Since Maison Margiela’s founding in 1988, the French house has never shown outside of Paris – until now. This season, Glenn Martens took Margiela to Shanghai for the brand’s first show outside Paris and its first to combine artisanal and ready-to-wear in a singular collection. The show marks the start of a four-city exhibition tour across China, MaisonMargiela/folders, bringing 58 Artisanal looks from 1989 to 2025 to Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and Shenzhen.

Taking over a shipyard outside the city centre, Martens brought a Parisian flea market to life, creating “a world within a world, a place of rituals and obsessions, where curiosities are ready to be repurposed and made new.” Each garment is considered a ‘couture’ piece, with only a few of each item being produced, a reminder of how collections were designed in the brand’s founding years. Objects generally discarded were given a new lease of life, as porcelain dolls, destroyed tapestries, thousands and thousands of gold stars, and dresses too delicate to repair, weaved their way into the 76 look collection. Silhouettes were Edwardian by nature, with crinoline skirts walking alongside subverted tailoring – tailcoats had tails cut off or painted in signature white bianchetto. Second skin garments remained steadfast in Martens’ offering, stretching across the body in form-fitting shapes and monochromatic hues. And, as is common with any Margiela show, masks created anonymity, shedding identity as models walked on into the Shanghai night armed with a Parisian sensibility.