Maison Margiela and Gentle Monster have made 68 pairs of glasses and very few of them look entirely at ease.
Frames appear crushed, stretched, interrupted or caught halfway through assembly. Some wrap tightly around the face in leather; others expand until eyewear becomes a mask. On the slimmer styles, Margiela’s four white stitches seem to float over the edge of the temples.
“Deconstruction” is an overworked word in fashion, but here it is literal enough to be useful. The collection shows the familiar mechanics of glasses—bridge, lens, hinge, arm—then asks which parts can be distorted before the object stops reading as eyewear.
The answer, apparently, is quite a lot. Gentle Monster brings the industrial confidence and appetite for scale; Margiela brings the pleasure of exposing construction. Together they make frames that alter the face before they improve the view.
Alex Prager’s campaign gives the glasses a cast rather than a row of models. Matching redheads, a woman carrying a small white dog, a blonde in a red dress and assorted city characters pass through a tightly staged, faintly uncanny world. The eyewear becomes the detail that tells you who each person might be.
The collection launches online and at selected stores on 29 October, with temporary spaces opening in Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne and Paris.
Glasses usually clarify things. These make the person wearing them more interestingly difficult to read.
Sources & further viewing
Gentle Monster: full collection and campaign · FashionUnited: launch details
Campaign images: Maison Margiela x Gentle Monster, directed by Alex Prager.