For the launch of Maison Margiela’s Autumn-Winter 2025 Avant-Première Collection, Miley Cyrus stood for a series of painterly portraits by Paolo Roversi. She dons the Maison’s signature silhouette and shows off new takes on beloved items such as the 5AC bag and classic Tabi boots. 

In some shots, the artist poses nude, her body painted white as a nod to the Maison’s white-overpaint bianchetto technique introduced in 1989. “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,” Cyrus said.

The technique, originally used on furniture in the Maison Margiela studio, means to apply a white overpainting to an object’s surface. Gradually, the paint layer begins to wear away, displaying the effects of the passage of time. The technique also introduces a barrier, changing the way a garment’s original form and material is perceived. 

The campaign seeks to embody the “trace of time,” playing off the Avant-Première Collection’s themes of destruction, reconstruction, and salvaging. It embraces the ways garments change as they age. 

The collection introduces a new iteration of the 5AC bag, originally released in 2016. The top-handle bag is treated with a waxing technique that intentionally shows signs of wear. With pressing techniques, coats sustain lived-in folds. Throughout the collection, a range of fabric treatments are employed to convey the appearance of use. 

Roversi’s images are informed by these processes, and Cyrus brings a degree of rebellion to the campaign, embodying the collection’s tension between old and new.