After graduation in 1980 he worked as a freelance designer for five years. His first attempt to penetrate the international market was made as one of a group of six graduates of Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Art. Soon, Margiela stood out as the leading light of the Belgian school. After the success of the Japanese designers in seventies, it was the Belgians who internationalized fashion design, promulgating their avant-garde vision around the world, revolting against the luxurious fashion world with garments of oversized proportions such as long arms, and with linings, seams and hems on the outside. The concept of deconstruction, also embraced by the aforementioned Rei Kawakubo, is important for the understanding of Martin Margiela’s fashion statement. Margiela famously redesigns by hand objects such as old wigs, canvases and silk scarves into couture garments.

Between 1985 and 1987 he worked for Jean Paul Gaultier, before showing his first collection under his own label, Maison Martin Margiela, in 1989. The same year, he is the first fellowship winner of ANDAM.

Between 1997 to 2003 he became, despite his non-traditional design, the creative director of the Hermès women’s line.

1999 is marked by the launch of a men’s collection called “10”, a mysterious title in keeping with the image of this celebrity with the unknown face.

Margiela’s brand is acquired by the Diesel brand in 2002 which helped its international development – with new boutiques in Tokyo, Paris, New York… – and the creation of complementary lines – 2005, men and women accessorie line, in 2007, sunglasses line, …-. The first Margiela fragrance “Untitled” is launched in collaboration with L’Oréal in 2010.

Martin Margiela introduced a new aesthetic that foreshadowed the trends of the nineties, shaking up the fashion system and redefining its principles of communication. His more-than-meets-the-eye ” approach was the opposite of the “show off” attitude of the previous decade. Starting from the premise of recycling old garments, he deconstructs them to restyle them: the outer fabric and the lining are separated to become vest and dress; a patchwork of old scarves forms a pareu to be worn over jeans transformed into skirts or painted white; a jumper is made out of army socks and dresses out of taped-together plastic slipcovers, all with an economy of means which evokes the deprivations of wartime and depression. Margiela dares to include in his collections copies of old clothes with their origin indicated on the label (a rare forthrightness in a profession in which many designers find their inspiration at the flea market but neglect to mention it). But his suits, jackets and coats also show his capacity to rethink a garment’s structure without any external references. He is also a proponent of the poetry of the unfinished. Art Press magazine quotes him as saying, “I love fashion when it is still in the sketch stage”.

Frédéric Molénac is a designer cum artist who works in spheres of expression ranging from fashion and haute couture through to design and plastic arts.

Graduated from the Studio Berçot, he worked in design studios, first for Claude Montana then for Jean-Paul Gaultier.

In 1987, he launched his own high-end women’s wear label. The same year, his cutting-edge collections won various awards including those from the French ministries of youth and sports and of culture.
The following year, he was named best young European designer in the Cartier Foundation awards.

Highly rated by the French and international press, thanks to his avant-garde touch, Molénac grabbed the attention of Maison Grès where he was appointed art director from 1995 to 1998.

From 2000 to 2002, he put together haute couture collections under his own name.

His interests are not confined to luxury and fashion, and thus he approaches his couture collections more in the spirit of an art designer than by applying constraints dictated by fashion. Molénac uses haute couture as a medium, on the same level as his sculptures and installations which he creates for a private customer base of collectors.

He has also been invited to take part in a wide range of design projects such as the interior design of new underground trains in Shanghai.

Today, he is unveiling OKOON, which bears the distinctive hallmark of his cutting techniques honed since 1987 in his luxury ready-to-wear collections.

For this former assistant of Thierry Mugler and Azzedine Alaïa, fashion design cannot be restricted to the narrow confines of designing clothes. From his education in art history and design at the Studio Berçot, Olivier Guillemin has retained a curiosity for all the diverse aspects of fashion. Since 1993 he has been president of the Comité de Couleur and a member of the Conseil des Métiers d’Art, heading a commission on innovation and contemporary creation.

He also works with industrial groups doing research on new textiles. In his ” Exemplarité ” line, launched in 1994, he experimented with new materials and colours. Functioning as a ” laboratory for industry “, it gave rise to a second bridge line.
Guillemin’s talents as an analyst and speaker have made him an ambassador of French fashion. His advice is sought by key players in luxury goods like Louis Vuitton (LVMH), textile labels like Woolmark, Courtaulds, Dupont de Nemours, Chargeurs and DMC, and cosmetics brands like L’Oreal and Shiseido. His talents as a stylist are much in demand among fashion labels, such as Claude Montana for the men’s line and Paco Rabanne for women’s ready-to-wear from 1991 to 1993. After much experience as a director of fashion shows, performances and exhibits, Olivier Guillemin founded his own company in 1989 after receiving an ANDAM fellowship. In partnership with a group of manufacturers, he launched his women’s ready-to-wear label.

The spaceship of Guillemin’s imagination explores an optimistic vision of fashion, navigating through a galaxy of colourful images where cartoon characters coexist peacefully with pompous personages decked out in ceremonial garb like so many icons from a Sci-Fi-Medieval fantasy. The titles of his collections light-heartedly recount, in polite and frivolous tones, sagas whose heroes, escapees from some dark corner, trip blithely through the most harrowing misadventures: ” Les Globules ” (” Corpuscles “) and ” Les Dents de la Mer ” (” Jaws “) date from 1986,” Voyage dans la Matière ” (” Journey to the Centre of the Material “) from 1994, and ” Expérience Rouge ” (” The Red Experience “) from 1995.
The designs are meant to be fun, with surprises and variable combinations.

Since 2001, he went into partnership with Olivier Védrine, architect, to set up (o,o) paris, an agency which influence sectors as diverse as interior design, fashion, textiles and beauty care and cleverly reinvetns the codes of luxury and tradition.