Maison Margiela Artisanal Collection 2025

MAISON MARGIELA proper noun, singular.

⓪ ARTISANAL COLLECTION 2025 creative work / cultural ref. LE CENTQUATRE geographic location / toponym.

9 JULY 2025 origin / chronology.

◆ 1° The collection (designed by Creative Director Glenn Martens) is founded in the medieval architecture and atmosphere of Flanders and the Netherlands. ◆ 2° The verticality and volumes of silhouettes reflect the (Gothic) structures of towers. Statuesque forms evoke the (saintly) figures of church façades. ◆ 3° Corsetry, draping and optical illusions accentuate the anatomy and sculpturalise the physique. ◆ 4° The interiors of (Northern-European Renaissance) houses are abstracted in motifs and techniques.

◆ 4a° Images of (16th-century Flemish) hand-painted embossed leather floral wallpapers are printed on copy machine paper employed as overlay. They also appear as fabric prints and embossment.

◆ 4b° Collages of (17th-century Dutch) nature morte paintings of flowers are printed on plastic or fabric and cut into three-dimensional forms.

◆ 4c° Collages of (17th-century Dutch) nature morte paintings of game are worked similarly on fabric and leather.

◆ 4d° The trompe l’oeil of hand-painted garments mimics brushstrokes (of the Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau) and turns body into canvas.

◆ 4e° Lace is employed as an extension of the skin.

◆ 4f° The wet drapery of marble sculpture is translated into veiled silhouettes and echoed in anatomical constructions. ◆ 5° Unassuming and repurposed materials are re-appropriated: upcycled lining fabrics, vintage leather jackets, discarded costume jewellery, ordinary printing paper, plastic, and found metal boxes compressed into face coverings. ◆ 6° Masks (characteristic to the Maison’s codes of anonymity) shift the focus from face to craft. ◆ 7° The (emblematic) Tabi boot is re-embodied in a claw-toe leather boot and a plastic sandal on wedges, and the Santiago leather boot appears in heelless form. ◆ 8° The walls and floors of the show space are covered in collages of paper printed with imagery of (six different palatial) interiors. ◆ 9° The soundtrack is (a deconstruction of works by) Smashing Pumpkins.