Martin Margiela

Born in Genk and trained at Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts a year ahead of the Antwerp Six, Martin Margiela assisted Jean Paul Gaultier in Paris from 1984 before founding Maison Martin Margiela with Jenny Meirens in 1988. His debut collections introduced the blank white label with numbers, the four-stitch tag and the deconstructive vocabulary of exposed seams, oversized tailoring, Tabi boots and Replica garments. Across two decades he expanded the house into a numbered line system, including the artisanal Line 0/10 menswear and Line 6 womenswear (later MM6). He stepped away from the brand around 2008 without public farewell, leaving behind one of the most influential conceptual practices in modern fashion.