Maison Margiela has turned its latest fashion campaign into something that feels less like an ad and more like the opening scene of a psychological thriller.
For FW26, “ANONYMITY” stars British actor Rebecca Hall, who comes face-to-face with a masked woman dressed exactly like her. Same clothes. Same presence. Just enough difference to make the whole thing deeply unsettling.
The campaign builds on one of Margiela’s oldest visual signatures: the mask. Since the house’s debut show, masks have been used to take attention away from the person wearing the clothes and put it back where Margiela wants it, on the clothes themselves.
That idea took centre stage at the house’s FW26 show in Shanghai, where masked models walked through a runway made from stacked shipping containers. The clothes followed the same strange logic, pulling inspiration from Parisian flea-market finds and objects that looked like they had already lived several lives.
Edwardian silhouettes were mixed with battered furniture-style tapestries, skin-tight jersey and deliberately unfinished seams. Some shift dresses looked cut straight from old upholstery, while Bianchetto-painted skirts appeared cracked and weathered.
Even the tailoring refuses to behave. Tailcoats are chopped short, and knitwear looks almost chewed apart.
It is messy, eerie and deliberately imperfect — which is exactly what makes the collection feel so Margiela.
