\u201cRenzo Rosso insisted a lot,\u201d Glenn Martens specifies. \u201cWe circled around each other for a long time. After having designed a capsule collection as part of Diesel\u2019s \u2018Red Tag\u2019 programme, he formalised his request during lockdown. A period in which I told myself that I could no longer only speak to an elite. Speaking through Diesel meant speaking to everyone, and sparking a positive change on a large scale.\u201d Before becoming the juggernaut we know from the 1990s and 2000s, the label was founded in 1978 in Molvena, a small town in the Veneto region. Above all, it was the fruit of a gamble by Renzo Rosso, the entrepreneur dubbed by the industry \u201cthe cowboy of ready-to-wear\u201d because of his business \u201ccoups\u201d, always involving in one way or another the motif of denim. Renzo Rosso established himself with Diesel at a time when transgression and audacity rhymed with communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Upon its release, the advertising series \u201cThe Daily African\u201d<\/em> (broadcast widely at the end of the 1990s) showed Black men and women, incredibly sexy, embracing in wood-panelled, quintessentially WASP interiors. Images that scandalised a certain America and sparked conversation around the world. With Diesel, the businessman was in some sense making a promise of a more inclusive future to an entire young generation awakening to politics. The slogan \u201cFor Successful Living\u201d<\/em>, coined in 1991, became Diesel\u2019s marketing mantra, and the brand crossed borders under the leadership of its founder. Now at the head of the OTB (\u201cOnly The Brave\u201d) fashion group, Renzo Rosso had built a true conglomerate, which included not only Diesel and Maison Margiela, but also Marni, Jil Sander, Viktor & Rolf, and the highly fashionable Amiri. So many labels driven by the same values of openness and inclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the height of its glory in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Diesel struggled painfully through the 2010s. Once the emblem of the \u201crebel\u201d jean, the brand gradually locked itself into a fairly impersonal aesthetic. Once provocative and underground, it now appeared outdated against the rise of minimalism and streetwear, which had become the new mainstream. The multiplication of retail outlets, franchises, outlets, and other licences also blurred its commercial positioning, caught somewhere between \u201caccessible luxury\u201d and \u201cmass-market label.\u201d Add to this the general erosion of the denim market over the years, itself challenged in Europe by the rise of giants such as Levi\u2019s and Wrangler. The decline seemed complete, despite the resources made available by Renzo Rosso. Everything, therefore, had to be (re)built in 2020 when Glenn Martens arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before this, Diesel had never appointed an artistic director. That may well be one of the reasons that explains its loss of momentum. Glenn Martens, for his part, wanted, at the time of his appointment, to take full control of the house: \u201cI asked to be named artistic director of Diesel as a whole, not just of ready-to-wear. I needed to also oversee the vision for the stores and the campaigns. With Renzo Rosso, the deal was to achieve a 360-degree vision. Even if he might not have thought I would take it quite that far.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Two years later, Glenn Martens has clearly established himself as the architect of a 13% economic growth, itself the driving force behind the OTB group\u2019s overall revenue, which by the end of 2023 had reached \u20ac1.9 billion. In 2024, history repeated itself: despite a slight decline in total turnover, the Italian ship maintained its course of progression. How, then, to explain this spectacular rebirth in barely four years? \u201cI defined a \u2018brand bible\u2019 and a set of rules,\u201d<\/em> Martens tells us, as if it were a simple magic formula. In reality, he set about restructuring the label\u2019s design team: he established a new creative framework, laid the foundations for a standardised drawing style, and applied what he had absorbed during his studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. \u201cI was taught to stay as close as possible to an initial artistic concept, and to adhere to it rigorously.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And the concept in this case? \u201cA return to Diesel\u2019s original ethos,\u201d<\/em> he reveals. \u201cThe secret to a house\u2019s success is often right there under the table, especially with brands that are already forty years old. Through successive reinventions, they can sometimes end up forgetting their very reason for being.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Glenn Martens strikes at the very heart of the house\u2019s historical DNA while imprinting it with his own touch and the freshness of his vision: \u201cOne of the brand\u2019s great strengths was always that very pop, funky, colourful, happy side\u2014like MTV in the 2000s. And those were precisely the elements it had completely abandoned. I simply exhumed those archives, from which I was able to redefine the creative pillars of the new Diesel. I told my teams: \u2018from now on, we stick to this, we insist on it, if necessary for years, until it lands. And that\u2019s that!\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n His first tour de force was to bring denim back to the centre of the Diesel village. He reinvented jeans, giving them asymmetrical cuts, distressed effects, patchworks. \u201cI was born in 1983. I was conditioned by that Diesel with its strong artistic expression.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDiesel is denim.\u201d<\/em> At his Spring-Summer 2025 show, Glenn Martens made this mantra official, filling the hangar where the runway took place with nearly 15,000 kilos of denim scraps\u2014an homage to the beauty of the fabric and the craftsmanship behind its creation. Glenn Martens also takes pride in having placed eco-responsibility back at the heart of his work. Today, more than half of the OTB group brand\u2019s collections are made from recycled cotton. \u201cWe push for the circularity of our production with the same energy we put into innovation,\u201d<\/em> he insists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The designer has also reintroduced certain signature details from Diesel\u2019s 1990s heritage, transforming them into commercially successful emblems. The oval \u201cD\u201d logo, for example, has been blown up into XXL format on bags (notably the 1DR bag, which has become an it bag<\/em>), as well as on belts, jackets and tops. Martens has also revisited denim jackets in the form of corsets, while experimenting with plasticised or resin-coated materials that freeze garments like artefacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the service of this new aesthetic and a discourse updated to the times, Diesel shows made their grand return in 2022 during Milan Fashion Week. Suggested by Renzo Rosso, Glenn Martens eventually allowed himself to be convinced of the soundness of this strategy. The Italian brand had not staged a runway show since 2007. In Milan, Diesel shows under Glenn Martens, typically presented each September and January, have considerably accelerated the brand\u2019s overhaul, bringing the label back to the forefront of the international fashion scene. The Diesel revolution led by Glenn Martens also stems from this\u2014from his extraordinary shows, remarkable for their size and scale, rivaling certain industry giants, in Milan and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In keeping with his universe, which blends references to the 2000s, clubwear, and a post-apocalyptic spirit, these runway shows operate under the banner of total subversion. The pieces seen there are torn, laminated, battered. His silhouettes, often topped with white or black contact lenses, send chills down the spine: both feminine and masculine, the wardrobe is far from \u201ceasy.\u201d The spectacle, at times oppressive, embraces a deliberate excess while emphasising the values of openness and inclusivity so dear to Renzo Rosso. Among the most striking shows, Spring-Summer 2023\u2014with more than 5,000 spectators connected via a giant Zoom salon\u2014created massive buzz on social media. The advertising campaigns, conceived in the 90s tradition, once again made a strong impact, exemplified by the installation of a gigantic condom shop in Milan (in partnership with Durex), followed by a global distribution of said condoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/gqhongkong.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Diesel-ADV-SS01-Ellen-Von-Unwerth-1024x721.webp\")
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The comeback driven by Glenn Martens<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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