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Maison Margiela

Maison Margiela was born in Paris in 1988, founded by the Belgian Martin Margiela and Jenny Meirens around a refusal of the logo and a blank white label left empty. The Italian group OTB has held the majority since 2002. Its perfumery, born of a license signed with L’Oréal in 2008, has taken with the Replica collection a place at least equal to that of fashion.

Maison Margiela perfumes

A house built on anonymity

Martin Margiela and Jenny Meirens opened the house in Paris in 1988. The designer does not show himself, gives no interviews, and has a blank label with no name sewn onto his garments, where only a number designates the line. Before the 2002 buyout, the stores appeared neither in the directory nor under a sign.

The Italian group OTB, led by Renzo Rosso, took the majority stake in 2002. Martin Margiela left his house without announcement at the end of the 2000s; a collective of anonymous designers took over the artistic direction after him, in keeping with the principle.

Replica, fragrance treated as a memory

The fragrance license was signed with L’Oréal in 2008; the house’s first juice is called (untitled). The Replica collection takes its name from a 1994 clothing line that reissued existing pieces: each fragrance in it replays an ordinary moment, named plainly — Lazy Sunday Morning, Beach Walk.

Mutiny arrived on September 26, 2018, presented at the spring-summer 2019 show with six faces of the campaign chosen to represent the facets of the fragrance. The fragrance line has become the house’s most visible activity with the general public.

Galliano, Martens and high-end perfumery

John Galliano led creative direction starting in 2014 and left the house in December 2024. OTB appointed Glenn Martens, already creative director of Diesel, on January 29, 2025: the third couturier to head the house, trained like Martin Margiela at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp.

In 2026, the house opens with Scentsorium a collection of six high-end perfumery fragrances, carried by the two successive artistic directors, joining on this ground the rare lines of the L’Oréal group.