The Diesel flagship store perched on the ground floor of the world’s busiest shopping center, The Dubai Mall, has recently reopened its doors following months-long renovation efforts. The store— an inviting 318 square meter space encompassing everything the brand has to offer including men’s and women’s ready-to-wear, denim, shoes, bags, accessories, and fragrance— reopened with an all new retail concept and a capsule collection designed specifically for Dubai complete with the brand’s best-selling pieces such as the 1DR bag adorned with crystals in the colors of the UAE flag, as well as t-shirts, hoodies, and caps featuring a Dubai logo made exclusively for the collection. The event was also marked with a visit from the brand’s creative director, Glenn Martens, who is in the UAE for the first time.
When I show up for our planned rendezvous, the place is already buzzing. The store has all the charm of a vintage Diesel advertisement, drawing inspiration from the iconic billboards that once dotted legendary American highways like Route 66. The walls are adorned with riveted raw steel panels and peel-off billboard wallpaper, evoking a captivating blend of nostalgia and modernity. I scan the room for signs of Martens and his team before I notice that he’s ensconced near a striking red monochromatic room, encased in lacquered walls.
“I love your jeans,” he says as I approach him, nodding to my cowboy cuff trousers. Of course, they were Y/Project, the independant Paris-based label he has been overseeing since 2013. I told him I wore them specifically for him, and he smiles approvingly. “I can already tell you have good taste,” he responds. Now, a statement like that from Martens is the fashion equivalent to Stephen Curry telling you that you have a great free throw. The Belgian designer who revitalized Diesel in less than three-years is undoubtedly one of the most talented and skilled creatives in the fashion industry today, known for his bold vision and innovative approach to design. His ability to seamlessly blend streetwear with high fashion, as evidenced by the Y/Project’s distinctive aesthetic, has solidified his reputation as a trailblazer in the industry. Whoever he’s designing for, Martens continues to push boundaries and defy expectations, earning him much-deserved praise and admiration as well as the top spot on best designer lists.
In this dynamic industry, few resurrections have been as swift and impactful as Diesel’s under the creative helm of Martens. Since Diesel’s founder Renzo Rosso appointed Martens as the first artistic director to lead the brand in its history in October 2020, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp graduate has orchestrated a remarkable turnaround for the iconic denim brand, breathing new life into it while simultaneously revitalizing its commercial success. Within a mere three years, the label has emerged from a period of stagnation to quickly becoming the hottest ticket during Milan Fashion Week, where heavyweights like Fendi and Prada also show. By infusing Diesel’s signature denim with avant-garde silhouettes and unexpected twists, and transforming catwalks into unforgettable experiences, the 40-year-old successfully captured the attention of both loyal clients and a newer, younger audience alike.
Under his guidance, the brand has also embraced sustainability initiatives, launching eco-conscious lines and implementing environmentally-friendly practices throughout its supply chain. This commitment to responsible fashion not only aligns with contemporary consumer values but also underscores Diesel’s commitment to staying relevant in an increasingly conscientious industry. A new project, for instance, dubbed “Diesel Library,” which was unveiled during spring/summer 2022 offers a wide-range of long-lasting denim items crafted out of fabrics made from low-impact materials like organic and recycled fibers and innovative techniques that minimize water and chemical usage. Trims such as leather patches are chrome-free tanned, metal buttons undergo no-galvanization treatments, and inner labels are made from recycled materials. Even the hangtags and patches are sourced from FSC-certified materials.
The impact of Martens’ tenure at Diesel is evident in the brand’s impressive financial performance— within the first year of his appointment, Diesel reported a significant uptick in sales, with revenues surpassing projections by 20%. This upward trajectory continued into subsequent years, with annual growth rates averaging at an impressive 15%. In addition to increasing profits, Diesel has also found fans in a number of celebrities including Dua Lipa, Megan thee Stallion, Kylie Jenner, and Kanye West, who gifted his then-girlfriend Julia Fox a rack of Diesel clothes.
On Feb. 21, Diesel is slated to present its fall 2024 ready-to-wear fashion show under the captainship of Martens, so we caught up with the designer to discover more about what we can expect, how he balances two brands (hint: military upbringing), and his newfound obsession with The Office.
First of all, welcome to Dubai! What are your first impressions and plans while you’re here?
