MAISON MARGIELA breaking codes at PFW 2020

September 2020 – The avant-garde fashion house Maison Margiela founded in 1988 in Paris, presents their new SS21 collection at Paris Fashion Week in a digital show intended to express the alternative realities nowadays. Designed by the MM6 team from home, the Spring Summer 2021 collection meets the moment – questioning the corporate and embracing the domestic.

The popular adage of ‘business on top, party on the bottom’ is pertinent, as subversive ensembles are optimized for video conferencing, daydreaming, and the new 9-5. 

Zooming in, out and around the collection, an in-situ lookbook film contextualizes the process of image  creation in a series of studio perspectives.

Both MM6 models and staff are seen interacting with garments,  accessories and scenography, emphasizing games of scale, modularity, and superposition. Epitomizing the on screen dream, printed satin scarves replace shirt, gilet or t-shirt backs to create floating pictorial scenes from cloudy skies to the Maison’s iconic library and scrawled ‘6’ typography. 

Familiarity askew is an underlying device throughout, creating surprising twists on MM6 archetypes through  scale, surface and silhouette. Menswear and lingerie – opposites that attract – mix and match up and down the body.

Chopped garments break formality: pinstripe and poplin sleeves are cropped to desktop elbow length, trouser legs wrap as a V-neck jumpsuit, a skirt lining is extended beyond denim and the trench or blouse blanche is shorn apart as a jacket and skirt. 

Remixing historical hallmarks of the Maison, typewriter descriptions are cut and pasted from the backdrop  onto garments, and the white calico cover of a Parisian café chair becomes a short cotton dress. Look further, and  archive polka dots are warped across pleating, whilst nude crepe washes men’s tailoring with the trompe l’oeil  shades of the MM6 beige bodysuit. 

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Subtly distorted accessories play with proportions throughout the Spring Summer 2021 Collection, from schoolgirl satchels patched onto cotton tote bags and upsized sunglasses pouches to giant solitaire ring pendants and nude  mesh jewelry. Square-toe sneakers slip on in puffy nylon, the signature tape heels and cylindrical ‘6’ stamp boots both return with an anatomic molded toe, and hybrid 3-way flats in soft leather are worn closed, open-toe, or backless. 

Credits:

Film director: Alex Silberstein  Director of photography: Guillaume Le Grontec  Set designer: Guillaume Dewitte  Sound design: Wladimir Schall  Casting director: Leila SUUN  Make-up: Nami Yoshida, Bryant Artist  Hair: Kiyoko Odo, Bryant Artist Article edit: Fashion Magazine 24