MARGIELA TOKYO'S EBISU ZINE MARKS 20 YEARS ON ONE BLOCK

Maison Margiela marked 20 years of its Ebisu flagship in Tokyo on November 5 with a limited edition zine, handed out at select Ebisu newsstands and inside the store, and shared worldwide through Dropbox the same day. The zine is the newest chapter of MaisonMargiela/folders, the house's open archive, and it takes its title from the shop's street address: 20 Years at 2 8 13.

A house that built its name on anonymity has put a street number on the cover. That is the angle worth holding, because this anniversary is about a building and a neighbourhood, not a person.

September 2000: A Wooden Minka at 3 3 3 Ebisu Minami

The first Margiela store in Tokyo opened in September 2000 at 3 3 3 Ebisu Minami, in a 1940s wooden house of the traditional minka type. It is reported as the house's first standalone store outside Paris and Belgium, which makes the Ebisu address older than most of the retail the brand is known for today.

The choice says something about scale. In 2000 the house was twelve years old, founded in 1988 by Martin Margiela and Jenny Meirens on a policy of total personal anonymity: no interviews, no face. Opening its first store abroad in a residential timber house, instead of on a luxury avenue, told Tokyo what kind of brand this was before a single garment was unpacked.

A Former Electrical Factory Five Minutes Away

In 2006 the store had to relocate, and the house stayed in Ebisu, settling in a former electrical products factory at 2 8 13 Ebisu Minami, about a five minute walk from the original site. Most accounts date the move to 2006, which is where the 20 years come from; Wallpaper dates the current store to 2007.

The new chapter of the folders project documents that building. Titled Maison Margiela Tokyo: 20 Years at 2 8 13, it records oral histories from the store's staff and maps the creative landscape of the district around it. The first files, a history of the Tokyo store, went out on October 20, so the zine lands 16 days after the first files and turns a digital folder into something a passerby can pick up from a newsstand.

Sèvres and Mobilier National Tapestries Come Apart Inside the Shop

The zine carries an insert for Line 2, an installation by the Tokyo artist Mio Suzuki, and the insert is a dialogue between Suzuki and the French tapestry makers Les Manufactures Nationales, Sèvres and Mobilier National. The installation, titled Line 2: Unravelled Memory, Rewoven Future, documents their collaboration, in which tapestries from the French workshops are unravelled and rewoven. It stays open inside the store from November 5 to November 15.

Sèvres is best known for porcelain and Mobilier National for the French state's furniture and tapestry collections, so this is a long way from a sneaker collaboration. It also fits the house's oldest habit. A week earlier, on October 29, Margiela released its fourth eyewear collection with Gentle Monster, 68 pieces built on a theme of Deconstruction. Taking a finished frame apart and recombining it is the same instinct as unpicking a tapestry and weaving it back, at a different scale.

Tabi Collectors Are Part of the Archive

The folders chapter also spotlights the local community of Tabi collectors in Tokyo. Margiela created the Tabi boot in 1988, a split toe design that mimics Japanese tabi socks, and it has stayed in continuous production since. A shape borrowed from Japanese footwear has come back to Japan as a collector's object, and the chapter treats the people who collect it as part of the neighbourhood's story.

Most anniversary projects look back at designs. This one records who walked into a particular shop, what they asked for and who served them.

What Margiela Put Out This Season, and What This One Is About

Set against the season so far, the zine is a change of subject. In July the house previewed a Fall Winter 2026 trench fused to a Second Skin jersey. In September it released Anonymity, a short film directed by Thibaut Grevet with Rebecca Hall, and in October the 68 frame eyewear collection. Those three are about a garment, a face and a frame count. The Ebisu chapter is about a place and the people around it.

The practical facts are short. The zine is limited and was distributed on November 5 in select Ebisu newsstands and the Ebisu store. The Line 2 installation closes on November 15. The folders are open online to anyone, and they now hold 20 years of one Tokyo address.