Maison Margiela debuts its Co-Ed Spring-Summer 2022 Collection in a mystical production, touching upon themes of fantasy and reverie throughout.

Creative Director John Galliano aimed to express the power of nature and the passage of time through the medium of haute couture.

A film based on an original concept by Galliano and directed by Olivier Dahan features the collection in all its glory, on display with movement, bringing the designs to life. 

Galliano observed a “utopian youth” for Margiela’s latest Co-Ed collection, inviting a narrative inspired by nature, time, instinct, and a heroic hope for the future. This vision is expressed explicitly through the feel of the collection. Knitwear, coats, boots, headwear, and bags all portray this eclectic collection.

With a feel of different fantasy scenes, Margiela invites you directly to the production scenes themselves, varying from a mystifying sea setting, to what seems like a haunted forest or cemetery, or an end-of-days abandoned carnival. 

The collection adopts artisanal techniques, such as essorage, which evokes the trace of time in garments through enzyme and stonewash treatments. Adapted to Co-Ed, it erodes the colors of outerwear and tailoring, like the sable-colored velvet of a padded coat that carries the soul of age.

Lined in torchon – tea toweling fabric – overlaid with laced dévoré, it conveys a sense of inverted snobbery. It is a recontextualization demonstrated in ‘poor’ materials turned into desirable manifestations; or, the switching of adornments and underpinnings, like a humble toile coat lined in elaborate white-washed embroideries.