Summary:
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After four decades of shunning celebrity campaigns, Maison Martin Margiela chooses Miley Cyrus as its new face.
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Cyrus stars in moody portraits by Paolo Roversi, embodying the core codes of the maison’s AW25 collection.
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While the brand was founded on anonymity, the decision to feature a celebrity face marks a new era.
After four decades of shunning celebrity campaigns, the French label has chosen Cyrus as its inaugural icon.
Since it was founded in 1988, Maison Martin Margiela has operated within strict codes of anonymity. Its founding father intentionally eschewed interviews, with all press interactions conducted via fax or telephone. Even when Martin departed in 2009, the label was led by an anonymous design team, echoing Margiela’s belief that the brand’s designs were a collective creative effort, not the work of one man.
Now, after almost four decades of shunning celebrities in its fashion campaigns, the house has chosen a single face to lead its new era – US megastar Miley Cyrus. Released this afternoon (August 28) via the label’s Instagram account, Cyrus stars in a series of moody portraits by Paolo Roversi, sporting the house’s AW25 collection.
“The American artist is captured in a new light, stripped-back and immersed in the core codes and archetypal expressions of the maison,” said the house. “Some images portray the artist in a state of undress, her body painted white in homage to the maison’s white-overpaint bianchetto technique introduced in 1989.”
Though the house was founded on those ideas of namelessness and obscurity, its decision to select a celebrity face shows a change with the times, as brand ambassadors become an integral part of the fashion system. However, despite that, Roversi’s direction intentionally pays homage to the anonymity at Margiela’s core, with Cyrus’s face barely decipherable in some shots, marred by shadows or obscured by clothing in others.
Of her time working with the photographer, Cyrus commented that “the nudes by Paolo are so iconic and signature to his art. Standing naked for a fashion campaign felt major; all I wore was body paint and the signature painted Tabi boots. In that moment, Margiela and I became one.”
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This might be the first time Maison Margiela has had a star in its campaign, but that star is no stranger to the brand. Cyrus officially entered her Margiela era back in 2023 in a series of looks promoting her single “Used To Be Young”, and also wore the brand to the Grammys in 2024 and the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in 2025. It seems that this new campaign was only reaffirming what we already knew: Miley Cyrus is a Margiela girl.
