Maison Margiela

Margiela rewired fashion’s rules and then vanished: the founder never took a bow, never gave interviews on camera, and left the industry in 2009 with his face still unknown to most of it. What remained is a complete design language — exposed linings and unfinished seams, the split-toed Tabi boot, the Replica program of reproduced found garments, and the Artisanal line that turns salvage into couture — all of it now owned by Renzo Rosso’s OTB group.

Galliano’s decade restored the house to the center of the conversation, capped by the 2024 Artisanal show that became one of the most discussed collections of the century. Martens — a Belgian, like the founder, with acclaimed runs at Y/Project and Diesel — inherits both the archive and the expectation, and his Margiela is being watched as closely as any appointment in Paris.