The iconic Maison Martin Margiela Tabi boot has always had an extremely interesting relationship with paint, peeling and transformation.
Take, for example, the fact that the designer debuted the humble Tabi boot at his first runway show in Paris in 1988, with models wearing clinical-like lab coats, the soles of the innovative shoe stroked with lashings of red paint. A distinct and unusual footprint was left behind on the runway. Later on, Margiela repurposed the red hoof-covered runway by using the actual paper material for trench coats.
Some of the original Tabis, as early as 1989, were painted with a thick coat of white paint, which was uneven and prone to chip. “In the beginning there was no budget for a new form, so I had no other choice than to continue with [the Tabi style] if I wanted shoes. But after several collections people started asking for them. And they wanted more… and they didn’t stop asking, thank God!,” Margiela once said of his Tabis. “Because we could not afford new shoes, I put wall paint over my first collection to give it the same new feel as we did with everything else in our showroom.”
At the time of launching the OG Tabi, Margiela himself had no clue the shoe would go on to be so iconic. Yet, all these years later you can now find new versions of the transient paint peeling Margiela Tabi. Yes, the paint is streaky, uneven and peeling off–it’s meant to fall off over time, so that each pair develops its own unique effect throughout time. Other versions of the shoe have splashes of white paint around the toe area, which doesn’t chip as much.
Last year, for the Tabi’s 30th anniversary, Canadian retailer SSENSE released a variety of white painted Tabis, but if you search long and hard enough, you can also find them on Margiela’s own website as well as at retailers such as Yoox.
Leave a Comment