By Jessica Ye (Jessica Yap)
Crushed frames, leather-wrapped designs and proportions that seem determined to steal your entire face. Maison Margiela and Gentle Monster are back for their fourth collaboration, and I rather like where this is going.
Launching on 29 October, the collection brings together 43 sunglasses and 25 optical frames, taking familiar eyewear shapes somewhere considerably less conventional. Some styles are oversized and sculptural, while others are narrow, upswept and wrapped tightly in leather, described by the brands as Second Skin.
The crushed designs are particularly appealing. Their deliberately misshapen contours look as though the frames have been handled a little too roughly, giving each silhouette an irregular, almost distorted appearance. It is a welcome departure from eyewear that seems determined to look perfectly polished.
Then again, this is Maison Margiela. Questioning conventional ideas of beauty and construction has long been part of the house’s appeal, so sunglasses that look slightly out of sorts feel entirely appropriate.
Gentle Monster takes that idea further with exaggerated proportions that either almost engulf the face or draw attention to the eyes through slimmer, more closely fitted shapes. The leather-wrapped styles are another highlight, changing the appearance of familiar frames through texture alone.
Maison Margiela’s four white stitches appear at the temples throughout the collection. On some of the slimmer designs, the stitching extends over the frame’s edges, seemingly floating above the surface. It is a subtle treatment of one of the house’s most recognisable signatures, allowing the detail to stand out without dominating the design.
The campaign, directed by Alex Prager, follows a woman racing across the city to meet someone within ten minutes. Along the way, she encounters a cast of increasingly uncanny characters, each wearing a different frame from the collection. What begins as a frantic dash across town becomes a surreal parade of eyewear.
The collaboration also brings pop-up spaces to eight cities: Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne and Paris. Opening on 29 October, the spaces carry the collection’s deconstructed aesthetic into their interiors, moving away from the usual polished retail environment in favour of irregular forms.
Seoul will host an additional performance by choreographer and creative director Damien Jalet and artist Ian McMahon, who explore deconstruction through movement, light and the interaction between bodies and objects.
For Singapore shoppers, the nearest pop-ups are in Kuala Lumpur, at The Exchange TRX, and Bangkok, at HAUS NOWHERE Bangkok in ICONSIAM.
The Maison Margiela x Gentle Monster collection launches on 29 October 2026, featuring 68 styles across sunglasses and optical frames.
![AI-generated distorted digital artwork by Russian contemporary artist DAMN TRUE from the P[AI]NTING ART series, exploring internet culture, screen fatigue, digital noise and emotional distortion in an exclusive Couture Troopers interview](https://i0.wp.com/couturetroopers.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/portrait-of-the-era-of-rails-and-discounts-15.png?resize=870%2C570&ssl=1)
