PARIS, Mar 20, 2003/ --- The artist who works in fashion named Martin Margiela staged his latest exhibition in surreal style at a bizarre temporary museum in a north Paris canal lock.

What matters most at a Margiela show are not the clothes but the mise en scene.

Fashion’s finest conceptualist took us to a steel structure containing a movie-set-style street of houses in differing architectural styles.

The cobblestones were scattered with confetti, and the models appeared illuminated by two "sandwich" men bearing panels of six strip-lights.

A ghostly image, and one perfect for Margiela, given his ability to find unaccustomed ideas in "found" clothes, and his sense of the absurd.

Escorted down the winding streets designed by Herzog and de Meuron past photo exhibits and a giant Steinway keyboard one could walk through, the models sported Martin’s typically somber takes on manly jackets, silk deconstructed shirts and raw hemmed pinstripe skirts.

Plus his inevitable cloven hoof boots. This season those came in wedges.

There’s always a friendly atmosphere at Margiela’s shows, helped by the designer kindly providing red wine and an atmospheric setting.

As part of his act, Margiela never gives interviews, does not like to be photographed and never takes a bow.

In the era of celebrity fashion, he shuns fame.

Most people don’t recognize Margiela’s clothes, yet cognoscenti love his sheer invention.

After a dozen outfits, the light men and models reappeared in a shower of golden confetti with strobe lights casting weird shapes.

Martin could have easily made his first walk down the catwalk and we wouldn’t have known.

Martin Margiela

Martin Margiela

Martin Margiela

Martin Margiela