Maison Margiela and Gentle Monster extend their fourth collaboration beyond eyewear with a live artistic performance exploring deconstruction through movement, space and sound. Held on October 28th, 2026 at Seoul’s Layer41 Studio, the event united choreographer Damien Jalet and artist Ian McMahon in an exploration of familiar structures breaking apart and assuming new forms.
Beyond the frame: an unfinished aesthetic
Unveiled on October 29th, the 2026 collection features 68 eyewear styles, including 43 sunglasses and 25 optical frames. Dedicated to deconstruction, the designs challenge conventional proportions through compressed silhouettes, distorted shapes and sculptural volumes. Oversized frames resemble masks, while slender, contoured styles sit closer to the face. Crushed surfaces and irregular details evoke objects caught between assembly and disassembly.
Maison Margiela’s signature four white stitches mark the temples, with floating stitch details appearing on selected frames. Directed by artist Alex Prager, the campaign extends this aesthetic into cinema, following a protagonist through an unpredictable urban landscape of unusual characters and encounters.
Damien Jalet gives deconstruction a choreographic form
The Seoul performance translated the collection’s philosophy into choreography, installation and sound. Under the artistic direction of Damien Jalet, with spatial artwork by Ian McMahon, it explored deconstruction as a generative process through which unexpected forms emerge.
Performers navigated McMahon’s installation as shifting light altered the boundaries between solid structures and empty space. Apparent moments of collapse gave way to new configurations, creating a visual exchange between movement and stillness, order and instability. The result offered a physical interpretation of the ideas behind the eyewear.
An original score by Koki Nakano, composed after Claude Debussy’s Clair de lune, accompanied the performance. Costumed by Maison Margiela, dancers Aimilios Arapoglou, Astrid Sweeney, Seoljin Kim, Vinson Fraley and Juyoung Lee united contemporary dance, visual art and fashion in a single production.
The fourth collaboration also extends into eight international pop-up spaces across Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne and Paris. Irregular forms and contrasting materials carry the collection’s aesthetic into immersive environments.
Discover the ideas behind Damien Jalet’s distinctive choreographic language as he reflects on the body’s expressive power, the influence of mythology, and his experiments across different artistic fields.
Courtesy of MAISON MARGIELA X GENTLE MONSTER
