For the past 16 years, charity t-shirts benefiting World AIDS Day have been part of every collection from Maison Martin Margiela. The t-shirts are produced in different colours with contrasted text every season, and bear the following quote in English:

“There is more action to be done to fight AIDS than to wear this t-shirt, but it’s a good start”

In addition to the seasonal English version of the t-shirt, this year the cult label has decided to issue the t-shirt in another language than English for the first time ever – and the language they have chosen is Japanese. The limited edition t-shirts featuring the above quote in kanji-characters, will be available exclusively at Maison Martin Margiela stores around the globe today December 1st, on World AIDS Day.

Each year, the maison donates a percentage from the sales to a French charity called AIDES – an organisation dedicated to the fight against HIV/AIDS. Over the years 170 000 t-shirts have been sold and the sales have brought a contribution of more than 700 000 Euro to the charity. There is perhaps more actions to be done to fight HIV and AIDS than wearing a t-shirt, but hey, as the maison say themselves – it’s a good start.

Photo source: Julien Oppenheim/Selectism

MMM ’20′ The exhibition is not a classic retrospective exhibition. It’s probably the best fashion exhibition I have been to. I will show you the reason slowly…

One of the most remarkable characteristics of Maison Martine Margiela is its consistent use of white, or better said, all possible shades of white, in the collection, in the interiors of its offices, shops and showrooms and even invitations. I have previously blogged about the new released perfume ‘Untitled’ which was in a white medical-look-a-like bottom.

MMM is especially known for its deconstructivist approach, its fashion shows in unexpected places and its taste for recovery and recycling materials. Entrance hall has a projection of catwalk video in front of a line of statues of ‘Tailoring / Shoulders’. The shoulder is an important element in the MMM silhouette.

Tabi boots have also become one of their most iconic objects. They are inspired by Japanese tabi which are ankle-high socks with a split for the big toe and are worn with traditional Japanese sandals. Tabi boots has the split for the big toe from pumps to platform sandals to boots.

More details and images after the jump…

The covering of materials and garments with paint is also a significant trait in MMM’s oeuvre. Not only clothing, but also furniture, as well as store, showroom and office interiors are repainted white. Recycled garments regain a new surface texture after repainting in white or silver.

Under dress cut to form a sleeveless blouse, partly laminated with silver foil.

Cotton T-shirt with printing that suggests a painted-over effect, however still remains its softness.

A mannequin dressed with 2 different fur coats is split in the middle by a large mirror. And from either side of the mirror, you will see an illusion of a full garment from the reflection. There’re lots of brilliant ideas being used into the curation work of the exhibition, which makes the exhibition not feeling too aged but very modernist and futuristic.

Below image shows a terrific creation of layering. White dinner jacket is worn with layers of rhinestone necklace, then cleverly semi covers up the blingness with a tulle shawl on the front of the jacket.

A tailored jacket with embellished mat sequins in black, grey and white.

Classical Wardrobe area shows a countless variations of trench coat. Very different from a classic Burberry trench, MMM trench plays cutting details on shoulders (like picture below). The cut of the shoulder line is inspired by a seat cover.

Trench coat evoking the look of someone sheltering from the rain underneath the coat, with the collar ending at the top of the head. The neck and shoulder lines have been elongated so that the coat can be worn as a hood. When not worn high up, the collar envelops the shoulders.

A series of garments are displayed flat on the wall. Some of them are inspired by our normal daily objects such as supermarket plastic shoppers.

Different materials are constructed together to form this amazing pair magic foot number.

These are installation for the men’s collections at ‘An Exhibition Before Regurbishment’, in order to advertise the opening of Maison Martin Margiela store in Hong Kong in July 2006.

Here’s a long magic wall with large pewter colour mirrors in different framed location. If you stand there a bit longer, each mirror will light up in unpredictable order and shows a show box behind.

Each show box contains an iconic piece.

This sculpt shoulder T-shirt is actually… ….

… …embellished with hundreds of buttons. The hours amount for each creation was labeled on the glass case as well.

Then…finally I walked into the Birthday Room. Compilation of images from the fashion shows, films and photography are showing here on each side of 3 walls. You will be sitting on white-sheet-covered Margiela sofa. The first wall I sat down and watched was showing 3 video footage of 3 Margiela fans showing a wardrobe diaries from London, Munich and Amsterdam.

The other 2 walls are installation of different sizes of screens showing shows, MMM office interiors and interviews. Background music was very upbeat. I tried to ‘shazam’ the music on iPhone, however, they must be too cool songs, so the computer doesn’t recognize any of them.

The whole exhibition is very worth going. Not only with a fair £6 on ticket but with the entire modern technology it contains I really think it’s the best fashion exhibition.

And naturally there’re a bunch of well-dressed people there. And here I want to show you…well naturally…their backs.

Line 13 has always been a strange collection line of MMM, full of surprise. Theme is always ‘the object’, which could be everything and anything from bottle opener to desk lamp. New object of this Spring Summer 2010 is actually not too strange to all of us as we have often seen and admired  it in MMM boutique—-the fake french door wallpaper.

I bet many of us have been wishing to purchase it in the past years and now it’s dream comes true! Diesel group might be doing a hard job on MMM label without its legendary designer, however, with the massive finance support Diesel is definitely trying to find a way out!

MMM line 13 – new white object
http://www.maisonmartinmargiela.com/en/news/index.html

It’s called ‘untitled’ which seems like some unspeaking magic and it looks like a little clinic bottle containing some fresh green spring water.  Also, I read somewhere, that you can use the bottle for other purpose when it’s finished. However, I need to work out how to open the bottle top later.

Follow the instruction printed on inside of box lid, I need to cut the wrapped cotton cords to be able to open the bottle.

First spray on my wrist, it smells a little herbal-ish or even manly…then it develops into a fresh cut-grass smell…which is all very matching to Margiela’s unique fashion spirit…as time pass by…it turns into a womanly smell…fresh like a soap (definitely not show gel) washed your body in the summer…More technical words from L’Oreal as it was created under the auspices of L’Oreal—’This perfume includes of course the codes of the brand, while cultivating its personality. Based on green floral notes, we can smell galbanum, boxwood, mastic, incense, bitter orange … as if they had been gathered after the rain.’

It’s currently selling exclusively to Selfridges in London and it murdered £54.50 in my bank account for a precious 50ml. I hope you will like it too.

They reminded me a bit of the white/dark green trousers Olivier Theyskens is wearing in this picture from the Jak and Jil blog.

According to the comments section they’re by Maison Martin Margiela. I can’t find any pictures of them from any of the label’s runway shows that confirm this though. Instead I think they look more similar to the ones the model is wearing at 2:50 in this video of the Petar Petrov show.

Either way, they look great and are definitely on my wishlist for this season!

Photo source: Denimanic, Jak and Jil

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