Maison Martin Margiela, S/S 2003 Artisanal Painted Police Vest

As Martin Margiela quoted; ‘For us our ‘artisanal production’ (for men and women's garments they may be identified by the 0 (zero) encircled on their label), as we have said here, we rework existing garments, fabrics and objects to recreate new garments and accessories. We first adopted this approach for our inaugural collection for Spring/Summer 1989 and it has been an integral and important element of each and every one of our collections since’.

Margiela and the team ruthlessly searched through Parisian flea markets to find vintage garments looking forward to giving them purpose, reworking existing garments, fabrics and objects to recreate new garments and accessories.

Here we see an incredible example from the Maison’s artisanal line, constructed using a vintage police shirt which has been artisanally made into a vest and covered entirely in black paint. Patches have been removed after the painting process to showcase the original navy cotton sateen along with the epaulettes. Lastly, a rubber coating has been applied over the existing patches on the right chest.

Size L.

Chest: 55cm
Shoulder: 45cm
Length: 68cm

Condition 9/10.