Martin Margiela has never staged a show for his men s collection, opting instead for intimate showroom presentations. This time, he commissioned five photographers to interpret the new season and then mounted an exhibition of the results, with the showroom reconfigured as a white-walled gallery space. It was the kind of intelligent alternative Margiela has always excelled at, and it underscored a return to peak condition for the designer. The past few seasons have seemed so wayward, with their West Coast indulgences and their Replica sidelines, that it was a relief to get back to smart, thoughtful, even meaningful clothes. For spring, Margiela toyed with optical illusions: a print carried over from shirt to waistcoat, a pinstripe from pants to sneakers, a T-shirt and jacket in the same ticking stripe. A waistcoat zipped to a pair of trousers, and an evening shirt attached to tuxedo pants in the same way, which made for an idiosyncratic but accessible variation on the season s appetite for jumpsuits. Shoes had pieces removed, creating a shadow effect. This vaguely forensic notion was more realized in jackets with embedded details—lapels, buttons, a pocket flap concealed under the outer "skin" of the garment. Same thing with a biker jacket with embedded epaulets and pocket flaps. There are few designers as accomplished at communicating the inner life of clothes, but in the midst of life, there was…a target T-shirt with bullet holes running front to back. A showy gesture perhaps, but something to ponder during fashion week s dark nights of the soul.
