God, it’s a good day at Paris Fashion Week. Not only have we passed the halfway point and the end of a mammoth season is in sight, but Saturday is also a stellar day on the official schedule. In addition to the fact it’s what editors like to call “Comme Day”, given we get a triple whammy of shows that fall under the Comme des Garçons umbrella – waking up with Junya Watanabe, having lunch with Noir and finishing off with Rei Kawakubo herself – we also have Pierpaolo Piccioli’s first-ever Balenciaga outing to look forward to. Before all that, though, we’ve landed at one of the most anticipated moments of the SS26 season: Glenn Martens’ debut Maison Margiela ready-to-wear show. Here’s everything you need to know.
When Martens made his Artisanal debut at Margiela earlier this year, the designer decided a vintage silver spoon stamped with the house’s logo would suffice as his invite (I now use mine to eat my morning yoghurt). This time around, he went for a simple recorder – the kind of instrument you might have played in school, or driven your mum mental with in the school holidays. As is often the case, the object was a clue as to what was to come when the show kicked off.
One of the most iconic Maison Margiela shows to this day was the one that took place in the autumn of 1989, when Martin dragged the fashion crowd to the outskirts of Paris and staged a show in a kid’s playground – guests sat cross-legged on the floor as models carried children on their shoulders and walked round the park holding their hands. Martens seemed to channel some of this energy into this season’s Margiela show, as he invited a cute kids’ orchestra to soundtrack the show (which is where the recorders came in). As everyone shuffled into their seats, out came the musicians in massive suits, their sleeves and trouser hems trailing out under them. It was an incredibly cute moment that honoured the past while looking to the next generation of talent. Who knows where those little musicians are going to end up?
Big style! Just a few seasons ago, the Belgian designer plastered uncanny grinning mouths and shark jaws across mini dresses, jean jackets, and patent pouch bags at Diesel, and now he’s honed in on the gob once again. At his Margiela Artisanal show, Martens’ cast of models all wore masks – made of fabric offcuts, computer wires and all manner of other bits and bobs he had lying around – without exception, their faces obscured as they made their way through the intimate former abattoir the designer chose as the venue. This time around, he’d gone for the full uniform look once again, only this time, it was way more exposed. Out were the masks and in were a bunch of offbeat mouthpieces that wedged the wearer’s lips apart and put their teeth and gums on display – like they were about to get a scrape and polish, rather than walk the Paris runway. The four corners of the accessories sat at the edges of the mouth like little white stitches, emulating the iconic four tacks that hold Maison Margiela’s garment labels in place.
Martens continued to do a great job in fusing his own aesthetic with that of Margiela, dropping a ready-to-wear collection that we really do desperately want to wear come SS26. Tailoring was a strong point, as the designer sent lightweight, wide-shouldered coats and trenches out for the new season. Denim came sandblasted and bleached almost white, spliced, diced, and stitched back together to create Bermuda shorts, fishtail skirts, and Britney-style slashed dresses, while butter-soft black leather was transformed into slinky suits and floor-sweeping gowns.
Opening in a muted palette of black, white, and neutrals, later the collection exploded into colour, with Martens turning out tucked and draped chiffon evening gowns in abstract floral prints, clashing pale eggshell blue with punchy scarlet, and throwing a few chintzy embroidered flower details in there for good measure. Call me biased, because Martens is one of my favourite fashion designers ever, but the offering was a really solid one, full of lightness and optimism after his Artisanal one, which went heavy on exploring decay and darkness. Maison Margiela is lucky to have him.
