When the new Maison Martin Margiela book showed up on our desk last week, we weren't surprised that the cover was plain ol' white-on-white. Margiela has been fashion's most famous phantom for over 20 years now, and the last place he's going to leave clues for his identity is on the cover. Just like his clothes, nothing about the book is straightforward—he eschews the traditional foreword format, sprinkling black and white photocopied letters and essays in-between the pages instead. There's a handwritten letter from Jean Paul Gaultier who talks about the time day he hired Margiela as his assistant, and another from French Vogue EIC, Carine Roitfeld who attaches an adorable pic of her and stylist Emmanuelle Alt lounging backstage at a Margiela show in 1992 to her note. All the seminal MMM moments are in there too, like the crazy pointed-shoulder trend he kicked started in 2007, or the supersized jeans from his "life-size" fall 2000 collection, where everything is blow up by 150% to 600% from the original dimensions. For conceptual eye candy value, there's even a page of mugshots featuring rugged Margiela male models past and present—we're putting our money on the blond bearded dude (bottom row, fourth picture in from the left) being the real Margiela.
