A look inside Maison Margiela Couture Fall 2025 by Glenn Martens.
Glimmering masks, shimmering illusion tulle, a hefty dose of deliciously deconstructed textures and DIY disposable materials made magical were the hallmarks of Maison Margiela Couture Fall 2025–the debut Margiela Artisinal collection under fan favorite designer Glenn Martens. Martens was only named Margiela creative director earlier this year, and plunged fully into the world of Maison Martin Margiela by debuting Artisanal (Margiela’s version of haute couture) just six months later.
We entered the basement of a former morgue turned cultural center to walls covered in beautifully decrepit peeling leather wallpaper and low lighting. Only when the first model began her walk down the runway did the lights turn on, illuminating room by room as she entered. And there it was: the new Margiela.
Consider Maison Margiela Couture Fall 2025 a mix of Medieval, DIY, punk and abstract expressionist journey through the history of one of fashion’s most famous “anti-fashion” brands. The collection opened with a strapless, translucent white maxi gown; its texture reminiscent of balls of sticky packing tape or saran wrap scraps piled together and turned from trash to treasure. With masks to match. Next came the second look, also utilizing the fantastic plastic with a boxier shape done in long sleeves, paired over painted upcycled denim. The show notes call it a t-shirt dress, underpinned by plexi shoulder pads and a clear plastic corset “for an anatomical shape”.
Martens has become a fashion fan favorite for his over-the-top, sculptural, twisted work at Y-Project, and his more commercially colorful, yet edgy work at Diesel. Maison Margiela Couture Fall 2025 collection peeled back the layers to reveal the exoskeleton of Glenn’s own twisted, grunge glam aesthetic under the Margiela lens. It was easy to see references to Martens’s own archival body of work employed through the Margiela gaze, which is so heavily rooted in DIY, humble materials, subversion of the everyday, intellect and radical expression. Highlights of the collection included pieces that referenced the Margiela archives with the twist of Martens’s own codes: a patchwork skirt that mirrored one from Spring 1992, the masks which of course referenced the very first Margiela collection and even the sheer nude stocking effect of spring 1990 transformed into gowns.
Martens presented 49 looks in total for Margiela Artisanal fall 2025, leaning heavily into the medieval aesthetic that’s been gripping fashion lately. As a house, Margiela famously does not do backstage interviews post show, leaving many to interpret the collection on their own terms. However, according to the show notes, the collection was “founded in the medieval architecture and atmosphere of Flanders and the Netherlands. The verticality and volumes of silhouettes reflect the (Gothic) structures of towers. Statuesque forms evoke the (saintly) figures of church façades. Corsetry, draping and optical illusions accentuate the anatomy and sculpturalise the physique. The interiors of (Northern-European Renaissance) houses are abstracted in motifs and techniques.”
At first glance, one might not see the hidden, beautiful mysteries in this collection. Take, for example, a black caped gown and bejeweled mask: the inside contains a structured corset and the fabric is actually hand-painted with trompe l’oeil brushstrokes inspired by the French Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau. A heavy emphasis on upcycling was present too. Crystals were deadstock and masks were made of burnished metal boxes, then crushed and compressed.
Spellbinding metallic gowns added an otherworldly aura and were reminiscent of the maximalist collection that Martens created when he took the reigns of Jean Paul Gaultier as guest designer for the couture collection in 2022. In the Margiela universe, the duchess fabric was woven with metal threads and then painted with a pattern replicating floral leather wallpapers from 16th-century Flemish culture, all done by hand and embossed. Conventional knitted polo tops received a transformation riddled with beautiful decay as they were overlaid with paper printed collages of the aforementioned 16th-century floral leather wallpaper.
Some jackets came with a high pocket for the hand to act as an accessory itself–hot pink-tipped fingers peeked out amidst the wonderfully dirty color palette of brown, beige, green, burgundy and caramel–inspired by the 17th-century Dutch nature morte paintings of game that were subversively printed on fabrics.
Nevertheless, it’s a collection that requires one to look closely, listen and read between the lines to analyze. Like the biker jacket that was actually patchworked from eighteen different upcycled cognac leather jackets, then laser-printed with a collage of the 17th-century Dutch nature morte paintings of game, and finally, cut three-dimensionally and topped with a matching paper overlay.
A typical couture collection is ostentatious, opulent and decadent at first glance. Glenn Martens’s version of Margiela challenges that authority and begs one to take a second, third, fourth glance to examine what’s really there. And in a world dominated by impending screens and forceful AI; systems that tell you how to think, that’s more important than ever.
More Maison Margiela Couture Fall 2025 photos//
All photos courtesy Maison Margiela
Leave a Comment