Maison Margiela opens MaisonMargiela/folders with FW26 Runway in Shanghai

Maison Margiela is closing out Shanghai Fashion Week with its Fall/Winter 2026 show in Shanghai on April 1, using the runway as the opening chapter of a broader Maison Margiela/folders program across China. The move places the Paris based house as a special guest of Shanghai Fashion Week at a moment when many European brands are opting for US destination shows instead.

Show lands in Shanghai

Under the banner “Maison Margiela/Folders,” the FW26 show will take place in Shanghai on April 1, 2026, as the first act in a two week program. The presentation is positioned as the conceptual entry point into the house’s archives and as a code for a Chinese audience.

Chief executive Gaetano Sciuto has linked the April Fool’s Day timing to the label’s offbeat character, noting that April 1 “fits very well with our personality” in an exclusive interview about the project. That remark sets the tone for a show that is meant to feel both disruptive and tightly aligned with Margiela’s history.

Part of MaisonMargiela/folders

The Shanghai show kicks off MaisonMargiela/folders, a multi city set of exhibitions and experiences running from April 1 to 13 across Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, and Shenzhen. The initiative is structured around four of the brand’s house codes: Artisanal, Anonymity, Tabi, and Bianchetto.

Shanghai will host “Artisanal: Creative Laboratory” from April 2 to 6, bringing together 48 Artisanal pieces from 1989 to 2025, up to Glenn Martens’ runway debut at the house. Beijing will present “Anonymity: Our History of Masks,” while Chengdu and Shenzhen will focus on Tabi and Bianchetto, respectively.

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Why Shanghai matters

By staging FW26 in Shanghai and opening its archives there, Maison Margiela is speaking directly to a fashion aware Chinese audience rather than only to a European or American runway circuit. The brand is also using a fashion week platform, rather than an independent destination show, to anchor a larger cultural program across four cities.

For observers of luxury and avant garde fashion, the Shanghai show signals how Margiela is pairing its conceptual DNA (anonymity, Tabi, white paint, Artisanal couture) with a focused push in a key market, using the FW26 runway as both a collection reveals and an opening statement.