Glenn Martens is a designer who embodies contrasts. He deconstructs garments while fostering community. At runway events, industry professionals mingle with design students and local artists. Traditional materials like tweed are reimagined with playful elements like clownish smiles and fringed edges, bringing them into contemporary relevance.

Diesel’s Fall/Winter 2025 collection showcased Martens’ unique sartorial style. Denim was treated in various innovative ways—laminated, lacquered, and shredded. Houndstooth ensembles were layered and distressed, evoking a sense of rebirth from the chaos of a post-party atmosphere. Models wore paper mache-like button-ups and bumsters that clung precariously, while boiled leather jackets featured permanent creases, defying conventional dress codes. Accessories like alien contacts and oversized sunglasses added a satirical twist to the formal fabrics.

Familiar to Diesel fans, a striking inflatable doll—originally from the Spring/Summer 2023 runway—returned, now with a graphic reinterpretation, designed by Studio Dennis Vanderbroeck.

Backstage, Martens shared that he collaborated with 7,800 graffiti artists worldwide, sourced through an open call, to transform the sculpture into a community-focused installation. The Global Street Art Collective comprised young talents from countries like India, Italy, South Africa, China, Japan, the USA, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, who were given complete creative freedom to paint nearly 3.2 kilometers of fabric.

Martens has dismantled industry norms just as he has redefined fabric use. Community engagement is a hallmark of his Diesel collections, often inviting thousands of public attendees, particularly design students, to his shows. The FW24 collection notably broke away from industry secrecy, with live streaming from the atelier for four days prior to the show, allowing fans to digitally engage with the event.

Whether through Diesel or Y/Project, themes of erosion and collaborative design are central to Martens’ work, raising excitement for his forthcoming debut at Maison Margiela.

Explore Diesel’s Fall/Winter 2025 collection in the gallery above, and keep an eye on Hypebeast for additional Milan Fashion Week updates.

Hypebeast Fashion Source: https://hypebeast.com/2025/2/diesel-fall-winter-2025-runway Hypebeast is one of the leading online destination for men's contemporary fashion and streetwear media.