Maison Margiela Explores Identity Through “ANONYMITY,” Starring Rebecca Hall

Maison Margiela has unveiled “ANONYMITY,” its campaign film for the Fall/Winter 2026 collection. Starring Rebecca Hall, the project takes the form of a trailer for a psychological thriller, revisiting the house’s longstanding exploration of anonymity and identity.

Summary

“Who are you?”

At the center of the film lies a question that appears simple, yet resists any definitive answer.

Hall plays an actress preparing for a role when she repeatedly encounters a masked version of herself dressed in the same look. Which one is real? What separates the self that is performing from the one that is not? As the boundary between reality and fiction begins to dissolve, clothing emerges as something more than an external layer. It becomes a force capable of shaping character, perception and the contours of the self.

Identity Behind the Mask

In each encounter, Hall’s double wears the same outfit as the actress, paired with a different Artisanal mask. Created as unique pieces in the house’s atelier, the masks were originally made for Maison Margiela’s Fall/Winter 2026 show, presented in Shanghai in April 2026.

Masks have long formed part of Maison Margiela’s foundational vocabulary. Since its first show, the house has used them to obscure the identities of models and redirect attention toward the clothes themselves.

In “ANONYMITY,” this familiar code becomes a source of psychological tension. Does concealing the face erase individuality, or does it reveal another self beneath the visible surface? Rather than providing an answer, the mask continually destabilizes the viewer’s perception.

The film’s unsettling atmosphere also extends the visual world of the Fall/Winter 2026 presentation in Shanghai. There, masked models appeared on a runway set among stacked shipping containers, wearing clothes that appeared to have been brought to life from a Parisian flea market after hours. The contrast between materials carrying traces of the past and the industrial setting created a tension that now permeates the campaign.

Where Fashion Meets Cinema

Cinema is not a new territory for Maison Margiela.

The house’s Ebisu store in Tokyo, which opened in 2006, features a small cinema with seats covered in white cloth. In 2021, Maison Margiela presented its Artisanal collection through “A Folk Horror Tale,” a film directed by Olivier Dahan. For the 2022 Artisanal show “Cinema Inferno,” live cameras and projections blurred the distinction between a runway presentation and a film set.

“ANONYMITY” continues this dialogue by presenting a fashion campaign as the trailer for an imagined film, bringing the emotional state of its central character and the construction of the collection into a single narrative.

New Forms Through Destruction and Fusion

The Fall/Winter 2026 collection is defined by Edwardian silhouettes, destroyed tapestries, second-skin pieces, fused garments and assemblages of disparate materials.

In one look, tapestry is applied to a shift dress as though furnishing fabric had become fluid, creating an improbable drape. An Edwardian cropped tailcoat is fused entirely with second-skin jersey and paired with a second-skin skirt, with the excess material deliberately left attached.

A chopped-off tailcoat is treated with Bianchetto, the house’s white-paint technique. It is worn with a fluid skirt that is first painted white, then baked and cracked to produce its distinctive surface.

Another dress brings together a fringed silk scarf, a skirt and a rectangle of floral-print chiffon. Slashes cut into the chiffon expose details beneath, including the scarf’s fringe. Rather than concealing the construction process, the design preserves excess material and unfinished-looking elements, allowing the transformation of the garment to remain visible.

The accessories continue the collection’s material investigations. The Tabi appears covered in floral motifs and tapestry inspired by repurposed fabrics, while the Tabi Claw is rendered in nude leather as a further extension of the house’s second-skin study.

A new interpretation of the thermoformed Box bag features ornate ceramic corner appliqués. It appears alongside the 5AC Soft in a distressed tapestry print inspired by the 17th century, extending the collection’s experiments with aged surfaces and decorative materials into leather goods.

Concealing faces, destroying familiar forms and fusing seemingly unrelated materials are all acts of destabilization. Each one dissolves an established outline before reconstructing it as something new. The self questioned in “ANONYMITY” may not be a fixed identity at all, but something continuously reshaped through clothing, memory and performance.

Maison Margiela’s Fall/Winter 2026 collection arrives in stores and at the official online store on September 9.

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