January 21, 2022 |
“A coherent marriage”. That’s how Y/Project’s Glenn Martens describes his haute couture collaboration with Jean Paul Gaultier, with the Belgian designer set to unveil his one-off collection as a guest designer of the storied house next week. With that in mind, his AW22 Y/Project collection served almost as a rehearsal dinner to the big wedding day.
Held in a mahusive DPD warehouse on the outskirts of Paris – so big, in fact, it took models close to five minutes to trek across the entire catwalk – he gave a taste as to what Y/Project’s Gaultier will look like. Highly sought-after trompe-l’oeil naked torso prints pulled from Gaultier’s ’90s archive came rethought and reworked, with chiselled abs, boobs and penises now printed across suiting, denim and dresses in infrared colourways. “Why not have fun?” said Martens in his show notes, with barely-there mini-skirts, shredded shirting and denim jackets that peeled off into crop tops ramping up the sex appeal.
Elsewhere, cocooning puffer jackets and knits that bleed into balaclavas really painted how impressive Martens’ pattern cutting ability actually is. Throughout the nine years he’s been at the brand, the designer has never relied on logo placement – this collection being the first he’s fully embraced the idea – with wondering zips, hems and ingenious construction becoming the brand’s vocabulary instead. (Many of his pieces are threaded with metal wire, allowing the wearer to bend their garments into a plethora of formations). This may be Martens at nearly a decade in, yet he’s producing some of his best work yet.
Photography courtesy of Filippo Fior.
