Once part of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts’ infamous “Antwerp Six,” Belgian fashion designer Martin Margiela creates designs that are at once edgy, innovative and wearable. His experience working for Jean Paul Gaultier and Hermés is evident in his work: exaggerated silhouettes, wigs, reversed seams and zippers add character to more classically romantic couture pieces.

This sense of avant-garde is also wrung out in his Parisian stores, where salespeople dress up in white lab coats and the sterile, white-cube space leaves people in the mood for experimental fashion.