Martin Margiela claimed San Francisco in the 1970 s as the inspiration for his latest menswear. But the resolutely low-profile designer didn t have Castro Street clones in mind; he was thinking more of the last gasp of boho Beat culture, with a dash of hippie for good measure. This meant a T-shirt printed with a sunset-over-the-Golden-Gate image, a jacket whose reverse was covered with studs, a pair of patchwork trousers, and sneakers scribbled with slogans like "My grass is blue." Margiela s man was more intriguing, though, when he went Vegas in electric-blue leathers, a washable cotton tux, and shoes given a gold spray-gun treatment that will flake for added character. Could it be that Martin is turning less shy and retiring?
The shoes were part of Margiela s Replica program, an exercise in sartorial archaeology that re-creates vintage items using the original material and construction. For spring, the Replicas included a leather jacket with zip-off sleeves from Berlin in the 1980 s, an evening jacket from London in the early sixties, and a cricket sweater from Beverly Hills in 1974. That might sound arcane, but it is part of Margiela s quiet genius that what could have been an archly academic exercise produced such wearable, covetable clothes.
