We’ve been bigging up oversized collars since the very start of our Coat Corner feature this year, so if you’re a regular reader, you’ve probably already sussed that this is a look The Fashion Police like. A lot. As with all good things, though, you can take it too far, and if your name happens to be Martin Margiela, chances are you will take it too far. And this is what you’ll end up with.
Now, we realise the mannequin this piece is being shown on is already headless, but that collar is so mighty we have a feeling that even those of us blessed with a head would look pretty freaky when viewed from behind, in a ‘Headless Horeswoman" kinda way. This would make the coat a fantastic conversation piece, a true head-turner (don’t bother turning your head in it, though – you still won’t be able to see anything) and an excellent coat for Halloween. We’d buy it for those reasons alone – or we would if it didn’t cost £980. Would you buy it?
HAH! From the back, it looks like one of those mob guys from The Triplets of Belleville.
Oh, I get it! These are Headless Horseman costumes! Erm… right?
I can just imagine wearing this to the movies.
From behind I think it might make you look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame…
I actually think this is a lovely coat. While most funnel necked coats have a confused silhouette, the shapes in this are purely masculine and a statement about Margiela’s direction for the figure. So don’t be so quick to judge a designer with twenty respectable years under his belt if you don’t agree with his aesthetics because they might have a strong vision behind them.
Diana – I’ll be honest: I just find statements about Margiela’s “vision” and “direction” horribly pretentious. It’s a coat. He is selling it as an item of clothing, not as a piece of art to hang on your wall or sit and gaze at. He expects people to wear it. As an item of clothing, it fails. It doesn’t matter that he has “20 respectable years under his belt” – he has designed a coat that is funamentally unwearable. This is why he is “judged”.
Also: it troubles me that some people seem to believe that if something can be described as “art” and if there can be talk of “vision” and “direction”, then it is beyond criticism. There is such a thing as bad art too, you know, and this idea that “a famous designer created it so it MUST be good and no one is allowed to criticise it” is just lazy thinking IMO. And hey, maybe my opinions have “strong vision behind them”, you know, so you better not dare to have an opinion on them!
Seriously – people are allowed to have an opinion on coats, regardless of who designed them. Really.
Oooh! O.O I want it!