Couture to burn at the stake for
MARGIELAAAA!
It’s been less than 24 hours since Glenn Martens’ unflinching couture debut for Maison Margiela, and fashion finally feels alive again. Just hours earlier, the timelines were busy with Demna’s Balenciaga exit.
Models plus Kim Kardashian (yawn!) sauntered down the runway like they’d just sat through a four-hour meeting and suddenly remembered they needed the toilet. Mournful, sorrowful walks. As if the show was a reminder of the long, lingering dread that man has put us through. Gimmick after gimmick.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Demna delivered breakthroughs, and some memorable looks (often thanks to Martine Rose). His couture once crackled with energy, the kind we felt again with Margiela yesterday. But his swansong was flat. A disappointment. A reminder of how irrelevant his ‘genius’ has become. What once felt like the future now feels like déjà vu.
Nobody will remember this collection a year from now. Hell, no one remembered it today.
Even at this moment, he’s probably screaming, crying, throwing up on Gucci’s sofas. Replaying how quickly the industry left him on read after Martens stole the spotlight and delivered the show we’d all been waiting for.
So with that, we say: Thank you for your service, Demna. Ten monumental years.
The last five completely squandered.
(Side note: did anyone see Anna at MM btw? No? Us neither.)
Back to the man of the moment: Glenn Martens, couturier of our generation, who basically took all the energy Demna drained from the scene and brought it back to life with something daring and distinctly his.
Born in Belgium, Martens started out with a degree in Interior Design from Sint-Lucas School of Architecture in 2004. With zero formal training in fashion, he applied for a Master’s at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, graduating top of his class. Not long after, he landed his first gig at Jean Paul Gaultier. The rest has lead to this very moment. (Thanks for the breadcrumbs, Wikipedia. AI might deliver the facts, but never the flavour.)
Martens’ first Maison Margiela felt more like an immersive experience than a run-of-the-mill runway show. Models wore masks that called to mind the unsettling Dark Nurses from Silent Hill, moving with an eerie, otherworldly grace. Masked faces are nothing new at Margiela. AW95 and SS96 set the precedent, but here the cinematic twist gave them a strange, spectral beauty.
The setting felt like a quiet tribute to the game’s twisted universe, blurring the line between dream and nightmare. The music, reminiscent of Akira Yamaoka’s original Silent Hill soundtrack, created a mood that was both nostalgic and quietly dissonant. We also loved that the show almost served as a sequel to Galliano’s Margiela couture finale, building on and expanding that narrative while introducing new conflicts and elements, all while evoking a nostalgic dip into a past long gone, or perhaps into a future that never was.
Now, the collection: somehow, Martens has managed to flex a whole new language for the house.
The moment the gold lamé dress sauntered down the runway, for us, it was game over. The level of detail and artistry was undeniably exceptional, reminding us of the emerald look from the SS22 couture collaboration between Jean Paul Gaultier and Glenn Martens, the one Jada Pinkett Smith wore to the Oscars in 2022 (yes, ‘the slap’ year).
The corseted backs alone were a masterclass in structured seduction, a sly nod to his other gig at Diesel but dialled way up. These weren’t traditional corsets. Think exposed wire, sharp angles and a raw, almost industrial-like quality.
New life was breathed into repurposed materials like upcycled lining fabrics, vintage leather jackets and discarded costume jewellery, most sourced from second-hand stores in Paris. Seriously, the girls haven’t been this gagged since glass skin appeared at last year’s couture show.
About the wire:
A series of gowns in flesh-tone jersey so thin as to expose the corset and bones beneath simply transformed the wearers into skeletal wraiths, while wire belts with corseted backs seemed more like garrotes for the waist.
Martens didn’t just use it for drama. The wire was a tool, a hot-glued way for the wearer to shape their own silhouette and challenge the rigid rules of fashion that Margiela once famously shattered. Personalisation became performance. And that is how couture feels alive again.
You just know Law was rubbing his hands in excitement. Dune 3 premiere incoming.