Perhaps one of the saddest news that happened to fashion to date. Excitement, to some, but for the loyal and true fans of Martin himself, it is like trading your very soul. Maison Martin Margiela isn't different with any labels that collaborated with the Swedish fast fashion behemoth. Lanvin, Versace, Marni, even Comme des Garcons did a little 'knock-off-ing" of their designs for the mass consumer. So why not MMM?
No. Like the previous labels, it is very much easy to downgrade a dress, or a skirt, or a shirt. Lanvin, for example managed to make party frocks that cost more than half cheaper than its mainline. But how do we downgrade a philosophy- values that is the very foundation of the Maison Martin Margiela. How could they turn against what Martin has stood for building this house? There has been a lot of commercialism undergoing the Maison these years. They recently jumped in the perfume industry, which stayed very exclusive and hard to find months back and now available to mainstream, not so but it is going there. Their eyewear line, Line 8, drowned in the ultra fashion forwardness of its Incognito predecessors a few years back. The newly refurbished website, their massive presence now in social networks like Pinterest, Tumblr, and well Facebook is scarrying me to death the house will go global- not that it is a bad decision by its management, but it tries to challenge the house's codes of creativity and will kill the exclusivity and the elusiveness of the brand.
And talking about going global, this collaboration will certainly put MMM to another dimension. Fans who can not afford mainline can have a lick of its "coolness" the house is known for.But, really? We love the house being exclusive and chase after its unusual pieces and willing to eat instant noodles for a month just to have that certain hype.
The bottom of the bottomline isn't about this business strategy that will make the house on every young teenager's lips. It's about how we value the difference between what is past and going forth. This decision may not have a negative effect on the brand and losing its core values would not be as bad; but, it would have been nice if the house stayed true to what he has left them.
This strategy will be a hit or a miss.
ReplyDeleteit will be 50/50 i guess.MMM isn't really popular, label-wise and design-wise like Versace and Lanvin. this collab will be a hit in cities where Martin Margiela is huge like Paris, Tokyo, Hongkong and London. Other than that it will be a flop. Marni collaboration did not sell well here in Dubai being a less known brand. How much more this?:)
ReplyDeleteExactly. I was surprised that they are going mainstream. Hard to compete in the fashion industry especially for avant-garde labels. It would be great for us though that we can afford to buy but then again in will no longer be indie. let's see how they will handle their market positioning.
ReplyDeletei can not and will not buy anyting from this collab. I'm poor but i can't.haha
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