MM6’s Painted Dr. Martens Are Classic Margiela
We’ve previously debated whether MM6, the younger and more approachable sub-line to Maison Margiela, is more closely aligned with its founder's codes than the Maison Margiela mainline imprint. And adding weight to that hypothesis, the newest MM6 Maison Margiela x Dr. Martens collaboration is classic Margiela.
Part of MM6 Maison Margiela’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection, presented during the current Milan Fashion Week programming, Dr. Martens 1460 8-eyelet boots were decorated with a simple but effective technique typical of Maison Margiela. They were painted from top to bottom with white paint (as were suits and cowboy boots).
Cracking and chipped off in places, the layer of white paint allowed the occasional peek at the black boot it covered. However, for the most part, the shoes were all white.
Martin Margiela, the founder of the fashion house and now a practicing artist, loved to paint things in this way. Not only would he cover clothing and shoes in white paint but his entire Parisian Maison was painted in the stuff, down to every desk.
“There are two reasons for white – one practical, one conceptual,” a spokesperson for the brand previously stated (Martin famously never gives interviews). “When Jenny (Meirens, the label’s cofounder) and Martin started out they collected furniture from all over the place. They had no money and it was all in different styles, so to make it seem coherent it was all painted white.”
The trope of white paint has stayed with the brand long since Martin’s departure, used on denim jeans, Tabi Boots, and now, Dr. Martens’ classic leather shoes.
The MM6 Maison Margiela SS25 collection managed to honor its founder in other ways, too. The print from the Maison Margiela Aids T-shirt, introduced in its Fall/Winter 1994 collection to raise money for renowned French AIDS charities, was utilized in new places (such as on knitwear!).
Other Margiela-isms included worn-in-looking clothing, big identity-masking sunglasses, and upcycling in the form of a plastic bag fashioned into a makeshift tank top. But this wasn’t a straightforward ode to Maison Margiela, it was a skillful reinterpritation of the brands codes.
Once again, MM6 has borrowed from the brand's past to create something contemporary, and thoroughly new.
