Italian filmmaker Yuri Ancarani captures the intimate ritual of craft behind one of fashion’s most enduring symbols, the split-toe Tabi by Maison Margiela.
In Maison Margiela’s latest cinematic gesture, Yuri Ancarani directs ‘A Tabi Film’, a meditative study of the craftsmanship behind the iconic shoe introduced in 1989 at the Maison’s first show. The short film follows the birth of a pair of Tabis from concept to final assembly, revealing an artisanal process where every gesture counts. Preparing the base alone can take up to four hours before the mould, cut from a solid block of wood, takes form under the hands of the craftsmen.
Eleven artisans, each with a precise area of expertise, participate in the making of every pair, culminating in a final touch, a single white stitch, Margiela’s subtle signature. Narrated by the voice of Ermanna Montanari and produced by ILCAPO, the film moves between present and archive, blending technique, time and memory. It captures the tactile beauty of repetition and restraint, the choreography of hands shaping a form that has endured for over three decades.
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