“We are continually evolving, it is about continuity,” said Glenn Martens at the beginning of our chat. He added: “Perhaps more than anything I can say that what we did better this time was to take more carryover stories from the runway and industrialize them to create easier access price points for all of our stores and customers.” Another evolution, he said, was that his ambition to present Diesel collections as fluid, every-gender products on the shop floors has begun to manifest in certain flagship outlets—and that this lookbook was shot to reflect that.
In other words, if February’s Durex-strewn Diesel show emphasized sex, then this follow-up collection was concerned with performance. The last-show iterations of Martens’ three Diesel pillars—denim, utility, and pop—were all democratically diffused. Denim-wise, we saw the core material cut into jersey, leather, or bouclé panels on tough sportswear, trimmed with lace in easy-wearing little dresses, overlaid with oily or stonewashed color treatments, and used as a fabric for shoe uppers. The mainline collection’s intricate indigo dyed denim knits were reformulated in a fabrication designed to be color-fast as well as eye-catching.
The Diesel D was everywhere—“because everybody wants the D”—and the full house name was elsewhere formed from grungy intarsia. Utility pieces included extravagantly pocketed “banana” leg pants. A hazy color camouflage featured on hoodies, cargo pants, and other key garments in the contemporary casual uniform. Martens’s peeled-apart runway garments, flayed by fire, were less dangerously echoed in precisely sliced knits layered with jersey.
The designer emphasized that his foundational pivot to sustainability continues: “around 70% of all the denim here is produced through more sustainable processes,” he said. Elsewhere collegiate lettering on jerseys amusingly declared “Lies,” but this designer’s determination to green Diesel is no fib. He said: “Another thing is that from this season, forever and ever, our swimwear will be made from 100% recycled polyester.”
