A groundbreaking collaboration between OMA/AMO and Maison Margiela introduces "MaisonMargiela/Folders," a multi-city exhibition that transforms urban landscapes into immersive showcases of avant-garde fashion. This ambitious project, spanning Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, and Shenzhen until April 13th, 2026, marks a significant partnership between the renowned fashion label and the architectural studio led by Rem Koolhaas. The exhibition reimagines the brand's core design principles as spatial narratives, integrating them into the fabric of each city.
In Shanghai, the exhibition ingeniously utilizes a series of shipping containers strategically placed throughout the city. This design choice extends the innovative scenography initially developed by OMA for Maison Margiela's Fall/Winter 2026 runway show, where stacked containers created a navigable environment. These containers now serve a triple purpose, functioning as archives, architectural elements, and interactive urban interfaces. The broader curatorial strategy of "MaisonMargiela/Folders" deviates from conventional single-venue exhibitions, opting instead for a fragmented approach. Each participating city acts as a "folder" dedicated to a specific theme, forming a dynamic, loosely structured archive that encourages visitors to explore across different geographical and typological settings. Public spaces such as streets, theaters, galleries, and sports facilities are repurposed to house these installations, while digital content circulates via the brand's online platforms, expanding the project's reach beyond its physical presence. This methodology reflects OMA's long-standing interest in exhibition design as a form of narrative construction, echoing Maison Margiela's own practice of deconstructing and reassembling meaning through its garments.
The exhibition delves into various thematic elements across its Chinese locations. In Shanghai, the "Artisanal: Our Creative Laboratory" display on Yan Dang Road presents 58 couture looks from 1989 to 2026, highlighting the evolution of Maison Margiela's artisanal line and emphasizing the design process over the final product. Beijing's Zhengyici Peking Opera Theatre hosts "Anonymity: Our History of Masks," showcasing 48 masks from the brand's history, drawing parallels between theatrical identity and Margiela's distinctive rejection of visible authorship. In Chengdu, the Third Avenue Art Museum features "Tabi: Collectors Exhibition," which reconstructs the wardrobes of nine collectors to offer an intimate look at the iconic Tabi silhouette's life beyond the runway. Shenzhen's Hairun Badminton Courts are transformed into a collective workspace for "Bianchetto: Atelier Experience," focusing on the house's signature overpaint technique and showcasing the atelier as an ongoing process rather than a finished outcome. Through these diverse installations, "MaisonMargiela/Folders" positions exhibition-making as a form of indexing, where each "folder" isolates a specific design code while contributing to a larger, decentralized system that eschews hierarchy and promotes movement between fragments. This collaborative endeavor by OMA/AMO and Maison Margiela extends the logic of deconstruction from individual garments to the urban scale, demonstrating how meaning can be dynamically assembled through circulation.
This innovative exhibition challenges conventional notions of fashion and architecture, illustrating how creative disciplines can converge to redefine public engagement. By transforming urban environments into interactive galleries, the project fosters a deeper appreciation for both design and the cities that host it. It serves as a testament to the power of artistic collaboration in pushing boundaries and creating meaningful cultural experiences for a global audience.