Yesterday evening, a small, 19th century botanical garden and its antique greenhouse became the backdrop to a humble cohort of leather-clad men. With their hair slicked back and eyes kohl-rimmed, they transformed the impressive glasshouse – Florence’s Giardino dell’Orticoltura – into a catwalk for the French diffusion label, MM6 Maison Margiela.
While the clothes were dark and dangerous with a rock and roll sensibility, their surroundings took a page from a different book. Within the arboretum, pristine white walls were illuminated by even brighter white lights while bevvies were served by white-wearing waiters at equally immaculate white tables. It seemed to be in reference to Maison Margiela’s history-making Pitti Uomo show for autumn/winter 2006, when then-creative director Sebastien Meunier kicked off a “white-out” of his own, swiping Teatro Piccini’s architecture with plain white paint, and kitting out models in alabaster stylings.
MM6’s Pitti Uomo debut told an equal and opposite tale, opting for fabrics that stemmed from the other side of the colour spectrum. Describing the blacked-out offering as “straight-forward” and “item-driven”, pieces were repeated in fresh fabrications and surface treatments, sometimes injected with ladylike faux mink and lurex, rubber or taped-up textures. Think star-spangled suits with pagoda shoulders, big bombers, trench and car coats, denim jackets and trousers, taxi driver jackets, faded denim twinsets and rain macs. Elsewhere, motorcycle-esque gloves were created in collaboration with Agnelle and held onto trumpet and biker bags or motorcycle helmets. Inspired by the suavity of the late American trumpeter Miles Davis, tailoring was skin-tight, with one particular suit being disco-ready and coming in a vivid hue of electric blue that burst through the black like a firework.
It was “an exercise in masculine dressing, the MM6 Maison Margiela way”, and it was addicting.
Photography courtesy of MM6 Maison Margiela.
