toothpick-drawn manga celebrates maison margiela tokyo flagship anniversary

an abandoned electronics factory, strange signals, and a group of researchers set the scene for the factory at night, an illustrated story that explores transformation without erasing the past.

thomai tsimpou November 6, 2026 5 min

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maison margiela turns tokyo flagship’s past into a manga

A former electronics factory, strange signals, and a group of researchers investigating an abandoned building set the scene for The Factory at Night, an original manga commissioned by Maison Margiela for the 20th anniversary of its Tokyo flagship in Ebisu. Created by Tokyo-based artist Takehito Moriizumi, the science-fiction story translates the history of the building into an illustrated narrative, with an unusual detail defining its visual identity: the manga is drawn using a toothpick. The limited-edition zine brings together illustration, architecture, fashion, and storytelling, extending the anniversary celebrations of the house.

The narrative begins when a group of electrical engineering researchers visits an abandoned electronics factory to investigate strange signals recently detected inside. As they move through the building, they encounter an environment that seems to hold traces of its former life. Machinery, exposed wiring, industrial structures, staircases, and fragments of everyday objects populate the pages. Their investigation eventually leads to a transformation that introduces something entirely new without completely erasing what existed before.

black-and-white manga page with several panels showing two characters talking in a residential street and inside a building, alongside a close-up of an abstract, organic form. — all images courtesy of Maison Margiela and Takehito Moriizumi

takehito moriizumi draws ‘The Factory at Night’ using a toothpick

The visual language of the manga is built around detailed black-and-white illustrations. Architectural elements often dominate the compositions, with complicated structural frameworks, overlapping staircases, suspended platforms, and exposed technical infrastructure creating a dense environment around the characters. The factory feels almost like a character in its own right, its architecture providing both the atmosphere and the narrative framework for the researchers’ investigation.

Moriizumi moves between expansive architectural scenes and more intimate manga panels, introducing the people who inhabit this unusual environment. The illustrations bring fashion into the fictional world through mannequins, garments, and references to the history of the house. The decision to work with a toothpick adds an unexpected material dimension to the publication. At a time when digital illustration, generative imagery, and increasingly automated creative processes are becoming part of visual production, the choice of an unconventional drawing tool invites a closer look at the act of making.

cover of Takehito Morimoto's black-and-white manga The Factory at Night, showing the Maison Margiela storefront, mannequins, a dense urban setting, and the artist’s name — the cover of The Factory at Night features Maison Margiela’s name against an illustration of its Tokyo store

from an electronics factory to maison margiela’s tokyo flagship

The Maison Margiela Tokyo store occupies a former electrical control equipment manufacturing factory at 2-8-13 Ebisu Minami, a building the house took over in 2006. Its history began six years earlier, when Martin Margiela selected a 1940s traditional Japanese residence in the same neighborhood for the brand’s first-ever retail store. The original boutique opened in September 2000, in an unexpected location away from Tokyo’s established luxury shopping districts of Ginza and Omotesando. The choice reflected the designer’s longstanding relationship with Japan, a country he and the Antwerp Six had regularly visited throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

The house was transformed through one of the Maison’s most recognizable design gestures: Bianchetto, the practice of painting objects and surfaces white. Furniture, architectural elements, and even the property’s tree stumps were covered in white paint, while the original bathroom and shared spaces were retained. When the store had to relocate in 2006, Maison Margiela chose another unconventional building just a five-minute walk away. The former factory offered a different setting, but the approach remained consistent, with the house incorporating elements of its industrial history into the new retail environment rather than erasing its previous function.

The original industrial goods elevator became fitting rooms, a shipping container housed the men’s collection, and a corridor leading to the shoes was constructed entirely from used shoeboxes. Furniture, doors, and display cases salvaged from flea markets and shops across Europe were brought to Tokyo. Parts of the original residential boutique, including its old family bathroom, were also reconstructed inside the new location, creating a physical connection between the two buildings.

Black-and-white manga illustration of a woman standing on a metal staircase inside a large industrial building, surrounded by exposed beams, pipes, cables, and machinery. — an illustrated staircase and exposed structural elements define the factory setting in The Factory at Night

an anniversary told through a fictional story

Published as part of MaisonMargiela/folders, the manga forms one part of a broader initiative documenting the house’s history, creative identity, and relationship with its surroundings. The first volume of The Factory at Night is released on November 5, 2026, as a limited-edition zine available at selected newsstands across Ebisu and at the Maison Margiela Tokyo store. A digital edition is also being made available internationally through Dropbox.

Open spread of a black-and-white manga, with a close-up of a female character in an industrial interior on the upper page and smaller panels below showing characters exploring a factory filled with equipment and machinery. — the story follows researchers investigating unusual signals inside an abandoned electronics factory

toothpick-drawn-manga-celebrates-maison-martin-margiela-tokyo-flagship-anniversary-takehito-moriizumi-ebisu-designboom-large01 — an organic, luminous form emerges among the factory’s machinery and structural framework

Black-and-white manga page showing two mannequins wearing sculptural garments, followed by panels of a woman with glasses speaking to two other characters inside an industrial space — Moriizumi’s illustrations bring fashion mannequins and industrial interiors into the story

Black-and-white manga panel showing three researchers standing on a metal walkway inside an industrial building, facing a large tangled organic form with glowing points of light — researchers encounter an unfamiliar presence within the abandoned factory

Detailed black-and-white manga illustration of a dense Tokyo cityscape, with tightly packed buildings, streets, and taller structures extending toward the horizon — the manga places its factory story within a detailed drawing of Tokyo’s urban landscape

project info:

name: The Factory at Night
artist: Takehito Moriizumi | @moriizumi_takehito
commissioned by: Maison Margiela | @maisonmargiela
publisher: Maison Margiela

publication: MaisonMargiela/folders, Volume 1