Glenn Martens contrasts floral softness with architectural rigidity in a fashion show where the domestic is deconstructed.

First, there&#39;s the scent of a forgotten interior. Sections of walls covered in moss and lichen sit alongside thousands of multicolored roses, already beginning to wilt. Fresh lilies and carnations seem to tumble from a wall of cardboard boxes, while dried orchids spill out. Designed by Belgian floral artist Mark Colle, this almost organic setting complements the dim light and the notes of a classical piano. Then the spotlights suddenly ignite, shadows sharpen, feedback rises, and the raspy voice of Courtney Love, singing &quot;Violet&quot; by Hole, shifts the scene into another dimension. For his Spring/Summer 2027 collection at <a href="https://www.lofficiel.com/fashion-week/chez-maison-margiela-la-grace-retrouvee-du-quotidien-par-glenn-martens" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Maison Margiela</a> , Glenn Martens immediately establishes his signature style: the language of contrast. Entitled Hard &amp; Soft , the collection makes this opposition a principle of construction. The flowers from the decor are printed on dresses, skirts, and coats, but the blooming becomes primarily a matter of volume. Busts open, unfold, and are reinforced with the help of stiffened panels and sculptural darts. A satin jacket has stiffened lapels that rise like petals; a plastron stretches diagonally; a leather jacket opens at the front. On trench coats, panels redefine the silhouette, while draped dresses take on the appearance of bursting corsets. This tension between suppleness and rigidity also extends to the fabric itself. Dresses, blouses, and trousers with floral prints are coated with a transparent resin before being de-plucked. The almost vitrified surface fractures where the fabric retains its movement, revealing an untouched fluidity beneath the protective shell. Elsewhere, rigid, split darts at the waist lend an architectural dimension to a crepe de Chine dress, while cutouts assembled with cotton panels create the illusion of a multi-piece ensemble. Deconstruction, a historical signature of <a href="https://www.lofficiel.com/fashion-week/glenn-martens-ressuscite-l-ame-gothique-de-margiela" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Maison Margiela</a> , here becomes a means of revealing rather than concealing.

This idea extends to the domestic sphere, another recurring theme in the collection. A few days before the show, the house unveiled a video of a crushed silver teapot: the gesture foreshadowed a white dress adorned with flattened silverware, as if familiar household objects had been transformed into fragments of jewelry. The plasticized floral fabrics, meanwhile, evoke tablecloths or upholstery from the 1960s and 70s. The mundane becomes precious, the domestic becomes spectacular. The gesture is all the more effective because it never involves a complete break with conventions: at <a href="https://www.lofficiel.com/fashion-week/chez-diesel-le-dernier-tour-de-piste-de-glenn-martens" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Glenn Martens</a> , subversion slips into forms that are sometimes surprisingly familiar. The contrast between the two collections is particularly striking. The men&#39;s silhouettes cultivate a classic, everyday look, from gray suits to blue jeans worn with khaki vests and charcoal leather coats. A few floral shirts, satin trousers, and T-shirts adorned with an airbrushed owl, however, disrupt this restraint. It is in the women&#39;s collection that the full intensity of the collection unfolds: dresses and skirts covered in vintage flowers, blouses in bold colors, plasticized fabrics, and silhouettes that suddenly open up to reveal form-fitting undershirts. The accessories extend this exploration, from the 5AC Soft to the Link, while the &quot;Heel-less&quot; shoes and the new variations of the Tabi, in turn, play with illusion and construction. At the end of the 62 looks, the collection emerges as a reflection on what happens when something familiar begins to transform. A flower becomes a print, then a material; a tablecloth becomes a garment; a crushed teapot becomes an ornament; a trench coat metamorphoses into the architecture of the body. Even Mark Colle&#39;s set design tells the story of this metamorphosis: the flowers, already faded, seem to retain their beauty at the precise moment they cease to be fresh. The final look, a long, artfully draped ochre dress, ultimately brings the collection back to a sense of calm. After shattering corsets, vitrifying prints, and deconstructing the everyday, Glenn Martens leaves behind a simple and profoundly Margiel-esque idea: beauty can be born from what falls apart.

At Maison Margiela, Glenn Martens cultivates the art of contrast

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