24 September 2026 |
Shifting from a photo wall backstage to a door opening into a courtyard at Superstudio Maxi, I speak to Glenn Martens as he lights a cigarette handed over by a member of his team. Just 30 seconds prior, he asked if we could move over, get some air. A little breeze was appreciated after his Spring/Summer 2027 show. His last for Diesel. It was loud, it was sensual, and it was packed. So packed that last minute, seats had to be added into the existing four rows. In total, 1200 attendees watched as Martens presented a sartorial mash-up of what he has done best in his six years at Diesel.
While the first 12 looks showed a more business-casual side of the brand – tightly wrapped leather trenches, parts of striped dress shirts sown into ripped cotton sweaters –, the collection quickly switched into nostalgia mode. Trompe-l’œil, coated denim, clever reconstruction. Again, what Glenn Martens and his Diesel design team know to do best. A team, he tells me, he inherited at a point where they were making t-shirts and jeans. He took them on an experimental journey that now stands at a creative crossroads.
Martens own type of floral embroidery, something we saw iterations of in his prior Fall/Winter 2026 collection, made a highly deconstructed comeback. Orchids, based on Diesel’s “Desire” perfume, dissolve and disappear revealing whatever garments were styled beneath. Skirts, shirts, lingerie. “It’s like the walk of shame the morning after,” Martens says. “You get out of the hotel and you think: Who was this person? You put a t-shirt on, but it’s completely wrong.” That cheeky sexyness of Diesel, but more mature. Less rave, less Gen Z.
Before mini denim shorts and red logo t-shirts closed the show, a good 10 to 12 looks were pretty easy to miss as people in the crowd slowly but surely started making out. Clips of the hot and heavy acts made it onto Instagram within seconds, along with the headbanging. People got up, people cheered, people got distracted. An orgasmic remix of Donna Summer’s “Love to Love You Baby” was stuck in your head the rest of Milan’s second day.
It would be foolish to say that Marten’s final collection for Diesel was solely about the clothes. Simply because it wasn’t. Some didn’t like that, but they never do, regardless of who’s showing. But as he told me himself, Diesel is never going to be a luxury brand. For him it’s about community and fun. Being as much for the people as you can be, which is indeed represented in his designs. No need to be careful with it, let it tear and rip, because “the more you wear it, the more it lives”.
Two suitcases full of Diesel collections are packed and ready to leave along with Martens. Emotional? Yes, but he got his full-circle moment as the model who opened his very first Diesel show closed it. Many people backstage told him that he’ll be missed. “I’m at Margiela,” he’d counter. “It’s just gonna be less boobs.”
Text LISA ZIRNGAST
Photography LUCA ZANONI
