Glenn Martens’ Maison Margiela RTW Debut
Anders Christian Madsen reviews Glenn Martens’ ready-to-wear debut collection for Maison Margiela, for Spring/Summer 2026.
A live orchestra of children played their inspired versions of the great composers for Glenn Martens’ ready-to-wear debut for Maison Margiela on Saturday afternoon at Centquatre-Paris. Perhaps it was the designer’s way of illustrating how he felt following in the footsteps not only of Martin Margiela, but of Matthieu Blazy and John Galliano, who each evolved and innovated the house’s codes with visionary impact. Met with favourable reviews, his haute couture collection in July catered to a wistfulness for the “Martin” of “Margiela”: the atmosphere, codes, and pieces created by the founder, which continue to inspire a cult-like admiration in the industry and beyond.
It’s bred by our time’s nostalgic reverence for anything archival, expressed in nerdy nagging about authenticity on social media and celebrities wearing old dresses on red carpets. Martens is embracing that mood. His first ready-to-wear collection for Maison Margiela sampled the tropes of the founder’s era – from 1988 to 2009 – and remixed them in a medley of Martin-ness: lapel-less leather coats and blazers, apron-like structures and skirts, reconstructed denim pieces, monastic dress silhouettes, taped-up crinkled slip dresses, translucent layers of fabric, collaged floral dresses, de- and reconstructed eveningwear, and garments encased in plastic and tape. The collection refeatured the Tabi Claw boots from July’s couture proposal and brought back some of the house’s more subversive trainers.
MAISON MARGIELA
On a broad level, the collection translated the codes of Martin Margiela in an easy, simplified way that will open the house’s enigmatic doors to a new type of customer now less hesitant to approach its intellectual aura. True to the hand of Martens, there was a slightly menacing, somewhat dystopian feeling to the proceedings, powered not least by the fetish-y mouth retractors worn in every look. Their construction evoked the four stitches of Maison Margiela’s branding around the forced-open lips of the models, a gesture the house related to the uniformity the founder created through face coverings and his overall philosophy of anonymity. In the Margiela-ness of it all, the gags felt like a wink to the following Martens has garnered at Diesel, where he still serves as creative director.
“It’s camp, seductive, vulnerable and very razzy.” We’ve seen the future of comedy and it’s Grace Quigley’s surrealist high-femme fever dream, On Our Backs “It’s camp, seductive, vulnerable and very razzy.” We’ve seen the future of comedy and it’s Grace Quigley’s surrealist high-femme fever dream, On Our Backs
“It’s camp, seductive, vulnerable and very razzy.” We’ve seen the future of comedy and it’s Grace Quigley’s surrealist high-femme fever dream, On Our Backs
“I didn’t do what everyone expected me to”: Nia Archives on lessons in love and the jungle projects you should be listening to “I didn’t do what everyone expected me to”: Nia Archives on lessons in love and the jungle projects you should be listening to
“I didn’t do what everyone expected me to”: Nia Archives on lessons in love and the jungle projects you should be listening to
“Now I feel like I’m in an age where I can just be myself”: Jan de Villeneuve on embracing her authentic self and what it takes to be a model “Now I feel like I’m in an age where I can just be myself”: Jan de Villeneuve on embracing her authentic self and what it takes to be a model
“Now I feel like I’m in an age where I can just be myself”: Jan de Villeneuve on embracing her authentic self and what it takes to be a model
“We’ve been jamming”: Rema spills the TEA upon the release of his new single “We’ve been jamming”: Rema spills the TEA upon the release of his new single
“We’ve been jamming”: Rema spills the TEA upon the release of his new single
Aaron Pierre makes his DC Universe debut as John Stewart in HBO’s Lanterns Aaron Pierre makes his DC Universe debut as John Stewart in HBO’s Lanterns
Aaron Pierre makes his DC Universe debut as John Stewart in HBO’s Lanterns
Collina Strada’s Copenhagen Fashion Week debut is a greatest hits remix Collina Strada’s Copenhagen Fashion Week debut is a greatest hits remix
Collina Strada’s Copenhagen Fashion Week debut is a greatest hits remix
“This is just the appetizer”: Naisha is one of India’s hottest new artists and her debut EP 911, is the proof “This is just the appetizer”: Naisha is one of India’s hottest new artists and her debut EP 911, is the proof
“This is just the appetizer”: Naisha is one of India’s hottest new artists and her debut EP 911, is the proof
“Just be ready to take off most of your layers!”: This is Benji B’s ultimate party guide “Just be ready to take off most of your layers!”: This is Benji B’s ultimate party guide
