Necklace

Celebrating the upcoming new millenium, Maison Martin Margiela issued this playful necklace for fall/winter 1999–2000, made up of chain holding a wine cork stating "Placez ici votre premier vin de l'an 2000" ("Place your first wine of the year 2000 here"). These chains are typically used in France hanging on the neck of the bottle of the best wines or grands crus, with the cork stating the origins of the grapes. As such, they are associated with festive occasions. By issuing this necklace, Margiela looks both at the future as well as the past, since he had integrated a champagne cork ten years before in his second ever collection for fall/winter 1989–90. Red wine had a symbolic meaning for the house, since it was served in white plastic cups at every fashion show of the Maison Martin Margiela, thereby replacing the usual glasses of champagne the fashion crowds were used to at such occasions.
This double détournement, or turning existing found objects or objets trouvés and meanings into something else (of a cork into a jewel, and of red wine and champagne) is typical of the deconstructive approach and Surrealistic twist of Belgian designer Martin Margiela. Like the readymade artists, he finds beauty in everyday objects and suffuses it with poetic meaning.