Maison Margiela Celebrates 20 Years of the Ebisu Store Through Takehito Moriizumi’s Science Fiction Universe
Maison Margiela marks two decades of its flagship store in the Ebisu district of Tokyo, Japan, through a manga by Takehito Moriizumi that turns the store’s history into a science fiction tale titled The Factory at Night, blending illustration, architecture, fashion, and mystery.
The Factory at Night tells the story of a long-abandoned electronics factory. A group of researchers arrives to investigate strange signals detected inside the building. However, instead of simply finding the source of the signals, they encounter traces of a past life remaining in every corner.
Machinery, exposed wiring, industrial structures, staircases, and even fragments of everyday objects become part of a landscape that slowly reveals the building’s story. This exploration then leads them to a transformation that opens up new possibilities, without completely erasing the history and memories that have already taken shape.
Takehito Moriizumi builds the visual language of this manga through black-and-white illustrations. Architectural elements become one of the main characters in this manga’s composition: intricate building frameworks, stacked staircases, suspended platforms, and exposed technical infrastructure. The artist seeks to create a dense environment that surrounds the characters. The factory itself emerges as a character in its own right, shaping the atmosphere while guiding the researchers’ narrative journey.
One truly fascinating aspect of this project is that all the illustrations were created using toothpicks as drawing tools. This unconventional choice lends a unique material dimension to the publication. In the midst of the widespread use of generative AI for campaigns, the use of toothpicks serves as an act of resistance, inviting us to revisit works of art that are entirely born of human hands.
Published as part of MaisonMargiela/folders, this manga is one of Maison Margiela’s efforts to document its history, creative identity, and relationship with its surrounding environment. The first volume of The Factory at Night was released on November 5, 2026, as a limited-edition zine available at select newsstands in the Ebisu area and at the Maison Margiela Tokyo store. The digital edition is also accessible internationally via Dropbox.
