Material Wealth 3: Another Margiela Auction and Prada
To start, apologies for the hiatus – between prep for this upcoming men’s fashion week and finalizing and presenting my MA thesis, the past few weeks have been quite hectic, but now we’re back.
Last week, this article in the Financial Times announced yet another Margiela auction hosted by Kerry Taylor and Maurice Auctions, slotted for July 9. This time, the collection on the block is from the man himself: Martin Margiela is selling his personal archive, with the full catalogue to come in the next few weeks. The auction will be accompanied by a preview exhibition sometime in June, at a yet-to-be-announced location.
The announcement spurred some discourse, with a number of commenters lamenting that these objects are to be sold privately rather than donated to a museum. I have complicated feelings about the role of fashion in the museum, but I am sympathetic to these concerns; if last year’s The Early Years auction is any signal, we can expect some eyewatering hammer prices for these lots, at numbers that will outpace what most museums will be able to bid, and objects that will disappear into private collections and receive no further public documentation. Ultimately, the reality is that this auction is likely to be completely price inaccessible to the vast majority of us – unless there are some very small ticket items, it seems unlikely much goes under 1000 euro. This is a problem, as fashion history (especially unique fashion objects, like many of these will be) encroaches on the territory of the art world as a playground for the ultra-rich. But auctions also provide a useful educational resource, especially ones like this that garner extensive press coverage. Already, that FT article provides some insights into Martin’s working process and into his highly-concealed contemporary personal life, and surely more will come once we see the full auction catalogue and accompanying text descriptions. Promotional as they may be, the professionalism of houses like these auctioneers means these texts are well-researched and often publicize previously-unknown information, especially in a case like this, where the auction houses are working directly with the designer himself. So, despite the discourse, I am very eager to see what information is revealed over the course of the coming weeks.
On to some listings:
