Early on Margiela forged links with the art world through exhibitions at a number of galleries in Europe. In 1997, while continuing to work for his own label, he was appointed creative director for women's ready-to-wear for the fashion brand Hermes and worked there for 12 seasons until 2003.

His dialogue between art and fashion first emerged in 1988 with his debut show at the Cafe Gare in Paris, which questioned representations of gender and power.

That show incorporated elements of surrealism and featured a large painting laid flat on the floor, created by the models as they walked on the canvas with red paint on the soles of their shoes.

In 2008, Margiela decided to leave fashion just after the 20th-anniversary show of Maison Martin Margiela.

From what he described as the "stifling system" of the fashion industry he switched his attention to the art space, a platform that, he says, asks questions, and on which one can discover alternative ways of thinking and developing long-term artistic interventions.