Miley Cyrus Becomes the Face of Margiela’s First Celebrity Push

Quick listen: Margiela names Miley its first face, mixing legacy with modern visibility in under 2 minutes.

Maison Margiela, long one of fashion’s most private labels, just made its most public move yet.

Miley Cyrus has become the first celebrity to front a Margiela campaign in the French luxury fashion house's nearly four-decade history.

The Autumn/Winter 2025 visuals, released Thursday, feature black-and-white portraits by photographer Paolo Roversi.

Cyrus appears painted in white, holding Margiela’s signature handbags and wearing select pieces from the brand’s Avant-Première collection.

For a house that’s long stayed out of the spotlight since its establishment in 1988, this move feels deliberate.

But it doesn’t feel out of character.

Cyrus appears in frames that reflect the brand’s familiar visual language: restrained, deliberate, and designed to focus on form over spectacle.

On working with Roversi and embracing the campaign’s stripped-back concept, Cyrus told WWD:

“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.”

The use of white paint calls back to the maison’s long-standing “bianchetto” process, where surfaces are covered in white to strip them down and invite time to leave its mark.

Describing the philosophy behind its Fall 2025 collection, the house shared in a press statement:

“Our most cherished staples show significant signs of use: Routinely ironed, steamed and polished, they are handed down from one generation to another, continuously patched, mended and revitalized.”

Throughout the campaign, Cyrus also wears worn-in coats and visibly creased tailoring.

These pieces, described by the brand as handed down and repeatedly mended, point to a lived-in quality that Margiela values as much as precision.

The company described the portraits as a way to show the artist “in a new light” while holding to the codes that built the brand.

Quiet Speaks Louder Now

Margiela has always taken the quiet path: no front-facing creative directors, no influencer tie-ins, no need to explain itself.

That gave the house a certain cult status, but it also kept it removed from how most people now experience fashion.

This campaign signals a different kind of move.

Rather than casting someone for fame alone, Margiela worked with someone already part of its story.

Cyrus has worn the brand since 2023 and showed up in Margiela at this year’s Vanity Fair Oscar party, without any formal partnership.

That history makes the campaign feel less like a marketing strategy and more like a shared moment.

She fits into the world Margiela has already built rather than being asked to reinvent it.

Cyrus is also in a quieter place artistically.

After years of louder, high-concept projects, Cyrus’s recent project, Something Beautiful, has taken on a quieter tone.

The look and feel of this campaign echoes that shift with less production, more presence.

Both the artist and the brand seem to be saying the same thing: we’ve done loud, and now we’re doing something quieter, but no less intentional.

What Other Brands Can Learn

Margiela’s collaboration with Cyrus doesn’t throw out what made the house unique.

It builds on it in a way that feels thoughtful.

For brands trying to update their story without losing what made them meaningful in the first place, there are a few useful lessons here:

• Real relationships carry more weight than reach, and Cyrus already had a connection to the brand.
• Brands don’t need to lose their tone or aesthetic when working with familiar names.
• Campaigns feel more honest when they grow from something that already existed.
• Evolving a brand’s image means finding new ways to express its values without changing them.

Margiela didn’t trade its brand identity for attention but brought someone familiar into its world.

Our Take: Why Does Miley Work for Margiela?

I like Miley in this role because she carries tension well, balancing chaos and control, image and intention.

She has lived publicly without needing to explain herself, which makes her oddly in sync with a brand that built its identity on staying silent.

I think Margiela didn’t just choose a face; it found someone who understands restraint without losing edge.

From my reporting perspective, I see this not as a marketing stunt but as a rare example of brand alignment that feels earned rather than forced.

Gap is making a similar move, teaming up with KATSEYE to bring fresh energy to its denim line and reconnect with today’s fashion audience.

Looking to grow a brand without losing its roots? These agencies help fashion labels evolve with identity-first campaigns.