I mean I can’t think that much about it because it’s only been 12-hours. It’s a very buzzing city. It’s changing all the time I feel. Everything is alive and people are very dressed up and very celebratory of how they look. So it feels like it’s a city which is never sleepy. It’s kind of cliché, but it feels like everything is loud and big and you can do whatever you want to do. And there’s a lot of possibilities. Two-days-ago I was in Paris where it was freezing and raining, and it feels very strange to suddenly be here and walking around in a t-shirt. It’s a bit like a fairytale situation, a different reality. Today is going be a full day of Diesel celebrations, and we are taking over the Burj Khalifa and throwing a party, which I’m quite excited about. So it’s very Diesel today. Tomorrow, I am trying to see a bit more of the daily life in Dubai. So obviously it’s part of the deal to go to the malls and the Palm…
You were supposed to come in November for the store re-opening…
Yeah, we didn’t end up coming actually because of the war. It was not a moment of celebration. It’s still not a moment of celebration at all, but that’s also why I’m very happy with this Diesel ‘Love’ capsule that we have where all the profits go to the United Nations Refugee Agency via the OTB Foundation, which is working with UNHCR on several projects in different parts of the world, including Palestine.
That’s amazing, can you tell us more about the capsule?
We launched Diesel Loves, which is basically long-lasting collaboration projects. The first one is “Diesel Loves Lee Cooper,” and what we’re doing is taking stock from Diesel and from Lee Cooper and putting them together. The idea is what do we do with all this overproduction? It’s a bit of a statement there. Instead of throwing away stock, let’s try to reinvent and recycle them. It’s also a different way of recycling, like creating artisanal pieces, which can be way more exclusive and way more unique. We’re also showing that two competitors can actually work together instead of fighting or stealing each other’s customers, while also helping out kids who are suffering.
I love that Diesel stands for so many amazing values, from sustainability to inclusivity— but we’ll get to that later. First, I wanted to ask how is your mental health? Because the last collection was insane.
Thank you (laughs). There’s no way to approach a brand like Diesel in a subtle way. It’s loud and straight-forward, and that’s exactly what I did. I really went inside the company with my bulldozer. I was also pretty junior when I took on the creative director role— of course, I had Y/Project, but it is a very small, independent, and niche label while Diesel is a massive global brand. I didn’t necessarily have the experience, so I went very bold, but I think that’s why it worked so well because I wasn’t really listening so much to the different markets or what’s happened in the past. Diesel is a really complicated brand. We have luxury, we have lifestyle, we have licenses, we have underwear. We talk to every single type of person regardless of their religion, ethnicity, sexuality, or income. Everybody can be here, and we are trying to talk to all of these people while changing the whole brand. It was a very tough three years, let’s say that. I mean, it wasn’t intense but it was also really intense. You just have to insist a lot and you have to keep knowing where you want to go without always getting there. A lot of people are going to fight back against what you’re doing at a certain point and you just have to be persistent. I think that’s why it worked so well. It’s quite impressive what we did in two-years, I should be touching wood. But the mental health is good because now the sales are picking up really well.
Were you anticipating the response you got? As you said, Y/Project is a very “those who know, know” brand, and now you have become an industry darling in a span of three-years. I don’t know if you ever searched your name up on Twitter, but people practically worship you on High Fashion Twitter.
No, I don’t have Twitter! I don’t know how to use it. Is Twitter now X? You know, it’s the kind of thing that nobody really expects. Of course, it was my goal. I was very much hired to inject youth culture into Diesel. We already had the “legacy customer” who was also the client buying the brand in the ‘80s and 2000s— they’re amazing, we love them— but we didn’t manage to bring in the new generation. That was really my job. The second demand was to attract more female customers because we didn’t really have them. All of these things happened quite fast. I don’t know how I did it, but it’s really crazy to go raving in London or New York or Berlin and see people wearing Diesel, which I never saw before. I would sometimes see Y/Project because it’s a bit more underground, but Diesel was never there. I wouldn’t say it was more mainstream, but that the customer was the same age as the brand and they grew together. What I did was engage with new customers, and I’m extremely happy and I love all my customers. The most important thing, I would say, is that we are not talking to just one market. It’s not about one type of woman or a specific niche of guy. It’s a lot of different women and men, as long as they have that “live your life, have fun, go with the flow, and I don’t give a f**” mentality. If you have this perspective, you can be Diesel.
Your appointment at Diesel was a bit of a full circle moment for you. You previously mentioned that when you were younger growing up in Bruges that you were very inspired by Diesel advertisements. What was it specifically that caught your attention and how do you hope to keep these values alive through your work at Diesel now?
