Maison Martin Margiela was founded in Paris by Martin Margiela and Jenny Meirens in 1988. The first martin Margiela collection of ready to wear for Women was presented in October 1988 for Spring/Summer 1989. Since then Maison Martin Margiela has presented two collections a year and has taken part in many exhibitions on its work around the world. STREET magazine was founded in Tokyo by Shoichi Aoki and Noriko Kojima in 1985. It has been published monthly ever since. Each issue features photographs of people, chosen for what they are wearing, by Shoichi Aoki, taken in the streets of the world’s fashion capitals.

In 1995 street approached Maison Martin Margiela inviting it to publish a special edition of street dedicated to its work. Maison Martin Margiela was solely responsible for the choice of images and layout and used mostly unpublished photographs from its archives to explore and illuminate its past collections and presentations.

The Maison Martin Margiela STREET special, volume 1 first appeared on news stands in Japan in October 1995 and covered every Martin Margiela collection from Spring/Summer 1989 up to Autumn/Winter 1995-1996. The success of volume 1 sparked the continuation of the story with the publication of volume 2 in February 1999. Volume 2 covers all Martin Margiela collections for women up to Spring/Summer 1999 as well as the first presentation of 10, a wardrobe for men and 6, basic garments for women for summer 1999 and Maison Martin Margiela’s participation in three exhibitions held in, Brussels, Florence and Rotterdam. This book edition combines volumes 1 & 2.