Maison Margiela: Blossoming, as imagined by Glenn Martens

The scent of flowers drifted down the steps of the Élysée Montmartre on Tuesday afternoon. For a change, the historic theatre in the capital’s 18th arrondissement was transformed into a surreal maze of blooms.

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Maison Margiela, under the creative direction of Belgian Glenn Martens, enlisted floral artist Mark Colle to erect expanses swathed here in moss and lichen, and elsewhere in thousands of multicoloured roses on the cusp of wilting. Fresh lilies and carnations spilled from a wall of cardboard boxes, out of which dried orchids escaped. Subdued lighting and classical piano completed the scene.

Then, suddenly, the spotlights blazed, throwing stark shadows as the audio feedback intensified. A season after searing memories with a disquieting show that played on the contrast between elegant cuts and the models’ unsettling masks, Glenn unveiled his first Spring/Summer collection for the house. With powdered faces and pronounced make-up, the cosmopolitan cast set off, taut with nerves, to the rasping voice of punk singer Courtney Love, Hole’s frontwoman, on the 1994 track “Violet”.

And for Spring/Summer 2027, flowers and their unfurling were emphatically the theme for the creative flagship of the Italian OTB Group.

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Floral renderings echoed as all-over prints on dresses and skirts in a show that presented 62 womenswear and menswear silhouettes. But this blossoming also informed the construction of many looks. Poetically, the intense structural work on bodices revealed pieces whose busts unfurled through armoured panels and sculptural darts that opened outwards to sketch unprecedented balconette forms or corsets liberated from constraint. Think of a breastplate flaring on the diagonal; a satin jacket whose fortified lapels curled upwards like petals about to open; or a leather blouson that parted towards the front. Here lies an expression of the show’s theme, ‘Hard & Soft’ – two ostensibly opposing yet complementary facets of fashion. 

“In this collection, rigidity is introduced into archetypal garments, creating new possibilities for silhouettes; tailoring is enriched with new structural elements; draping is given unprecedented foundations from which it can flow,” wrote the Belgian designer in his show notes.

“Our research is rooted in the traditions of Parisian ateliers, divided between the ‘tailleur’, responsible for more rigid, structural garments, and the ‘flou’, dedicated to the creation of dresses and drape. Here, we are reclaiming the haute couture practices of the ‘tailleur’ and the ‘flou’ for this Maison Margiela ready-to-wear show.”

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These explorations were particularly apparent in the trench coats, whose proportions were redefined. They also ran through a series of draped dresses, skirts and blouses treated with a plasticised finish.

On the one hand, the reinforcement work relied on rigid, split darts at the waist, lending an architectural character to a dress in supple crêpe de Chine, while cut-outs assembled with cotton inserts created the illusion of a skirt-and-top set.

On the other hand, the series of dresses, shirts and trousers with plasticised fronts pushed material experimentation further. The floral-print pieces were coated in a transparent resin and then unpleated, causing the rigid surface to fracture along the former fold lines. Yet these near-rigid panels revealed the underlying fluidity. The contrast hinged on the opposition between this vitrified front and a back that was entirely supple and fluid.

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Whilst the menswear tailoring may not have received quite the same level of attention, Martens’s expertise in denim was deftly expressed across the menswear silhouettes. Bags and accessories also took centre stage, with a key piece in almost every look. This season, the OTB Group label debuted a new iteration of the 5AC bag in softened leather, while introducing the Ghost line with vanity cases appearing from the very first looks. These focal points spoke directly to the current demand for a more pliant, tactile and relaxed idea of luxury. In parallel, Maison Margiela extended its Heel-less offer to men, clearly backing this silhouette. 

The challenge is considerable. Having breathed new life into Diesel, Martens will now devote himself fully to Maison Margiela. The brand, led by managing director Gaetano Sciuto and chaired by Stefano Rosso, has shown the strongest momentum within Renzo Rosso’s group in recent years, closing 2025 with revenue of €1.7 billion. In 2025, the brand’s growth exceeded 8 per cent at constant exchange rates, with around 100 branded stores and some 500 retailers worldwide. In an increasingly pressured trading environment, Martens’s chief task is to sustain the label’s allure whilst inscribing his own vision.