1 April 2026 |
Set to Where The Wild Roses Grow by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Kylie Minogue, Glenn Martens’ AW26 Maison Margiela show unfurled like an eerie parade of unearthly beings and resurrected aristocrats. Taking place in Shanghai amongst a metropolis of shipping containers, liquid-like drapes, textures seemingly eaten-through by Cordyceps and delicate chiffon dresses walked alongside precise tailoring with a gothic edge. It was enough to give anybody goosebumps.
Up close, it was the masks that held you. Fabric face coverings – painted with makeup, warped and lumpy – gave each look a strange, alien quality, at times sinister, at times almost mournful. They nodded, too, to the house’s long-standing anonymity, but here felt more theatrical, more distorted.
Martens kept the focus on fabric, now sharpened by a flea market sensibility – garments reworked, fused and repurposed. Porcelain appeared as both illusion and object: layered organza mimicking its fragility, and, in one standout, actual shattered pieces fixed onto a dress. Elsewhere, fabrics felt excavated – dresses reduced to their imprint, tapestries reworked with paillettes, surfaces sealed or stiffened, at times almost wax-like and offset by supple sand-toned nudes and pastoral shapes.
The contrast between softness and structure remained key. Wet-look draping clung and pooled, while chiffon gowns felt light and slightly undone. Tailoring, though clean at first glance, revealed itself in the details – leather fused to tweed, raw edges left unbound, fabrics sliced and reassembled.
There were moments of intensity: a full gold look, a metallic pink gown caught mid-collapse, an acid green velvet dress with duchess sleeves layered over a second-skin bodysuit. Bird skeleton prints, silk kaftans and dune-like knits added variation without softening the mood.
It was uncomfortable, yes – but that was the point. Martens leaned into it, building a collection that was rich in texture, slightly grotesque and completely absorbing.
Photography courtesy of Maison Margiela.
