Jacket
1990
spring-summer 1990
Medium
wool, polyester (twill, satin), plastic (buttons)
Measurements
71.0 cm (centre back) 65.0 cm (sleeve length)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and Family through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gift Program, 2025
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
This jacket features tuxedo-style labels and shrunken, high-set shoulder pads known as ‘cigarette’ shoulders, introduced in Maison Martin Margiela’s first collection, spring–summer 1989. Its narrow silhouette stood in stark contrast to the broad-shouldered fashions of the 1980s and prefigured the slim, deconstructed forms that would define the final decade of the twentieth century. The jacket also references the fin-de-siècle silhouette from a century earlier, linking different historical moments through construction and pattern. Margiela continued to revisit the shoulder over the course of his career, culminating in wide and conical shapes.