias, used by seamstresses. Monochrome, white or black, it is wrapped around the wrist or at the top of the arm, passing over and over through the fingers. A leather shoe lace is simply tied around the neck or fitted with a loop to turn into a toe ring.

MARGIELA, LES ANNÉES HERMÈS, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, from 22 March to 2 September 2018.