The Margiela Tabi's ancestor: a 1930s advertisement for Nihon Tabi (today's Asahi Corporation), a maker of rubber-soled split-toe jika-tabi, with its factories, its boots and a machinist at work. Author unknown, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Maison Margiela Tabi
What it took directly
- documentedThe Margiela Tabi boot took from Martin Margiela's trip to Japan and its split-toe tabi sock"The boot was inspired by Margiela’s trip to Japan where the split toe Tabi sock can be traced back to the 15th century, when it was made to be worn with split toe sandals" Victoria and Albert Museum, collection record for a pair of Margiela Tabi shoes
- documentedThe Tabi's runway debut took from red paint, so the split toe would print on the catwalk"during S/S89, the Maison bathed its models in red paint just before they walked out – a decision that resulted in split-toed tabi footprints along the catwalk." AnOther Magazine (2015)
- statedThe Tabi as a product took from customers asking for the boots Margiela kept reusing on a small budget"After several collections people started asking for them. And they wanted more… and they didn’t stop asking, thank God!" Martin Margiela, quoted in the V&A's collection record
What it learned to do
- documentedMartin Margiela learned from his own early shoe line, stocked by Geert Bruloot and Eddy Michiels's Coccodrillo in Antwerp"Initially, it was just a shoe line. Martin came into Coccodrillo — the shoe store my partner, Eddy Michiels, and I opened in1984 — a few months after we opened and presented his collection." Geert Bruloot, in an oral history first published by The Gentlewoman, via The Business of Fashion
The tradition it sits in
- documentedMartin Margiela's early designs learned from Dada and the deconstructed fashion of Japanese designers such as Rei Kawakubo"became known for avant-garde designs which were inspired by the Dada art movement and the deconstructed fashions of Japanese designers such as Rei Kawakubo, founder of Comme des Garcons." Victoria and Albert Museum, collection record (about the designer's work in general, not the Tabi alone)
- inferredThe Margiela Tabi boot comes from jika-tabi, the rubber-soled split-toe work boot"as cotton routes opened to China and rubber soles were added, the Tabi – or Jika-Tabi – became the standard footwear of blue-collar workers." inferred — the V&A and BoF trace the boot to the tabi sock; that its booted, soled form also echoes the jika-tabi worn by Japanese workers is our reading, not theirs
- documentedJika-tabi, the rubber-soled tabi boot comes from the Ishibashi brothers, Tokujiro and Shojiro, tabi makers, in 1922"They were invented in 1922 by two brothers in the Ishibashi family, Tokujiro and Shojiro. The Ishibashi were tabi makers" Nipponia no. 21 (2002), on web-japan.org
Where the whole form comes from
- documentedThe tabi sock comes from the zori and waraji sandals it was made to be worn with"Tabi are like socks, except that they are designed to be worn with zori or waraji." Nipponia no. 21 (2002), on web-japan.org
- documentedThe tabi sock comes from cotton imported from China into 15th-century Japan"Tabi’s origins actually date back to 15th century Japan, when the island nation first began importing cotton from China. This enabled the mass production of socks" Emily Manning, i-D (2015)
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