Margiela's Supreme Collab Is Hairy for a Reason
Supreme and MM6 Maison Margiela are picking up where their debut collaboration left off, once again mining Margiela’s history of singular fashion innovation. Despite this being a partnership with MM6, ostensibly the more casual Margiela imprint, this collection offers Margiela nerds references aplenty.
The spliced-together Supreme T-shirts, for example, hark back to the reconstructed vintage tees individually created by founder Martin Margiela in his house’s early days. Meanwhile, the moolah printed atop a shearling jacket, Timberland boots — the first ever Margiela Timbs! — and a T-shirt pays homage to the Martin Margiela 2008 dollar bill wallet. And a white paint splatter box logo hoodie draws from Martin Margiela’s famous fascination with white paint.
But none of the references Supreme pulls from for this 35-piece collection are as poignant as the hairy punchbag and boxing gloves created in collaboration with Everlast. This furry sports equipment is a real deep cut from Martin Margiela’s indelible history that even relates to the now-retired designer’s recent artworks.
Martin Margiela has experimented with hair since his early days in fashion, creating coats from inverted wigs, obscuring models’ faces behind long faux locks cut from fur coats, and strapping strands of hair to the end of necklaces. It’s a self-described obsession that stemmed from watching his father, a barber, as a child.
“I was especially intrigued by the ceremonial shaving that took place with each customer,” the designer recently said in a rare interview. “Later, my mother introduced wigs, a fascinating world as I recall. My resulting obsession [with hair] seems very natural to me.”
Supreme is well-versed in this history — its 2024 MM6 collaboration included a blond wig. But what’s especially interesting about the furry boxing gear is that it’s quite similar to Martin Margiela’s current work as an artist.
Martin Margiela’s BARRIER Sculpture (2024) is a squared-off enclosure made of hairy white fencing while BUS STOP (2020) is a full-scale bus shelter covered in faux fur. They admittedly take a leaf out of the book of Meret Oppenheim and her furry tea cup, a defining piece of surrealist art.
But it’s the same concept as the MM6 x Supreme punchbag and gloves that drop on March 19. Coincidence? Maybe.
MM6 may be cut from Martin’s cloth but the designer’s touch was always more visible in mainline collections. But given how capably MM6 references Martin’s old work, it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine it’s also looking at Martin Margiela’s new work.
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