What will it mean for Maison Margiela to have Glenn Martens at the helm of its design?

When a name like Glenn Martens crosses the path of a house like Maison Margiela, something big is about to happen, of that we have no doubt. Martens’ entry as creative director of the maison is not just a change of guard; it is a radical proposal for transformation, a disturbing twist in an already complex story. Moreover, we are living of constant change in the creative directions of the major fashion houses. What used to be a firm with a defined identity for decades, today is a chessboard where brands reconfigure their strategies with new names at the top: Dior, Loewe, Valentino, Gucci, Chanel… The question in the case of Maison Margiela with the appointment of Glenn Martens as its creative director is: are we facing a revolution or rather a deepening of the brand’s original vision? The answer, as always with Margiela, is uncertain. And that uncertainty is exactly what makes it so interesting.

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Margiela has never been a brand for those looking for clear answers. His signature was always deconstruction, the reinterpretation of the traditional, the ruination of the predictable. Under John Galliano, this deconstruction became a narrative art: garments that spoke, almost screamed, of oppression, history, and distortion of the identity of individuals. Now, Martens takes the reins, and while he shares the same DNA of altering and decomposing, his language is different.

Martens has shown us that deconstructing does not necessarily have to be dark or theatrical. There we have the example of his work in Y/Project and that of Diesel. His deconstruction is more playful, more joyful. For loyal Maison Margiela fans, this transition could come as a surprise. Will the essence of the brand be diluted? Or, on the contrary, will Martens himself find a way to expand that concept, taking us to a new level of experimentation? This is a new kind of deconstruction, one that seeks to reconfigure reality in completely new ways-perhaps it’s what Margiela needed to survive the current landscape. And what happens when someone who understands deconstruction from a radical lens like Glenn Martens enters a brand that was already born with that DNA?

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Margiela lovers love impossible, dramatic, intriguing silhouettes, cuts that break with perfect symmetry. Volume is a fundamental pillar, and both Martens and Margiela understand it well in their modus operandi. However, the difference is in how this volume is approached. Whereas with Margiela volume has always had a minimalist, almost cold touch, with a conceptual approach to how the body was meant to interact with the garment, Martens has made volume an almost chaotic explosion. Each garment at Y/Project feels like a transformation, a “before” and an “after.” So is this the future of the house of Margiela – more volume, more visual disruption, more overflow of form?

And if there is another thing that has characterized Maison Margiela, it is its play with identity: anonymity. The garments are not a manifesto on the body, but a commentary on the garment itself. The garments were almost an empty shell, whose value came not from the identity of the wearer, but from the radical transformation they represented. Under John Galliano’s direction, the idea of the absence of identity continued, but in a more theatrical and baroque way. Galliano did not betray the essence of Margiela, but he did transform it into something more scenic, more literary. The challenge here is to see how Martens plays with this dematerialized identity in a brand that, from its beginnings, has played with the idea of the occult, the mysterious. For Margiela, clothes have never been just clothes; they have been a statement about absence, emptiness. The question is whether Martens will take this reflection even further, to the point of transforming the garment into an empty space that the body inhabits but does not define.

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Is a new Margiela really coming or is it just a mirage?

At this crossroads, Y/Project and Maison Margiela have something in common that we can’t overlook: they both take the basics and bring them into the realm of the conceptual. Martens has proven to be a master at transforming garments as everyday as a pair of pants or a T-shirt, while Margiela has always had the ability to turn the “basic” into a piece that destabilizes our conventional perception of the world. But what happens when a designer like Martens, known for his experimental approach, meets a maison whose power lies precisely in dismantling what we know? The brand has always been a proposition of bewilderment, and what Martens brings is a more explicit form of subversion.

So perhaps the future of Maison Margiela under the direction of Glenn Martens will not be a radical change, but rather a revision of the codes that make it so unique and particular. The essence of the brand will remain intact, but the way Martens will take us into those unexplored territories will be deliberately more visceral, but equally thoughtful, hopefully.

The question is not whether we will like what’s coming, but whether the industry, and we as viewers, will be able to understand it. Critical Maison Margiela fans will be watching.