February 24, 2022 |
Glenn Martens is on a roll. The Belgian designer is staking his claim as one of fashion’s most ferocious forces. First with his Y/Project co-ed show in Paris in January, where he illustrated his ingenious pattern cutting ability with immaculate effect. Then a week later, when he put his stamp on Jean Paul Gaultier couture, crafting everything from billowing ballgowns to immense corsetry – all to industry acclaim.
With barely any time for a breather, the designer was tasked with opening Milan Fashion Week this season with his first catwalk show as the creative director of Diesel. In the outskirts of the city, in a vast industrial space, guests made their way through ginormous face-down, ass-up, thong-wearing blown up sculptures which made up the set.
Tapping into the golden age of 1990s and ’00s MTV, Martens rewrote Diesel’s design vocabulary for a whole new generation. First up: denim. Diesel’s bread and butter came chewed up and spewed out; pieced back together in off-kilter, hyper sexual formations. Be it swollen into form-swallowing coats shredded to appear almost fur like, or shrunken again into club-ready crop tops, worn with next season’s go-to mini: a D-plated leather belt skirt cut with need-for-speed flair.
“The power of Diesel is that we talk to so many people,” said Martens, warping utilitarian hoodies into dresses, and turning shearling flight jackets inside out and upside down in lopsided finishings. A pop-tastic break with space-age metallic minidresses and skirts in pink, blue and bronze, made way for skin-tight motocross sets and artisanal jersey pieces which peeled like fly-posters do when deteriorating in the wet weather. Bookended by a parade of smocked organza frocks and tops, Martens has proved himself as jack of all trades. Never mind scoring a hat trick, this designer volleyed the ball straight out of the stadium.
Photography courtesy of Diesel.
