For Spring/Summer 2026, Glenn Martens stages a co-ed symphony for Maison Margiela in Paris, deepening his dialogue between innovation and continuity. With both womenswear and menswear sharing the stage, Martens stays true to the house’s ethos — not of recognizability, but of transformation.
An orchestra of 61 children, dressed in black, set the show’s tone with live, imperfect harmonies that recalled Fellini’s Prova d’Orchestra. Their raw, emotional performance echoed Martens’ own design language: poetic, dissonant, and profoundly human.
From the starting point — a structured gilet — the collection expanded into layers of baroque tailoring, experimental denim, and supple leathers, blurring classical codes with the casual edge Martens masters so well. His silhouettes — asymmetric, tactile, and purposefully disjointed — embodied what the designer calls “proposals for real life.”
The designer also reintroduced one of Maison Margiela’s most iconic visual elements — the four white stitches, reinterpreted this time as metal mouthpieces worn by every model. These dental “jewels” turned the house’s anonymity into a literal symbol, silencing individuality while amplifying collective identity.
Like his acclaimed Artisanal 2025 collection, Martens pursued a visceral approach to texture and form — a collision of imperfection and beauty, or as the Korean review aptly put it: 불완전함의 하모니 — the harmony of imperfection.
With this collection, Glenn Martens cements himself as the ideal interpreter of Maison Margiela’s evolving legacy — turning chaos into order, and avant-garde provocation into a continuing conversation with the past.
It definitely feels like the urge to go to a dentist.