Maison Margiela Finds Harmony in Youthful Expression With ‘Joy’
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By PAGE Editor
At a moment when fashion increasingly seeks new forms of cultural dialogue, Maison Margiela turns to music—and the unfiltered creativity of youth—to frame its Spring/Summer 2026 narrative. The house has unveiled Joy, a short campaign film starring composer and pianist Max Richter alongside 43 young musicians from Association Orchestre à l’École, capturing a playful yet profound exploration of collective creativity.
Released March 11 to coincide with the collection’s arrival in stores and online, the film extends the conceptual threads introduced during the brand’s Co-Ed Spring/Summer 2026 runway presentation. Among the show’s themes was a “chaotic night at the opera,” a surrealist interpretation of performance culture that blurred the boundaries between stage and spectacle. Several of the young musicians who appeared on the runway return here, reinforcing the collection’s underlying conversation between discipline and spontaneity.
Shot inside Théâtre de la Villette in Paris, Joy begins with a familiar setting: a quiet concert hall awaiting rehearsal. But as Richter takes his seat at the harpsichord, the environment gradually transforms. A climbing frame rises before the orchestra seats. A swing interrupts the symmetry of the stage. A slide appears down the aisle. The concert hall—traditionally a place of formality—becomes a playground.
The shift mirrors the ethos of the collection itself. At its core lies an embrace of experimentation, where tailoring and irreverence coexist. Throughout the film, Richter performs in pieces drawn from the Spring/Summer 2026 lineup, emphasizing the structured silhouettes that anchored the runway show. Around him, the orchestra’s young performers wear intentionally oversized suits treated with the brand’s signature “Bianchetto” technique, their surfaces painted white as if to suggest both uniformity and possibility.
The emotional resonance of the project stems from its process. For three months leading up to the filming, Richter worked with the orchestra in rehearsal—an experience that shaped both the score and the film’s tone.
“Playing music together allows us to understand one another in a unique way,” Richter said. “It creates a shared vision that elevates and transforms us.”
The collaboration also underscores the mission of Orchestre à l’École, the French nonprofit founded in 2008 that introduces orchestral practice into classrooms across the country. By turning school groups into full orchestras, the initiative has reached more than 1,600 schools, using collective performance to cultivate confidence, access to the arts and social inclusion.
Beyond the film, the campaign highlights two key accessories from the collection. The Heel-less shoe—an archival Margiela concept reintroduced for Spring/Summer 2026—conceals its structural support within the body of the shoe, appearing as both a Western boot and a pump. Meanwhile, the newly introduced Box Bag arrives in soft leather with reinforced edges created through thermoforming, a technique that balances sculptural structure with pliability.
To extend the spirit of the project beyond the screen, the brand has also released a Spotify playlist curated by Richter and the young musicians under a single theme: joy.
In a season often defined by spectacle, Joy offers something quieter but perhaps more resonant—a reminder that creativity, at its most compelling, is rarely solitary. Instead, it unfolds in shared moments of curiosity, experimentation and play.
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