Who is Glenn Martens?
Diesel recently showed their Spring/Summer 2024 collection in Milan in a techno-rave-inspired runway show. The signature red catwalk with a massive LED screen showcasing the looks on a grandiose scale took over Milan’s fashion week. Yet, it’s never just the magnitude of Diesel’s runway shows that gets people talking. It’s the clothes brought to you by creative genius and mentee to Jean Paul Gautier, Glenn Martens.
Born in Belgium, Glenn Martens the creative tour-de-force behind Y/Project, and now Creative Director at Italian denim powerhouse Diesel, studied Interior Design at the Sint Lucas School of Architecture in Ghent. He graduated from Interior Design school and attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp for his fashion studies. In 2008, Martens graduated top of his class, and immediately after his graduation collection at the Academy, he was hired by Jean Paul Gautier as a junior designer for the women's pre-collection. In 2009, Martens was working as the first assistant to the late Creative Director and Founder of Y/Project, Yohan Serfaty, who sadly passed away in 2013. After Serfaty’s passing, his business partner, Gilles Elalouf convinced Martens to take over as Creative Director.
When Serfaty was at the helm of the brand, Y/Project had many influences from the darker and gothic realms of fashion, i.e. Rick Owens and Damir Doma. When Martens first took over as creative director, his debut show was a tribute to the fashion house's codes and origins. However, that next season Martens started to introduce a lot more distinguished, creative, and fresh ideas. He would include a variety of shapes, materials, and textures to create some of the most eye-catching fashion garments to ever grace a runway.
One of his most notable innovations to the Y/Project house was Martens's use of leather and denim, which would come full circle when in October of 2020, mid-pandemic, fashion conglomerate OTB, hired Glenn Martens as Creative Director at Diesel. Dropping his first collection during the Spring/Summer 2021 season, Martens once again stayed true to Diesel’s history as a company, only adding small distinctions here and there. He also brought the trompe l’oeil to Diesel, which was popularized by Mason Margelia and one of Martens’s mentors, Jean Paul Gautier.
The New York Times named Martens “The First Great Designer of 2022” in the first quarter of the year. Diesel’s SS23 Runway Show in the Fall of 2022 in Milan was truly one of a kind. We not only got to see Martens’s genius in design but his genius in world-building as well. Martens and his team achieved a World Record unveiling the World’s Largest Inflatable Sculpture in Milan. The sculpture was huge, the 5,000-seat arena was huge, and the clothes didn’t settle with size either. Martens showcased an enormous cranberry and deep blush grizzly coat made of reconfigured denim that turned every head in the arena. Martens also exhibited great fashion marketing, which he picked up during his residency at Y/Project. The Diesel belt skirt is one of the biggest moments in recent fashion trend history. Though impractical and meant for Instagram pictures, Martens gave the fashion community what they wanted, Y2K haute couture.
Now in their most recent show season Diesel is once again attempting to push boundaries. With 7000 guests this time around and 73 looks gracing the runway once again in Milan, there was an aroma of fun and freeness in the atmosphere. The collection debuted multifunctional garments, dresses that looked rain-soaked, and an innovative distressing technique to Diesel’s patented denim.
Glenn Martens, only 40, is defining himself as one of fashion’s elite designers. In a decade he has continued to grow an already successful fashion house in Y/Project and in some eyes ‘save’ Diesel from its demise. You have seen Martens's work everywhere, whether you knew it or not. From Rihanna wearing his UGG collaboration to Beyonce having a fully customed denim trompe l’oeil body suit designed by him for her Renaissance World Tour, Martens’s journey as a world-class designer has only just started. He feels like he has something to prove and we have to wait and see what is to come from the mastermind, Glenn Martens.
