A Sale of Rare Martin Margiela Pieces Will Happen in New York This Weekend

Camille FreestoneFri, February 13, 2026 at 10:16 PM UTC

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This Is Not Just Another Vintage Auction BYRONESQUE MARGIELA

Byronesque, the for-the-heads vintage clothing curator, is bringing part two of its archival Martin Margiela sale to New York. Up for auction at the “next door” gallery space of Assembly, a specialty store in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, are 80 pieces with provenances ranging from 1989 to 2009. The sale follows a more intimate one in Paris from the same personal collection last year. (Byronesque asked Instagram where to host next, and Chloë Sevigny suggested NYC.) Proceedings begin downtown with a private preview today and opens to the public (by appointment) this weekend.

The "inside-out" wool coat from Maison Margiela Fall 2000 Anthology

Gill Linton, founder of Byronesque, was put off by the “collectors-only” rhetoric surrounding secondhand pieces designed by Martin Margiela—one of fashion's exalted design gods who created work under his brand Maison Margiela and for Hermès. “We’ve done that and it’s not as interesting anymore,” he says. These pieces come from the personal collection of Christina Ahlers, a fashion executive who worked with Martin Margiela himself, but they aren’t destined to sit on a hanger—or behind glass—and gather dust. Her assortment features items like a wool coat from fall 2000 purposefully turned inside out (a Margiela signature), runway-favorite knits, or a range of Line 4 suiting—the kind of things those in Margiela’s orbit were actually shopping. To a select few, it’s actually quite a wearable offering. “Christina has great taste and this is a ready-made wardrobe,” says Linton. Items are priced according to quality, condition, provenance, and scarcity, and, per Linton, are quite reasonable.

The crushed cotton waistcoat from Maison Margiela Spring 1993 will be up for sale this Anthology

Linton and team are not afraid of projecting a certain snobbishness surrounding the sale. He says it’s for those who are “privately smug in their knowledge of the Margiela codes” or “people who don’t want to be figured out by what they’re wearing.”

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Byronesque formed in 2013 in reaction to the current resale market. The website reads “just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s good.” Linton argues that our current rate of insatiable consumption is still unsustainable, even if it's on the secondhand market. “Instead of cutting production and cutting back on buying stuff,” he says, “the industry is congratulating itself for what is essentially just a rise in volumes.” The team is very dedicated in its curation of fashion from the past half-century, catering to their clients’ desires. Past sales have included edits of Vivienne Westwood and Comme des Garçons.

The plastic bags Byronesque will send purchases from the sale home in Courtesy of Alex Lipscomb

According to Linton, the secondhand market “is becoming as disposable as single-use plastic bags,” so that’s what Byronesque is sending these collectible Margiela pieces home in. Designed by Alex Lipscomb, the bags mimic the look of a classic plastic bag, but bear phrases like “5 trillion plastic bags are produced yearly and just many ‘archivists,’” or "Resale is the new fast fashion."

The brand indulges the irony here: “If you think twice about single-use plastic bags, think twice about what resale item you buy,” says Linton. “Plastic bags are like smoking: They're not cool but look good in pictures—not unlike some items that are passed off as ‘iconic' and ‘rare.’”

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”