Maison Margiela Spring 2026: When Anonymity Becomes a Statement
When it comes to fashion, can anything be ‘too much’? After Maison Margiela's Spring 2026 ready-to-wear show presented at Paris Fashion Week, creative director Glenn Martens has many people asking exactly that.
Under stark, bright white lights and a children's orchestra dressed in comically oversized suits, there was an eerie and dystopian tone to the beginning of the show. Marked with a sense of uncertainty, the first model emerged onto the runway, revealing a mouthpiece replicating the iconic 4 stitches of Maison Margiela, alongside a long black leather coat and matching trousers, a haunting image captivating the essence of the show.
The impact was immediate, and “controversial” is an understatement, with comments under Margiela's Instagram post calling it ‘disgusting’, ' silly and pretentious’ and even ‘satanic’. Some people's negative reaction may be simply due to a lack of recognition of Margelia’s signature motif: The brand's iconic 4-stitch logo. Incidentally, these stitches were never intended as a logo when their brand launched in 1988; the stitches simply held the tag in place so it could be removed, leaving only the 4-piece threads to keep the anonymity of the garment.
However, over time, that anonymity has become the hallmark of Margiela. Yet, the very concept of a brand built on the absence of being defined by its branding seems to create a paradox, as it stands in tension with an impossible-to-ignore mouthpiece, centring the branding. This raises the question of whether the piece reinforces Margeilas' original philosophy or undermines it, and if the concept of anonymity can ever truly be a statement.
Some critics argue that the mouthpiece overlooks the garments themselves, with many people's main takeaways being the eerie stitched mouth piece instead of the tailoring or the various textures of the garments. Has Glen Martens really done ‘too much’?
Perhaps not. At first glance, the mouthpiece may be distracting, but once the shock fades, it creates a statement like no other, where the mouthpiece works to amplify rather than distract from the garments. Yet, the choice to make the appearance of the mouthpiece in the ready-to-wear collection seems unusual, something so bold one might expect it from Margiela’s even more avant-garde ‘couture’ collections.
Adore it or despise it, the collection certainly made its impact in fashion history, and perhaps can stand as a reminder that ‘too much’ is what keeps fashion alive, affirming it as something exciting, unpredictable and continuously playing with absolutely no rule book.
Written By Kitty Foord