MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA INVITED DESIGNER PITTI IMMAGINE UOMO 69
11 - 14 January 2006
Fortezza da Basso
Florence
Pitti Immagine Uomo, is the world renowned bi-annual, Florence based, trade fair for men’s wear. Attended by leading producers and buyers of men’s garments and accessories from all over the world, January 2006 sees the 69th consecutive Pitti Immagine Uomo.
Maison Martin Margiela is the Paris based fashion design House founded in 1988 on the occasion of its first collection of Pret a Porter for women for Spring Summer 1989. The House began to propose its garments for men exactly ten years later for Spring / Summer 1999. Since its inception and especially over the past few years the Maison Martin Margiela has been in constant evolution refining its creative expression and proposing an ever greater range of garments, shoes and accessories for women and men.
For each fair Pitti Immagine invites a fashion designer to express his/her creativity in as free a manner as possible by offering a ‘carte blanche’ to devise an event or exhibition over the duration of the fair.
Maison Martin Margiela is that invited designer on this occasion and is honoured to finally be in a position to accept Pitti’s kind invitation.
From its foundation Maison Martin Margiela has been know for the universal use of whites used to decorate every element of its ‘world’, the locations it occupies. With the recent opening of Maison Martin Margiela, New York, rue Grenelle (in Paris) and Taipei this individualist house continues to in establishing outposts of this ‘world’ in a few of the world’s fashion capitals. There are now eleven Maison Martin Margiela free standing stores across the globe.
Maison Martin Margiela visited Pitti Immagine Uomo in June 2005 to experience the atmosphere of the fair. Impressed by the energy and bustle of this, the world’s most important men’s wear fair the House was attracted to bring its participation as invited designer right into the core of “Pitti Uomo”s existence amongst its participants and visitors at the Fortezza da Basso.
Almost a “Fair within a Fair” or a game to be enjoyed by the visitors to Pitti spread throughout the pavilions and outdoor areas of the Fortezza, Maison Martin Margiela’s participation is in contrast to the fashion show or exhibition held parallel to “Pitti” at a secondary location that had hitherto been the norm.
The spirit of the Maison Martin Margiela is brought to Pitti through a series of stands, shops, and facilities, all conceived in many shades of white, typical of Maison Martin Margiela.
To celebrate Maison Martin Margiela’s invitation and participation the Pitti Immagine Uomo invites on the 12th of January evening many of the participants in the fair to join the house for an aperitive at The Teatro Puccini, a unrestored cinema dating from the 1930’s used currently as a theatre. Twenty men, wearing outfits styled from garments of all of the Houses’s collections for men (recreated specially in shades of white for the event) will arrive in style!
MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA'S WHITE at PITTI IMMAGINE UOMO 69
'WHITENING' AS MANY ASPECTS OF PITTI IMMAGINE UOMO AS POSSIBLE.
FORTEZZA DA BASSO
OUTDOORS:
WHITE FLAGS:
The flags of the city of Florence and the European union fly above the main entrance of Fortezza da Basso.
14 national flags, represent the nationalities attending Pitti Imagine Uomo 69 as they would fly in front of any international body such as the united nations.
WHITE MAGAZINE KIOSK:
A typical Italian magazine vendor's kiosk is filled by entirely white contents. This is used to offer a map of the Maison Martin Margiela's stands within Pitti Immagine Uomo 69.
WHITE HOT AIR BALLOON:
This huge balloon will stand in the main outdoor area of the Fortezza.
WHITE BILLBOARD:
An outdoor advertising space is reserved for a few shades of white.
WHITE BEAD CURTAINS UNDER WALKWAY AWNINGS:
A series of white bead curtains are hung under the awnings of the Pitti walkways at two locations.
INDOORS:
WHITE SOUVENIR SHOP:
Tourist souvenirs from around the world have been painted white. 'Snow storm' souvenirs bear the names of famous world landmarks yet are empty.
WHITE SOFT TOY MACHINES:
The 'grab and drop' soft toy machines usual of train stations a gaming halls let visitors win white soft toys.
WHITE POSTCARDS:
Plain white postcards bearing a simple phrase ask the receiver to imagine one of any number of things, white or otherwise!
WHITE ICE CREAM - GELATERIA:
A gelateria, typical of Italy, proposes many flavour's of white ice cream.
CAFE DE MARGIELA:
The tromp l'oeil version of an existing Parisian tea room is brought to Pitti. This cafe will provide refreshment to visitors.
WHITE BOXES OF AMARETTI:
These typical italian biscuits are given the Margiela treatment with their original boxes and bags recreated in white. they are finished with white ribbons.
WHITE MUSIC BANKS:
Visitors can relax on furniture taken from Maison Martin Margiela in Paris and listen to ' white' music - songs and artists with either white, blanc, blanco or bianco in their name.
WHITE CUSTOMISED T-SHIRTS:
Visitors may customise white sports T-shirts as mementos of their visit to Pitti.
WHITE FLOWER SELLER:
fake and real flowers are sold as bouquets or buttonholes. White sugar coated chocolate are made up of small posies of flowers.
WHITE WEDDING CAKE:
A traditional french wedding cake will be made up in white and will be served to the visiting press at lunch on one of the days of pitti.
WHITE UMBRELLAS:
Are sold in the event of inclement weather.
WHITE CANDY FLOSS:
A candy floss seller will travel around pitti pedalling his wares.
PHOTO BOOTHS:
As is in an airport or train station visitors can have a souvenir photo taken at these booths. Their face will be incorporated into white images taken at Maison Martin Margiela in Paris. They may even have their face superimposed on a group school photo of a class in white coats.
WHITE VIDEO STAND:
A white stand will feature the three films produced by Maison Martin Margiela to present its men's collections over the years. A film of the event at Teatro Puccini on the 12th of January will be shown from the following morning.
OTHER WHITES:
PITTI CATALOGUE:
Its cover will be roughly painted white on this occasion.
MODEM:
A number of the print run of this well known guide to the Menswear collections around the world is whitened.
PRESS CANTEEN CARDS:
have also been given the Maison Martin Margiela white treatment.
ELEMENTS AT EXISTING CAFES AT PITTI:
Paper cups and labels on bottled water are all white this time round. Commemorative sugar sachets are also white.
MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA MAP:
A map locating all of the Maison Martin Margiela activities at Pitti is available to all and is white .............. of course!
THE PRE-DINNER DRINKS AT TEATRO PUCCINI:
Thursday, January 12th., 19h - 21h00
A celebration of the Maison Martin Margiela's presence at Pitti. A typical Italian 'aperitivo' is served in an original 1930's former cinema. As well as visitors to Pitti this event will also be attended by twenty men wearing outfits made up of garments from all of the Maison Martin Margiela's collections for men that have specially been re-edited in many tones of white. These men will arrive in style in white stretch limos and on white vespas. The surprise finale of this event will certainly involve a lot of whites!
That guy in the picture is for sure not Martin Margiela if you think so. It is Renzo Rosso, founder of Diesel Staff S.P.A. which produces garments for Diesel, Dsquared2 and Maison Margiela
That´s really, really good looking from those very first pictures!!!
I already see a short, light grey peacoat that I love, and those all-white lace-ups are irresistable as well! Looking forward seeing more, and I´d definitely love to try some of the ice cream, amarettinis and wedding cake...
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