When the schedule for Paris Fashion Week dropped last Friday, there was one glaring omission from the AW26 calendar: Maison Margiela was nowhere to be seen. Though small waves of panic were felt across the industry, the French house dispelled those worries this morning (February 10) when it announced the label was heading to Shanghai instead. On April 1, 2026, almost a month after PFW begins, creative director Glenn Martens will be presenting his AW26 collection as a special guest at Shanghai Fashion Week.

The move marks a big change for the house. Since its founding by Martin Margiela in 1988, Maison Margiela has practically become synonymous with Paris, and rarely shows collections outside of the French capital. In 2006, Margiela headed to Pitti Uomo in Florence to present a men’s collection as guest designer, but April’s upcoming show marks the brand’s furthest trip outside the locus of European fashion.

But the news this morning didn’t stop there. The Shanghai show location was actually announced as part of a wider project called MaisonMargiela/folders, a historic proposal in which the house plans to open up its inner workings more than ever before. “All of us at Maison Margiela are proud to announce MaisonMargiela/folders, a fresh way to experience the work of the maison,” said the statement this morning. “Through an exploration of physical and digital archival materials, four foundational codes are brought into focus across a series of exhibitions and immersive experiences taking place throughout China this April.”

The project begins with the AW26 show in Shanghai, and is followed by four exhibitions across four different cities in China, each one dedicated to distinct Margiela codes. Following the show, the Artisanal: Creative Laboratory exhibition opens from April 2 to 6 in Shanghai, displaying 48 couture pieces from 1989 to 2025, many of which have never been seen; after that the Anonymity: Our History of Masks exhibition runs in Beijing from 7 to 12, exploring the hidden identities of Margiela’s masked figures; the Tabi: Collectors exhibition opens in Chengdu from 9 to 13, which promises to illuminate the history of the tabi “not through the brand, but through our community’s voices”; and finally, the Bianchetto: Atelier experience will run from 11 to 12 April in Shenzhen, where the public is invited to bring their own garments and cover them in white paint, just like the maison’s famous Bianchetto technique.

But that’s still not all: alongside those four exhibitions and the Shanghai fashion show, the house has opened up its archive to the public via Dropbox, where they can keep up to date with the development of the project (it is called MaisonMargiela/folders after all). The Dropbox will be used by the Margiela atelier to store images, project timelines, releases and other working documents, which is quite a big deal considering its penchant for anonymity. “As the project evolves, new files will be added for everyone to explore and collect,” said the house, “revealing new information about the experiences while documenting the journey from concept to exhibition.”

Scroll through the gallery at the top of the page to see what Margiela have revealed in the Dropbox so far, or head here for the full files