Maison Margiela Conducts Joy with Co-Ed Spring Summer 2026

A theatre in Paris sits quiet before the first note. Then a harpsichord breaks the silence. Cernral it all this is Max Richter, surrounded by 43 young musicians from Orchestre à l’École. The beginning of Joy, a short film created by Maison Margiela to celebrate its Co-Ed Spring Summer 2026 collection. Released to coincide with the arrival of the collection in stores and online, the film feels less like a campaign and more like a performance unfolding in real time.

The score is original, written by Richter himself, whose compositions have long existed between classical tradition and cinematic atmosphere. Here, the music becomes the pulse of the film. The young orchestra, many of whom appeared in the runway show, does not remain static for long. What begins as a conventional rehearsal inside the Théâtre de la Villette slowly dissolves into something unexpected. A climbing frame appears where an audience might sit. A swing hangs where silence usually lives. A slide cuts through the aisle. The auditorium turns into a playground.

Three months of rehearsals preceded this moment, a process that mirrors the collection’s own narrative thread: a chaotic night at the opera. But chaos here is joyful rather than destructive. The young musicians laugh between movements, climb through the set, and continue playing as if the boundaries between rehearsal and performance no longer exist. “Playing music together allows us to understand one another in a unique way,” Richter explains, reflecting on the collective energy that shaped the project.

Fashion moves through the scene almost quietly. Richter performs wearing tailored silhouettes from the Spring Summer 26 collection, composed, and grounded in Margiela’s distinct sense of proportion. The young musicians wear oversized suits painted entirely white using the house’s signature “Bianchetto” treatment, transforming them into living canvases. The clothes echo the spirit of the film of structured, but never rigid.

Accessories from the collection appear like subtle cues within the composition. The Heel-less shoe returns from the Margiela archive, its concealed heel reimagined through both a Western boot and a sculptural pump. Nearby, the new Box Bag makes its debut, crafted from soft leather but reinforced through thermoforming techniques that give the piece its architectural shape.

The story extends beyond the screen, Margiela has released a Spotify playlist curated by Richter and the young orchestra under the same theme: joy. It’s an invitation to continue the experience elsewhere, to let the music linger after the final note.

Joy is about the moment when structure loosens, when a theatre becomes a playground for fashion, music, and youth, meeting somewhere in the middle of the performance.