Glenn Martens showed his Maison Margiela co-ed ready-to-wear debut at Paris Fashion Week today, and it left us speechless.
With the show invite being a recorder, the fashion industry was expecting a musical motif within the collection, but there was a wave of bewildered child-like smiles which followed the young orchestra dripped in baby tuxedos walking out and sitting on stage (a sweet nod to Martin Margiela’s SS90 playground show). The children went a little crazy on the instruments for a second, but then segued into the 2001: A Space Odyssey theme tune as the first look walked out. In an adorable cacophony, the kids orchestra performed all the classics: “Dance of the Knights” from Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, “Habanera” from Carmen, “The Blue Danube”, and more of the bangers I played at Grade 3 flute.
Just like his couture debut, Martens’ SS26 had a headpiece theme. This time round it was tough Margiela logo mouthpieces hanging on the models’ mouths like stapled mouth guards. The collection featured trenches, worn-in leathers, colourful tights, silk floral dresses, and a lot of denim (a Martens specialty), including ripped jeans – we hadn’t seen those in a while.
The SS26 season introduced new pieces, such as the box bag (a slouchy soft leather tote embellished with metallic trims) and jewellery encased in plastic, but brought in old references, too, like the reintroduction of the heel-less boot – an archival Margiela piece that has the heel hidden inside the boot – and the comeback of the Margiela Future, the cult high-top sneaker that bolstered the swag era of the 2010s. As Fashion Roadman mentioned on a recent TikTok, there’s a new TikTok wave of street style videos referencing the swag era, and Margiela is smartly tapping into that audience with the Future, the sneaker that had all the swag mfers in a chokehold. Martens also sprinkled some swag into other pieces within the collection: the tight leather jackets, the ripped jeans, the tucked-in trousers.
Martens welcomed Margiela-isms with tape elements, flowy tailoring, sequins and glossy textures, but also added some of his own temperaments – is that his signature wiring technique we see on shirts and jackets? (We did say he would do that.)
The self-described iconoclastic avant-garde house stood as relevant as always, bringing swag back in a hauntingly sophisticated collection.
Watch the Maison Margiela SS26 co-ed show here:
Featured images Maison Margiela©
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