Yesterday, the Belgian designer Glenn Martens made his debut as the new creative director at Maison Margiela, presenting an artisanal couture collection that managed to transcend the already high expectations that surrounded the occasion. In a cavernous space in Paris, the show opened with two models wearing clear plastic gowns, their hands held daintily at their waist, while harpsichord music played. It was haunting and solemn. After about 10 or so looks, Billy Corgan’s unmistakable voice came through the speakers singing “Disarm”—first a cappella, and later the classic version we all know and love from the Smashing Pumpkins’ essential 1993 album Siamese Dream. As the final looks walked the runway, the song’s chorus (“The killer in me is the killer in you, / I send this smile over to you,”) with its beautiful string arrangement, played over and over. It was an emotional crescendo that culminated with an acid yellow ruffled dress, the brightest look in the collection, which—at least to this writer—looked like a smile punctuating the collection.
Corgan himself was in attendance at the show, accompanied by his wife, Chloe Mendel Corgan. Throughout his career, the Pumpkins front man has had many indelible fashion moments. Who can forget the black “Zero” T-shirt and silver front-zip pants? I also remember 1998’s Adore and 2000’s Machina/The Machines of God, the latter of which saw the band go in a dark goth direction (with a wardrobe chock-full of Olivier Theyskens to match). I reached out to Corgan to find out how the Martens-Corgan collaboration came about, his thoughts on one of the most important fashion debuts of the year, and if and when he may go out on tour.
Vogue: How did this collaboration come about?
Billy Corgan: They reached out—gosh, it seems like about a month ago. They wanted to use “Disarm,” which is a song I wrote—and I said they could do whatever they liked with it. I’m cool with it.
I had no expectations when I was invited to the show; we were in Paris anyway for a trip, so I thought, “This is nice!” I hadn’t been to a fashion show in probably over 20 years. I think Valentino was the last fashion show I was at. This is the world my wife [who is the CEO of House of Gilles, and designer Gilles Mendel’s daughter] lives in, not me. Of course, I know Margiela. I used to buy Margiela back in the ’90s, so it’s not like I didn’t think it was going to be beautiful, but whatever expectations I had, I was just blown away.
I knew they were going to use the song, but I had no idea that the song was going to be the core of the presentation. It was surreal because I’m both feeling the song—it’s my song—and then I’m watching this beautiful work go by, and I thought it was magical. I loved it. The show was amazing. The use of my song was amazing. It was a pretty mind-blowing experience.
Did you get to meet Glenn Martens after the show?
I’m not somebody who wants to bum-rush my way backstage. I’m often put in the same position. Especially after a show, it’s a lot of intensity, energy, and emotion; so we went upstairs and hung out at the party. [But after], we went and talked to him. He told us that he’d been listening to the song for about three days in a row as they were preparing for the show. It was very flattering. He said, “I’d love to do something again,” and I said, “Look, you could use my music into infinity if this is the way you’re going to use my music.”
How does it feel when people make connections like this with your music? It’s Glenn’s debut show at Margiela, and it plays such a big part in the message that he’s trying to transmit.
I don’t know what it’s like to launch a show like he did, but I certainly know what it’s like to put yourself in the position of all that pressure and all that expectation. And I felt very honored to be a part of that. As somebody who routinely stands onstage in front of 40 or 50 thousand people, as the gowns were going by, I was like, “Oh my God, I want to wear that. Oh my God, I want to wear that.” So I did mention that last night to Glenn, and I said, “Man, I want to wear some of this stuff onstage. It’s so tremendous.” That’s the greatest compliment I can pay somebody, to say, “Oh my God, I would die to wear that.”
What do you remember about working with Olivier Theyskens? When I was a teenager, I remember being like, “Oh my god, my favorite band and my favorite designer are coming together!”
It was years ago, around 2000, when the Pumpkins did the Machina album, and I think Olivier was maybe 22 years old. I remember saying to him, “Just do what you want.” You know what I mean? Go crazy. Of course, we didn’t know it was going to cost as much as it did, so when we got the bill, we were like, “Oh my God.” But looking back, I don’t regret it.
I think it’s funny because one sort of thing that people call me is an OG goth. I mean, I was a goth in 1985, and it had been around a little bit in England, but not very long in America. So to see goth style and culture become such a big part of not only fashion but general culture, there’s something sort of beautiful about that. So looking back on what Oliver created with me at the time, obviously he was doing the heavy lifting, but I had the vision; I wanted what he had. And again, I don’t regret it for a second, because when you look back, how many bands in 1999 or 2000 were willing to take that on? This is all before the dark Batman movies and all that stuff that came later. We get a certain amount of credit for bringing steam punk into the mainstream in the mid ’90s, but I’m much more proud of us planting our flag in goth.
The costumes in “Stand Inside Your Love” were made by Olivier Theyskens.
I was going to ask you about the Machina and Adore eras, when fashion did play such a part of the message you were trying to transmit. You say that you’re not a fashion person, but I feel like you secretly are.
I think of fashion in the realm of art, and then art within the realm of performance. But I realize—and especially being in Paris this time—you see all these elaborate characters sort of basically living in real life the way I live onstage. And oftentimes people in my life, including my wife, who’s obviously in fashion with her father, they chastise me for not owning my look, but I’m more comfortable with that person onstage than in life. Margiela dressed us for the show, and last night she kept saying, “You look so good in these clothes. Why can’t you wear this in your daily life?” So we’re definitely going to be looking at his work going forward. But I’ve always been somebody that didn’t feel like I needed to act like a rock star in life. I felt like a rock star in my mind, and that was enough for me.
We’re planning a possible big tour next year, and watching what Glenn did last night, I think he would probably be the first person I would call if I’m going to do this very elaborate show next year, because I would sort of open up to the floor to, “Can I adapt some of these looks that I’ve seen, understanding that they’re obviously couture,” but also, “Hey, if you have five spare minutes when you’re not running an empire.” I would say, last night, what really impacted me was when you see what a master can do in a particular way.
