MM6 Maison Margiela Pre-Fall 2025 Menswear Collection

In these fractured, uncertain times, this MM6 Autumn-Winter AVP collection seems to suggest that dressing can be both a mirror of the moment and a form of escape. In response to streetwear’s long, long arc, the studio pivoted away from a be-hooded, baggy, dressed-way-down aesthetic, instead mining a pre-streetwear past for a
sense of connection. Not all that long ago, clothing was less about trends—let alone followers—and more about emotional engagement, with subtle nods to music, memory, and art, and little need for qualifiers like “elevated.”

But what appears straightforward enough in these photos also deserves a closer look. Those lines on a sculptural shift in jersey? Those are a nod to the Stockman that is every designer’s constant companion. The oversized shoulders that defined the house’s early days, back in the 1980s, now return in a new iteration on a white wool pea coat that feels oddly cool again.

Another cue from that time came in a washed satin bomber that somehow managed to feel at once humble and opulent. Is it Sonic Youth? Couture? Maybe a bit of both,
now overdyed to bring out its texture. Speaking of which, fur—either faux, as on a coat, on lining, or as trim; or reiterated as a print on jersey—could whisper Venus in Furs for a certain generation, yet still speak to another that might not get the saucy subtext. And there was no need for context on a couple of (real) shearling numbers; both looked like keepers.

Other archival references were approached in the spirit of reinvention: an overdyed chocolate skirt injected straight-up minimalism with a bit more depth, while a couple of loose-fitting popover dresses, upon closer inspection, had a quiet drama to them. There was a Duchampian resonance in “back-to-back” trousers with welt pockets in
front and in back, inside-out suiting or jeans, overdyed jacquard dresses that nodded to prom dresses of the distant past, and halter tops or skirts extrapolated from ’90s-era archival scarves. In other words, here was the kind of attitude the brand’s base comes back for again and again, and hangs onto forever.

In men’s wear, the brand seems to have landed its vocabulary: nothing too crazy or out-there, just jackets in shearling or leather, denims, and coats with a pragmatic
sensibility. Here, craft takes precedence over spectacle. This is, as the brand likes to say, “ready-when-worn” distilled down to what really works—and it looks
stronger for it. These are clothes meant for living, not just posting.