Maison Margiela Spring/Summer 2027 at Paris Fashion Week

Maison Margiela Spring/Summer 2027 / SS27 at Paris Fashion Week: HARD and SOFT

For Spring/Summer 2027, Maison Margiela looks at fashion through a simple but productive opposition: HARD and SOFT. Rather than treating the two as separate ideas, the collection brings them together, using structure to reshape garments that would normally be associated with fluidity, while allowing softness to remain visible within more constructed pieces. The approach can be seen immediately in the treatment of familiar wardrobe staples. Trench coats are given hardened panels placed horizontally around the waist or vertically along the sides of the body, changing the proportions and silhouette of an otherwise recognizable garment. Tailored jackets and waistcoats are folded inward to conceal their buttoning, with reinforced creases ensuring that the new lines remain visible even when the garments are opened back into their conventional form. This tension between construction and movement becomes particularly interesting in the collection’s dresses and tops. Draped pieces are shaped with outward-curving panels across the chest, creating a balcony-like form that suggests the presence of a corset without physically restricting the body. Elsewhere, elongated wrap skirts are reinforced and finished with softer cotton at the waist, allowing the contrast between rigid and relaxed materials to become part of the design itself.

Maison Margiela SS27 / Spring/Summer 2027 collection draws from the traditional divisions of Parisian ateliers, particularly the relationship between Tailoring and Flou. Tailoring is associated with garments that require structure, while Flou is concerned with dressmaking and draping. Maison Margiela brings these two traditions into its ready-to-wear collection, continuing the house’s interest in reinterpreting established systems and conventions within fashion. Several silhouettes push this idea further. Sleeveless crewneck dresses feature oversized darts running down the front and opening at the waist. Once reinforced, these darts become structural elements rather than simply functional tailoring details. Other deeply draped dresses appear to have their corsetry opened up, allowing the resulting fabric to fall from the chest towards the ankle in a much more pronounced curve.

Softness, however, remains an important part of the collection. Net fabrics are layered over second-skin knits or incorporated directly into them, while draped crewneck dresses carry spray-painted crane and eagle motifs. At other moments, the contrast becomes more material than visual: coat linings are treated as garments in their own right or integrated into new pieces, reflecting the importance of exposed and repurposed linings within Maison Margiela’s history. Floral imagery also runs through Maison Margiela SS27 / Spring/Summer 2027 collection. Floral-print dresses are opened up and extended, then combined with coat linings to create silhouettes that appear to bring the language of a coat and a dress together. The floral surfaces are reinforced, creating a harder exterior against the softer lining underneath. One of the more unexpected expressions of hardness comes from flattened silverware, which is moulded into a form that follows the body. It takes the collection’s central idea away from conventional tailoring and into material experimentation, while still maintaining the same relationship between a rigid surface and the human form beneath it.

Maison Margiela SS27 / Spring/Summer 2027 show’s setting reinforces the collection’s interest in fashion history and replication. Created by Belgian floral artist Mark Colle, the set pays homage to a couture house debut from 2012 by fellow Belgian designer Raf Simons. The flowers appear as though they have been affected by time, while their presence continues through floral prints across the collection in a more permanent and vivid form. By the final looks, the relationship between hard and soft becomes less about opposition and more about transformation. Open-backed dresses are turned around and redraped, with second-skin pieces worn underneath so that the newly exposed front can be approached differently.

For Maison Margiela, Spring/Summer 2027 is ultimately a study of how structure can change the way familiar garments behave. Tailoring becomes a tool for altering silhouette, draping gains new foundations, and traditionally soft materials are given more architectural presence. The collection keeps returning to the same question in different forms: what happens when something soft is given structure, or something hard is allowed to move?