At MM6, taking familiar shapes and turning them inside out, upside down, and sideways is the gift that just keeps on giving.
With its spring 2026 Avant Première collection, the studio keeps its focus squarely on the product while also chasing up new adventures in abstraction. Clothing labels and linings rise to the surface on coats and shirts; a humble washed-out denim gets the haute peacoat treatment, knits appear lifted straight from the loom, ribbing still trailing; and elevated materials—notably leather—get crumpled like a brown paper bag from a convenience store.
Setting aside a few noisily branded pieces here and there—a blousy ice blue dress with tonal lettering comes to mind—this collection offers up a lot of clever, commercial, seriously covetable clothes. First among them: a trench cut to sit on the body two ways—one dramatic, the other faux-classic—with a glove belt in jersey that can actually be worn as gloves or cinched to create a sexy or structured look depending on the occasion. Margiela obsessives will clock the new spin on an iconic runway outing for spring 2000: in a burst of inspiration, the founding designer grabbed a bunch of stockings and used them as belts. In a witty twist, the glove idea cropped up again on the house’s Numeric bag.
That sense of improv runs throughout a collection rife with easy essentials. Men’s wardrobe classics are revisited with subtle tweaks to texture, cut, and drape. Sleeves, for example, are subtly gathered and scrunched on a trench, perfecto, and one of the sharpest peacoats we’ve seen lately. A spray-painted dot injects a white button-down or an overcoat with a DIY attitude. Archetypes are sourced from central casting—think Hollywood hunk as gas station attendant—teased with a light hand, in a sexy rumple, a roll of a sleeve, or low-slung jeans with a suiting waistband (or vice versa).
For women, the strongest pieces let the wearer make it her own, for example in slip dresses cut to be worn full-length, with bodice folded down into a tiered skirt or hem hiked up into a top. While those extra-sleeve numbers may look weird, on the body they had attitude and a real allure that will connect with MM6 diehards. Back for another round, too, was a disco ball of a silver dress that brought the party all on its own, like an in-joke transformed into clothing. That is exactly the appeal of MM6: what starts in one place ends up somewhere else entirely. As with any journey worth taking, the story happens in between, and on that note the Tabi-esque soft ballerina flats, or those square-toed oxfords for men, look like just the kind of shoe that will get you there.