Pity the young, wide-eyed model who lands her first Maison Martin Margiela show. There she is thinking she’ll be eyed by the top industry brass. And yes, she will be. But they’ll never know who she is because she’ll be wearing a mask, as all MMM models do. Here’s the upside: in the case of Artisanal, shown during the Paris couture shows, she’ll also be draped in some of the most exquisite conceptual, high-brow wares around.

For fall 13, those high-brow wares included repurposed vintage finds. Fifties cocktail shifts and pastel prom dresses were reengineered by anonymous master craftsmen into cerebral versions of their former selves. A costume worn by a Beijing Opera star in the 1930s — don’t ask us how they knew that — was turned into an exaggerated le smoking. There were plenty of latter-day pieces, too, including fresh-off-the-conveyor-belt latex jackets, pants and boots, as well as denims. MMM is owned by Diesel, after all.