MM6 Maison Margiela's Havaianas Have Six Soles At the FW26 show, the first preview of the project with the Brazilian brand
To reinterpret one of the world's most iconic flip-flops, MM6 Maison Margiela started from the number that has always defined its identity: six. During the FW26 show, the brand previewed its collaboration with Havaianas, reworking the classic rubber silhouette through a play of layering and distortion.
The project takes shape in two styles. The Slim 6Toe echoes the outline of a bare foot and adds an unexpected element: a sixth toe. The Top 6Layers, on the other hand, works through the layering of six Havaianas soles in different shapes, assembled to create an irregular, deliberately off-kilter platform.
The intervention starts from the very elements that make Havaianas instantly recognisable. Rather than transforming the flip-flop into something entirely different, MM6 alters its proportions and details, multiplying and shifting them until they point in a new direction. The Top 6Layers, created exclusively for the runway and not intended for sale, are the style that most clearly embodies this approach. Six soles become a single shoe, while the number that defines MM6 becomes a tangible part of the construction.
The collaboration also calls to mind the concept of «ready when worn» that MM6 uses to describe its garments: pieces that are completed once put on and brought into relation with the body. Havaianas is thus treated as something to be reinterpreted, altered and rebuilt without erasing its identity. Six toes, six layers, repetitions and alterations transform an everyday object into a new reading of the Havaianas codes through the brand's own language.