At the MM6 show in Milan, the playful, street-smart little sibling of Maison Margiela, models didn’t blink. Not because they were nervous, but because no one could see anyway. If you were hoping for human expression, you were out of luck, again. Models walked in like they just got an upgrade allowing them to download the concept of cool and hit delete on every facial cue. Makes sense, given Martin Margiela’s love for anonymity, and the line’s love for pitch-black sunglasses.
The runway was part of a waiting room at Milan’s Centrale Station, one of Europe’s biggest and busiest train stations. The perfect place to showcase a luxury house’s down-to-earth clothing line, an everyday kind of location, still, Milanese enough to carry wall carvings. “Milano Centrale: the archetypal train station. Arrivals, departs. People that come, people that go: some longing for invisibility, some eager to be noticed, all of them exaggerated in their normality, all of them archetypes of some kind and on their turn. This, after all, is a fashion show: as much as it mimics a tranche de vie, it is staged,” the press release read.
That being said, if you’re after shock factor, this one’s not for you. The collection thrived on simplicity. Every trench coat and jacket seemed designed to compress the human body into a well-disciplined vertical line. Denim, of course, got its moment. Guys played peek-a-boo with double waistbands, while girls went full high-waist, pegged ’80s energy. Roll ’em, snap ’em, call it a day, hems had a new life on the runway. Meanwhile, full skirts, checkered shirts, blazers, ski jumpers, zip-up fleeces, long-johns, walked alongside. Simple can be radical, if you know how to roll a hem and stack a waistband.
