Glenn Martens to debut at Maison Margiela this July with Haute Couture

The conceptual architecture of fashion is about to be reshaped. Maison Margiela—the Parisian enigma that forever changed the perception of luxury through deconstruction—has officially confirmed that Glenn Martens will debut as the house’s creative director during the upcoming Haute Couture Week in July. It will be the Belgian designer’s first Artisanal collection for the house, scheduled for the official Haute Couture calendar from July 7-10, 2025, in Paris.

This debut is not a simple change of direction: it’s a turning point. A rite of passage that promises to rewrite the grammar of haute couture through the lens of Martens, one of the most lucid and radical minds in contemporary fashion. Artisanal FW25 not only marks his official entry into the Margiela universe, but also sets the tone for a new era: one that seeks to reconcile the most extreme craftsmanship with the codes of the future.

The house described this moment as “the beginning of an inspiring new chapter for the house, rooted in our core creative values ​​and shaped by Margiela’s couture heritage.” And if one thing is clear, it’s that Margiela has never been a house that acts on inertia. Under Martens, the house is preparing to shatter the concept of classicism at its core, exploring unconventional ways of narrating beauty, time, and the body.

With a career marked by his visionary work at the helm of Y/Project—where he demonstrated that streetwear and baroque tailoring could coexist without contradiction—and his leadership at Diesel, where he reworked the codes of denim for the 21st century, Martens has been a constant shaker of the status quo. His arrival at Margiela represents much more than an appointment: it is a symbolic alignment between two languages ​​that share an appetite for disruption and mystery.

The shadow of John Galliano, who left the creative direction of Margiela after a decade of redefining the house’s theatricality with his neo-romantic imagery, is still present. But Martens isn’t coming to quietly succeed him. His visual discourse—less nostalgia, more post-industrial distortion—promises to open a portal to the unknown. Unlike many contemporary creative directors who work from the literality of the archive, Martens arrives to interpret Margiela as if it were an open score: ready to be rewritten with new chords.

Since 2012, when Margiela was officially recognized as a Haute Couture house, its presence in this field has been as enigmatic as it is transgressive. Now, with Martens, the house is preparing for a new aesthetic cartography where the artisanal gesture becomes a political act, and the silhouette becomes a speculative space.

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