How to move from King of Experimental Fashion to Great Lord of Cowboys: The Glenn Martens Revolution
The designer Glenn Martens, creative director of Diesel.Photo: Oliver Hadlee Pearch
Shaped and/Project, the conceptual brand of the moment.Now face an almost antagonistic challenge: direct the creative strategy of the Vaquera firm and offer mid -range author fashion and basic avant -garde
Leticia GarcíaTOPGlenn Martens remembers how in his adolescence Diesel was the first brand that was bought consciously."For its advertising campaigns and that way of communicating between claim and irreverence," says Zoom.Last October, the Belgian designer was appointed artistic director of the Italian firm, and on June 21 his work saw the light in a digital parade within the Milan Fashion Week.At least, its most experimental part, because, as he says: «This is like making a lasagna, here we will be more conceptual with materials and volumes and we will sell it at specific points of sale, but then there is the rest, clothesEvery day, the denim, the basic ... everything has to be connected.There is much to cook ».Above all, because it is one of the most innovative alliances that have emerged in the industry in recent times: the designer augated by his avant -garde vision, the author revered for his work in and/Project, will be in charge of a brand for all for allthe audiences.One teaches that anyone, beyond fashion in the strict sense, has once bought and dressed.
But the truth is that Martens is a rare avis within the current sector.It was formed in Antwerp, which already printed character, a very specific way to approach the design that today remains its value to export;Then, after years working at Jean Paul Gaultier, in 2014 he entrusted the very complex work of putting on map A and/Project after the death of his creator, Yohan Serfaty, only two years after founding her.In 2016, that is, after a couple of collections under its baton, the French firm was a finalist of the LVMH award, winner of the Andam, and Martens appeared for the first time in the list of the 500 most influential people in the industry that every year he performsThe Business of Fashion magazine.He did not use logos, nor celebrities who exercised ambassadors, never believed in the total look, that monomarca uniform that works so well in networks.His was, and it is, the avant -garde gesture of returning to the zero grade of design: focusing on each garment, in its construction (and deconstruction) playing with the proportions, irony or even historical references.Now that he has just settled into a great brand (and continues with and/project) his work is another, but his ideas are the same: «I think that for a while everything was a bit the same was the same the same.We consume visuals without stopping and we do not stop to deepen more in what we see.Moreover, luxury is trying to reconnect working on products that reflect the lifestyle, but the idea of the logo is almost always behind, which makes something uniform (in addition to costing 900 euros).I now do things of 200, and well, I have to do logos, because of course they sell, but they also sell other things, ”he confesses.
Image of the new Glenn Martens project, Diesel Library, who updates the firm's classics.Photo: DR
In fact, the creator is so oblivious to the current star designer profile that he is quite aware that many of the diesel consumers (if not the majority) will not know who or what is behind the cowboys that are bought.And it does not matter.«My work is to reconnect in some way with the values that made this firm somewhat pioneer, and update them.Humor, boldness, the idea of the new sexy ... also, as I am new, I still see everything from the outside, and perhaps of that is what it is about ».That work of which speaks is concretized in absolutely everything.Martens will not only stick to garments (distributed in several product lines), also to publicities, global image and even shop windows.If in Y/Project he does almost everything, in Diesel too, with the exception that there he has a team of 20 people and here more than 100 «and it is already known, the bigger your team is the more time you have to dedicate to him», Jokes.«Now I am making days from eight in the morning to nine at night and I try to finish the day having dinner with someone.Everything is new, it is a great change, but at the same time it is very motivating ».
Design of Y/Project for this spring-summer.Photo: Imaxtree
Diesel had no creative director since 2017.In fact, in his more than 40 years of history he has only had one, Nicola Formichetti, who was in the firm four years, and used to deal only with the most artistic line of the house.After its march, the teaching launched the Red Tag capsule, a series of sporadic collaborations with the most avant -garde authors on the panorama.Glenn Martens was one of them."That incursion was more artistic, although it is true that when they offered it to me I thought about exploiting that democratic aspect of a large brand that has taken many people".The idea of democracy arises several times in the conversation;For Martens it is, in some way, what made him accept the challenge of supervising the entire artistic part of the company.«It is not something exclusive for a few, such as what I do in Y/Project.It's not just fashion, it's clothes.You believe something, and suddenly people put it on, ”he laughs.Therefore, the first thing he did after signing the contract was to get into the files for weeks.«Two plants absolutely everything.A time machine.Although in reality the good of the denim is that, if you design it well, it is better as it ages, ”he says.«They even have a American cowboys that are not horses!I have tried a thousand times and I have never left me, the truth ».
Two of the ‘looks’ designed by Glenn Martens for Spring-Summer 2022 of Diesel, presented in a digital parade at the end of June.Photo: DR
The idea that is around Renzo Rosso, owner of diesel, is to somehow redefine the concept of luxury, making author fashion from a mid -range company focused on the denim.That is why Marsns, the project -size executor, has prepared a very experimental video parade, but has also updated the archive garments of the house (with the diesel x diesel metatter) and has implemented the UPCyCling or reuse of the discarded cowboy tissue.«There is the show;Being the only time I will not be subject to the lifelong catwalk, because I have taken many creative freedoms, ”he says."But then there are the basic t -shirts.Well, not quite basic, but t -shirts, "he explains.The challenge is maximum.«Here each decision counts, because it reaches many.It is not the same to talk about sustainability in a small firm that here.Or claim certain things.That is the most difficult and the most beautiful thing I have ahead ».
The ‘When Together’ campaign, by Diesel, supervised by Mars.Photo: DR
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