Celebrated fashion writer and curator Olivier Saillard constructs Mathias Augustyniak and Michael Amzalag’s alphabet – a concise and razor-sharp breakdown of the world of M/M Paris.

ALPHABET : Their 26-poster installation of human typography.

BJÖRK: Medulla album, 2004.

CAFE ETIENNE MARCEL: Designed in Paris, 2002.

DESSIN DANS L’IMAGE: Yohji Yamamoto Spring Summer 1999.

ECRIRE UNE PERMANENCE (writing that endures): a continual retinal image from reuse of M/M’s symbols, saturated shapes.

FILLES (girls): recognising each model that is a part of their story, equal to that of photographer, stylist, hairstylist and makeup artists.

GRAPHISME: “Unlike art, graphic design is financially motivated and is part of an economic reality”.”Generally, graphic design means serving others disciplines”.”For us the field matters little, only individual thought”.

INEZ & VINOODH: since Thierry Mugler in 1997, Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin have been the photographers to realise many M/M Paris projects. Between them, robotic models climb out of giant boxes, clothes that seem soaking wet seem to end in neat ink drops.

JIL SANDER: serene aesthetical documents which reject temptation towards the spectacular, a continuing relationship with the German designer since the 1990s.

KLEIN (Calvin): the cut-and-paste technique, a wider fashion audience.

MODE: Inextricably linked with their work. Fashion or art appear as equal subjects of study and experimentation. “Our position is never a reaction”.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TQzdu6WCdQ[/youtube]

OPERA: Antigona by Tomasso Traetta, for whom M/M Paris staged their set in 2004.

POSTER: a surface for communication which they try to question by awarding it its own status. From a poster that a teenager pins on his bedroom wall to urban posters…

RANGER, ARCHIVER, ORDONNER (arranging, archiving, organising): www.mmparis.com

SUBJECTIVITÉ: “Our parents were obsessed with psychoanalysis and fascinated by the subconscious. We are all the product of an upbringing where it was vital to assert one’s personality and not to conform.”

VOGUE: French Vogue, their art direction – “To each their own destiny”.

YOHJI YAMAMOTO: more than 10 catalogues between Yohji and M/M between ’95 and ’00.

ZÜRICH: The exhibition in which the M/M Alphabet (above) was launched.