In the 21st Century, your hair is an accessory and an investment. Women and men spend thousands per month to maintain expensive weaves, straightening treatments, color correcting, and take drastic measures to combat hair loss. When Martin Margiela presented one of his final shows as helm of his eponymous brand in 2008, he showed a surreal coat of wig hair with a matching wig for the head perhaps asking "what is real and what is fake?" Since we prune our bodies of excess body hair, how brilliantly cheeky to wear a coat that embraced a Cro-Magnon dose of fuzz that no paraffin wax could ever begin to depilate.
This coat represents the very definition of Neo-vintage: a true collectible by a contemporary artist made extra valuable by Martin Margiela's retirement from his Maison the following year. I get thrilled when runway pieces such as this coat come to Decades because they are very present in our collective fashion psyche. Photographer Nick Knight made a film of the infamous wig coat featuring a faceless naked model; and Kate Moss wore the coat on the cover of V Magazine's swimsuit issue photographed by Mario Testino. Which begs the question, "if this wig could talk..." Who will be the next fashionista to don this treasure just received at Decades? -- Cameron Silver
Check out the film by Nick Knight here: https://vimeo.com/29948676