Ciao! Fashion Month has made its way over to Milan to continue this season’s global fashion week tour. Today, Diesel kicked it off with their runway show, which also happened to be Glenn Martens’s runway debut with the brand since becoming the Creative Director. For the past three seasons, Martens has reinvigorated the energy surrounding Diesel, while continuing to deliver excellence at Y/Project and smashing his assignment as Guest Designer for Jean Paul Gaultier’s Spring ‘22 Couture collection.
Martens’ track record is widely impressive, which led us to believe that we were bound to see great fashion and innovative concepts from Diesel’s FW22 collection — that’s exactly what we got! The collection continues to push the return of Y2K style with a refreshed, contemporary take, and it sparks a renewed love for denim.
As a fashion brand that’s been creating denim for over forty years, it was no surprise to see the first ten looks include an element of denim – it’s what we expected and what we came for. However, although fashion repeats itself and denim silhouettes seem to be pretty straight forward, Martens continues to find new ways to reinvent it.
The Y2K vibes were present as soon as the first model hit the runway in low-rise jeans. Now, I know some are unsure about low-rise jeans and denim skirts, but Martens’ iterations will lead you to want both in your closet immediately.
Super mini skirts were constructed in denim, leather, and knit fabrics, which is totally on time to serve the recent infatuation with the mini skirt comeback. And, it’s also worth noting that while many celebrities and fashion enthusiasts are trying to get their hands on that Miu Miu look made out of mini skirts, the leather Diesel super-mini skirt that’s embossed with the brand’s logo may become the newest “it item”.
While attending the show, New York Times Chief Fashion Critic Vanessa Friedman posted a few outerwear looks from the collection, along with a tweet that read, “Gives new meaning to great coats #Diesel by Glenn Martens #MFW.” And upon seeing the coats in the collection myself, those were my exact sentiments.
What appeared to be sherpa and fur coats hit the runway in a new style with distressed detailing, which created glamorous, yet badass moments just like a killer mink coat would. Trench coats made out of denim and leather were also amongst the outerwear mix, along with a couple pieces constructed with a beautiful ruching technique to create two sweater-like dresses and two pullovers.
Overall, Martens showed that there are no bounds to denim with this collection, and that Diesel offers much more than just jeans. It’s safe to say that this is another win added to Martens’ track record, and while we wait for this collection to launch in retail, we’ll be anticipating for what Martens presents next.