The Business of Fashion looks into Maison Martin Margiela's cult-like status in "the cult of invisability", a two part editorial written by Lucian James of
Agenda Inc...read it
here and
here. p.s. this is a must read.
:: part one focuses on Margiela's distance from the brand in the last couple of years and his eventful cut off.
"As a cult brand, it had spent 20 years inspiring loyalty, love, and disciples. Despite years of communication that the brand was designed by a team – the hand of Margiela, albeit invisible, was a big part of the brand’s equity.With Margiela gone, how should the brand evolve? There are lessons to be learned from real-world cults – who face varying levels of crisis when a leader leaves, retires, dies, kills himself, is proved embarrassingly wrong or – in some other way – is no longer available."
ways in which the brand cut themselves off from media, and wide-spread attention are expained in detail..from Margiela's own hiding game since the mid 90's, to the brands lack of branding, i.e. logos, signage, publicity.
:: part two focuses on how the brand could learn from real-world cults.
"As a truly cult brand which borrowed implicitly and explicitly from cult strategy, Maison Martin Margiela could have learned and deployed successful strategies from real-world cults to better manage Mr. Margiela’s exit from the company. Indeed, the brand’s “cult of invisibility” was already set up to do exactly that."
the piece goes into strategies the company could have followed to keep editors, fans and customers in line with the brand as it switched over from infamous designer to team-driven design.
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