Martin Margiela, the famously enigmatic and disruptive Belgian designer who refused all interviews during his career, is now the focus of a major retrospective in the Palais Galliera in Paris. It comes on the heels of a documentary “We Margiela” about the workings of the fashion institution he founded with Jenny Meirens and an exhibition last year in Antwerp on his period at Hermes. Now recognised as a conceptual powerhouse, he is cited by designers such as Raf Simons, Phoebe Philo at Celine and Demna Gvasalia at Vetements as a continuing influence and inspiration.

The exhibition, which covers the period 1989-2009, illustrates just how far ahead he was of his time. It is breathtaking.

The list of innovations and firsts is long: the recycling of clothes (a sweater made from white socks, dresses from old headscarves, leather bodices from black gloves, etc), the shredded jeans, the remodelling of vintage clothing, the use of duvets for coats, oversize proportions (so much in vogue now) not to speak of his signature tabi boots and blank white labels with their four white stitches – an antithesis to the logo mania of the 80s. Like Vivienne Westwood, he was often ridiculed in the press and his use of offbeat locations for his shows and real people as models added to his reputation as an outsider, the so called “bad boy” of fashion.

The exhibition, which has more than 100 outfits, videos of catwalk shows and special installations, runs until July 15th (closed Mondays and Mayday). It will be a must for anyone interested in fashion and in a designer who pushed the boundaries of clothing construction and deconstruction and in so doing also questioned the whole fashion system, creating what is now seen as innovative and desirable. Now living in Paris, Margiela was involved in every aspect of the presentation, citing the ideas that drove each collection. The oracle has finally spoken.