Diesel was of course very important to me growing up because the label’s advertising campaigns were very different than any of the rest of we saw in the world those days. Diesel was really talking about taboos and important social matters and it was very irreverent, it was not about just beauty. The statement of successful living was there, but often in a bold way. They were often talking about issues pertaining to capitalism, plastic surgery, minorities, sexuality, all things which were not really talked about in those days. And nobody was supposed to talk about it. It was really amazing because by being so open about it, it kind of becomes normalized and allows people to become more accepting of the diversity of the world. There’s definitely a reason why I joined because I did have proposals in the past for more luxury brands, and I always expected myself to go that route, but then after the COVID-19 pandemic, I think a lot of us were like “okay what are we doing?” I thought, why would I go back into luxury brands to do the same thing, sell the same products, and talk to exclusive people? I already have Y/Project, where I focus on luxury and craftsmanship, but at Diesel I have messages and I can really talk to and touch a more diverse range of people. That’s why I joined Diesel three-years-ago. Yeah, the brand is fun, cool, and sexy but it’s great that you can be all of those things without compromising your values.
I also love how you’re democratizing fashion with Diesel by reserving seats for fashion students and even opening your shows to the public. Why is it important for Diesel to be inclusive and accessible?
One of the first things we decided when I arrived at Diesel was to do a catwalk during Milan Fashion Week, but obviously, I couldn’t put just denim on a runway so I had to really be creative and think of a way to bring a collection to life on the runway without using crazy fabrics like Kashmir or techniques like embroidery. We had to really conceptualize how to do things in a different way and stay within the language of lifestyle and easy-access and on top of that it was very important to me to also not play into the classic luxury way of only inviting big fashion journalists and buyers to the show. I want people to keep in mind that Diesel will always be a brand for everybody. That’s why last season we opened up the runway to 7,000 people who could attend the show for free. We had an open bar with DJ sets from 5:00 P.M. until two in the morning. So it was actually a massive rave with a little half an hour break for a show. This year’s show is going to be a bit different. We’re live-streaming the entire show prep so everybody from everywhere in the world can go to Diesel.com and for five days leading up to the event, we will have different cameras stationed all over the Diesel offices so you can follow what is happening in real-time 24/7. You’ll see me, my stylists, the castings, the setting up of the venue… It’s really uncensored. You’ll probably see me scream (hopefully not).
That’s going to be iconic. I wanted to ask you, how do you balance designing and producing collections for two— and three at one point— different brands? How are you so consistent in two houses, like what is in your morning coffee?
I come from a military family. My grandfather was a colonel in the Belgian army. He fought in the Second World War, and his father was a colonel and so was his grandfather. I also grew up with a very strict way of loving from my mom’s side. My upbringing was super traditional and old fashioned, and very organized. I always had a plan A, B, and C, so if something doesn’t work, I’m already thinking about my next move. I’m also a bit of a wild butterfly, I’m able to adjust to every kind of situation. Consistency is the key really, and maybe that’s the military way. When you’re consistent, you can immediately see when something is diverting the wrong way and you can easily get it back in line. The good thing with Y/Project and Diesel is that they’re both very different so I don’t get lost in translation. I have different teams and offices in two different cities, so it’s easy to switch my brain from one to the other. It’s two different universes— two ways of thinking.
Speaking of balancing different collections, your couture line for Jean Paul Gaultier lives in my head rent-free. Can we expect more couture from you in the future or is that just wishful thinking?
Designing for Jean Paul Gaultier was very fun— what designer doesn’t want to create without a budget? I got to spend whatever I needed to spend and put corsets on trains without thinking of the wearability aspect, so it was a very fun approach to design. I really enjoyed it, and I think it really put me under the radar because I was one of the first guest designers for Jean Paul Gaultier after Sacai. It was also just before my arrival at Diesel so some people still saw me as this quirky underground designer from Y/Project. The nice thing about creating a couture collection is that there’s really no reality around it, we really do it for the beauty and the craftsmanship. There’s moments we can create a similar dream at Diesel but couture is not on my list yet, but maybe one day it will happen.
Before we wrap things up, I’m just going to ask you some fun little questions for our weekly newsletter. Firstly, what are you doing?
I’m not drinking in February. I’m doing Dry February, which I may break at the party tonight. But this is a really big deal for me. I’m cooking a lot because I don’t want to go to dinners with my friend because I’ll be too triggered to drink with them. So for the last eight days, I’ve been cooking at home. This is my February.
What are you watching at the moment?
I literally spend all my evenings cooking, eating, and watching The Office.
And what are you listening to?
I’m also listening to The Office. It’s on Netflix now so it’s always playing in the background.
What are you currently obsessed with?
The Office— No, I would say my health. I want to be able to run all of these companies forever, so I need to take good care of myself. It’s the very first time I’m not partying or anything. But, it’s not going to last forever, I’m telling you. It’s a little break. A moment of self-care.
