It is certainly no rarity for a fashion designer and a performer to join forces, to promote each others work through the fusion of theatre, music and fashion – to dress the star in clothes that help them to shine, and in turn to give the sartorial creations that same limelight.

However, it is rare to consider that this designer should be Martin Margiela – the man whose anonymity is infamous within the fashion industry, and a man whose garments hardly exude a demanding stage presence. But in 1992 this is exactly what happened, when the man himself approached Laurent Mercier, a fashion designer who was performing for fun at choreographer Blanca Li‘s cabaret in Paris, dressed as a woman singing the songs of Italian siren Dalida. Laurent chose a floor length leather dress fashioned from vintage coats, which you can see in the image below.

This was the first meeting of the two designers, and one that extended into amateur filmmaking, when Martin decided to contribute a Super 8 film to an exhibition that his business partner Jenny Meirens was curating on Blanca Li, with Laurent helping to create the make-up look for Blanca in the Spanish Flamenco style of her roots. Margiela film technology not like it is today, unfortunately his efforts went unrecorded – the film turned out blank after a day of shooting!

With this continuing friendship in mind, the house asked Laurent’s contribution to A#1, and teaming up with his friend the Iranian photographer Ali Mahdavi, they produced the fashion editorial in the surrounding images. Featuring all garments by Laurent Mercier Deluxe (Laurent’s own collection), this moody, richly textured shoot of model Violetta Sanchez captures an eerie fantasy of  1940′s film noir, with Laurent’s structured tailoring and eveningwear complemented with the insect-like jewels of David Ferchaux and real flies courtesy of Parisian taxidermists Claude Nature. Violetta poses elegantly with her hair piled high, braving the tiny black flies that find their way across her face and shoulders, down her armpits and even into her groin (in the stunning nude shot below).

Certainly a departure from the pared back Margiela aesthetic that permeates the rest of A#1, this shoot shows another side of the man Martin himself, a human element with a true appreciation for those exploring other, more flamboyant ideas than his own.