Maison Margiela’s Tabi Collectors Exhibition Brings Global Footprints to Chengdu
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By PAGE Editor
Taking place in a city that has steadily emerged as a nexus of design innovation, Maison Margiela opens Tabi: Collectors Exhibition at the Third Avenue Art Museum, marking a rare celebration of footwear as cultural artifact and personal expression. As part of the MaisonMargiela/folders initiative, this exhibition positions the Tabi not simply as a shoe, but as a living archive: a canvas on which collectors and the Maison alike articulate individuality, heritage, and imagination.
Over five days, visitors will encounter nine personal collections of Tabi enthusiasts, each meticulously reconstructed alongside photography that captures the intimate dialogue between wearer and object. From the original Spring-Summer 1989 boots to the latest Artisanal Tabi Claw, the exhibition showcases the Tabi’s continual reinvention—a testament to Maison Margiela’s enduring ethos of experimentation and boundary-pushing design.
The experience extends beyond display. A Maison Margiela Café serves as a hub for dialogue, encouraging visitors to engage with both archival pieces and contemporary interpretations, reinforcing how the Tabi functions as both sartorial instrument and cultural signifier. The exhibition exemplifies MaisonMargiela/folders’ ongoing mission to present fashion as an evolving, participatory language, one that thrives on collaboration and storytelling.
With contributions from Marta de Megni, Menthae, Zhiyu Wang, Zion.T, Theaster Gates, Jerami Grant, Pandora Graessl, Eléonore Guignot, and the Mor family, Tabi: Collectors underscores a broader narrative: that design lives through those who embrace it, reinterpret it, and safeguard its legacy. For collectors, curators, and fans alike, this is less an exhibition and more a dialogue—between object and wearer, history and future, art and everyday life.
As MaisonMargiela/folders continues to roll out exhibitions across China following its Shanghai debut, Tabi: Collectors in Chengdu serves as a vivid reminder that fashion—like culture itself—is a conversation, continually written and rewritten by those who dare to wear it.
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Maison Margiela’s Tabi: Collectors Exhibition in Chengdu transforms the iconic split-toe shoe into a living archive, celebrating collectors, personal expression, and the house’s relentless design experimentation.