Florence was a big stage for the strictly anonymous MM6 Maison Margiela design team, who decamped here from Milan as guest designer of the winter edition of Pitti Uomo, almost 20 years after Martin Margiela’s fall 2006 show in the city.
The first stand-alone men’s show — “not a supporting act to womenswear,” as they put it during a preview with WWD — was bound to cement their vision of menswear since introducing the category three years ago.
Drawing from wardrobe staples, very much in the vein of previous outings, the item-driven approach, as show notes read, conjured grown-up and villain-looking versions of cool kids, bikers and rockers, inspired by the insouciant allure of American jazz musician Miles Davis, zhuzhed up by hints of subversive sensuality. The characters were all perfectly embodied by the strong personalities within the casting.
Although the radical thinking that previous MM6 displays have put to the test — think about the white paint-drenched spring 2025 collection — was only subtly at play here, the team nonetheless explored unexpected territory, showing the brand’s dressier, sleeker side and evoking a mischievous elan.
The collection tackled many of the Pitti peacocks’ archetypal garments through its own twisted — and this time perhaps also sensual — lens, from evening tailoring, cut lean with skinny bottoms and structured blazers crafted from shimmering and stardust-looking Lurex or in dandyish polka-dotted velvet, to the sleek, leather-resembling outerwear pieces made from coated and rubberized linen and paired with pocketed biker gloves.
Every look had a statement garment, from the iridescent car coat crafted from overdyed satin to the suede and mixed-media bomber jackets and the flowing khaki trenchcoat. A handsome peacoat was accented with masking tape rather than leather, as if to suggest one could create its own dupe, very much in tune with house founder Martin Margiela’s DIY bent.
Staged inside the storied “Tepidarium del Roster” greenhouse with flashes of red, green and blue light alternating as models stopped on the elevated runway for extreme posing in front of the standing audience (was it MM6’s take on a TikTok dance?), the runway display unfurled with few flaws. But it somehow lacked the brand’s usual gritty and punchy vibe. A little less reverence toward Pitti Uomo, a mecca of menswear classicism, would have made its moment in the spotlight shine even brighter.
