AXIS Inc. (Minato-ku, Tokyo, President & CEO: Mitsuhiro Shimazaki), publisher of the design magazine "AXIS," released vol. 237 on July 1, 2026 (Wed). This issue focuses on Martin Margiela and Ettore Sottsass. The COVER STORY delves into Margiela's present, who continues to create even after retiring from the fashion world and is embarking on a new chapter as an artist, through a valuable, latest interview. Furthermore, we feature Ettore Sottsass, a master who shook the design world in the latter half of the 20th century. We trace his practices across products, furniture, and architecture, exploring the scope of design that continues to question us today. COVER STORY Martin Margiela For me, the unexpected is essential and highly stimulating. I am irritated by the obvious. Martin Margiela is always creating something. It is said that the boy, born into a family of barbers, made costumes for Barbie dolls from childhood. Upon entering art school in his teens, he learned various techniques necessary for creation, and at Maison Martin Margiela, founded in 1988, he deconstructed fashion and completely rewrote the subsequent language of mode. Even during the "silent decade" after retiring from the fashion world in 2008, Margiela is said to have been engrossed in art production alone in his atelier day and night. Now, Margiela is drawing a line under his story as a designer and is about to move into a new chapter as an artist. Where does he come from, and where is he going? Feature Ettore Sottsass — Aesthetics of Deviation From innovative products to the bold furniture of Memphis, and from architecture to drawings. Ettore Sottsass was a designer and architect who left a vivid mark on the design of the latter half of the 20th century. For him, design was not merely "things" but the very act of shaping human ways of living and perceiving the world. His practice, which brought back a sense of symbolism, playfulness, and even prayer into his work, continues to ask us "what to de