In fall 2022, first year students in the MFA Fashion Design and The Arts at Parsons Paris started a special collaboration with MM6 Maison Margiela. They were given a creative brief by the house, and worked for five months under the guidance of Parsons Paris faculty and the MM6 Maison Margiela creative team. Students were challenged to reinterpret the MM6 Maison Margiela philosophy and house codes from a personal, forward-thinking, artistic, and design-led point of view. They were assigned one of the following iconic MM6 Maison Margiela themes: Trompe-l’œil, Utilitarian, Multifunctional, Ready when worn, Circle, Self-reference, and Unexpected matches.
Within their assigned theme, each student designed three variations on three garments or objects, in which the same item changes its appearance, tactility and character through altering its proportion, sizing and materiality. This was also the concept of the very first collections of MM6 Maison Margiela. Students were encouraged to have a strong focus on sustainability, using leftover materials provided by the company partner and exploring the use of deadstock, second-hand and unconventional materials.
Students also edited a newspaper, a format often used in Maison Margiela’s history, to document their creative process. Instead of focusing just their own body of work, they photographed each other’s collections in different arrondissements of Paris, casting an unconventional group of characters which included their families, colleagues, and friends; this was also a nod to the inclusive cast of models and muses used by Maison Margiela since the birth of the company 1989.
The creative exchange between MM6 Maison Margiela and the MFA Fashion Design and The Arts program at Parsons Paris will be exhibited on May 11, 2023 at the Parsons Paris campus at 45 rue St-Roch, 75001. Guests may visit the exhibition between 10am and 4pm by appointment only. There will be a vernissage from 5-8pm where guests will receive a copy of the MM6 x Parsons Paris publication.
