This fun, nerdy follow-up to Reiner Holzemer’s 2017 documentary about Dries Van Noten takes on another Belgian fashion designer, Martin Margiela. The use of the notoriously media-shy Margiela’s warm, serious spoken voice helps to create intimacy, even though we never see his face. “I don’t like the idea of being a celebrity; anonymity is very important to me,” he says, and so Holzemer simply shows us his hands. Fitting, given the man’s style philosophy is all about silhouette – “the shoulder” and “the shoe”. As a child, Margiela would cut off the toes of his Barbies’ shoes, an interesting detail that foreshadows the legacy of the cloven Tabi boots he brought to the runway in the 1980s.
• Available to stream via Curzon Home Cinema and on iTunes
