Glenn Martens at Diesel: Six Years of Disruption

For years, Diesel had been living in the shadow of its own cultural legacy, a name once synonymous with youthful rebellion that had gradually lost its urgency. Glenn Martens saw possibilities in that familiarity. Over six years, he challenged the conventions of denim, reconsidered the meaning of accessibility in fashion, and brought a renewed sense of creative ambition to the Italian label. His departure leaves behind a question extending well beyond his individual achievements: how does a brand reclaim the cultural influence that once defined it?

Fashion has witnessed countless attempts at reinvention, especially among heritage labels struggling to reconcile their history with the demands of younger consumers. Glenn Martens approached Diesel with an unusually clear understanding of its past. The brand already possesses the ingredients of a compelling identity. His challenge was to make them desirable again.

The Brand That Had Lost Its Edge

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Diesel represented a certain kind of fashion freedom. Founded in 1978 by Renzo Rosso and Adriano Goldschmied, the Italian label built its identity around experimental denim, provocative advertising and a deliberately irreverent attitude toward conventional luxury.

Its famous For Successful Living campaigns were often as influential as the clothes themselves, challenging social conventions through satire, sexuality and visual absurdity. Diesel sold an attitude that resonated with a generation fascinated by youth culture and individual expression.

Yet cultural relevance has a difficult relationship with longevity. As denim became increasingly accessible and fashion's appetite shifted toward streetwear and emerging luxury labels, Diesel's once-distinctive identity gradually lost its edge. Its extensive global distribution and familiar branding remained, but the creative excitement that had defined its earlier success was fading.

When Glenn Martens was appointed in October 2020, he inherited a company already undergoing restructuring. His background at Y/Project, where he had developed a reputation for unconventional construction and experimental proportions, made him an intriguing choice for a commercially established denim brand. He had also previously collaborated with Diesel through its Red Tag project in 2018.

The decision proved remarkably coherent. Martens shared Diesel's instinct for irreverence, but his approach was grounded in construction and material experimentation. He recognised that the brand's greatest assets remained embedded in its history, particularly its relationship with denim and the freedom associated with wearing it.

Reviving Diesel required more than a contemporary wardrobe. It demanded a convincing reason for an entirely new generation to participate in its world.

Denim Was Never Just Denim

At Y/Project, Glenn Martens had already established a fascination with the possibilities of ordinary garments. Familiar wardrobe staples became exercises in distortion, with unconventional proportions and complicated constructions challenging the relationship between fabric and body.

Diesel offered a different opportunity: an enormous industrial infrastructure built around the very material he had spent years manipulating.

Denim became the foundation for some of his most ambitious experiments. Throughout his tenure, he pushed its physical characteristics through distressing, devoré, coating and illusionistic treatments, transforming the familiar fabric into something almost unrecognisable.

In Spring/Summer 2024, devoré treatments created partially transparent denim surfaces, exposing printed imagery beneath distressed layers. The apparent deterioration of the fabric became an intentional artistic effect, lending garments a sense of fragility and movement. Fall/Winter 2025 continued this exploration through jacquard denim and hybrid constructions that complicated the boundaries between casual clothing and elaborate craftsmanship.

Martens was particularly adept at manipulating the tension between destruction and precision. A garment could appear worn, torn or casually assembled while concealing extensive technical development. Imperfection was carefully engineered, giving Diesel an aesthetic language that combined industrial processes with an almost obsessive attention to surface.

Crucially, the experimentation extended beyond conceptual runway pieces. Martens worked within a brand whose primary business remained everyday clothing, allowing elaborate treatments to influence commercially accessible products. His collections maintained a dialogue between exaggerated fashion proposals and the basic appeal of a well-cut pair of jeans.

The designer also helped introduce the Diesel Library, a permanent denim offering developed around lower-impact processes and greater supply-chain transparency. Its emphasis on enduring wardrobe staples provided another dimension to a creative direction frequently associated with provocation.

What emerged was an unusual balance of technical ambition and mass-market familiarity. The runway could pursue extreme interpretations of denim while the wider collection retained its democratic character. Diesel's industrial heritage became a platform for experimentation, and its most ordinary product became a source of continuous reinvention.

The D That Everyone Wanted

Few fashion symbols experienced a revival quite like Diesel's Oval D.

A recognisable element of the brand's visual identity, the logo gained renewed prominence under Martens through its integration into clothing and accessories. Its rounded, metallic form translated naturally into hardware, becoming both a functional component and a powerful visual signature.

The Diesel 1DR bag, introduced during the early stages of his tenure, demonstrated the potential of that strategy. Compact, instantly recognisable and carrying the brand's emblem across its front, it quickly established itself as one of the defining accessories of the early 2020s.

In the second quarter of 2022, the 1DR topped Lyst's ranking of the world's most popular women's fashion products. Its visibility was amplified by figures including Julia Fox and Megan Thee Stallion, while consumer searches helped propel Diesel back into the platform's ten most popular brands.

The success extended across the wider wardrobe. Oval D hardware appeared on belts, skirts, knitwear and denim, often incorporated directly into the garment's construction. The emblem developed a presence that could identify Diesel even without prominent printed branding.

The D functioned as a compact visual identity, particularly effective within the image-driven culture of social media. It gave consumers an immediate point of recognition while providing the design team with a versatile element to reinterpret.

While runway experimentation generated attention, accessories offered a more accessible point of entry into the brand's renewed identity. The 1DR translated Diesel's creative momentum into a product consumers could purchase, wear and circulate within their own communities.

With one familiar initial, Diesel rediscovered the appeal of being instantly recognisable.

Fashion Is for Everyone, and Everyone Is Invited

Martens' influence extended well beyond the garments themselves. He fundamentally reconsidered the relationship between Diesel, its audience and the fashion show.

The Italian label had always celebrated a democratic attitude toward style, although fashion's traditional runway format remained governed by exclusivity. Martens brought these two principles into direct conversation, transforming Diesel presentations into large-scale cultural events.

Glenn Martens transformed Diesel's runway into a public spectacle, challenging fashion week's traditionally exclusive format. For Spring/Summer 2023, nearly 5,000 guests gathered beneath a monumental inflatable sculpture, with thousands of free tickets offered to the public. Spring/Summer 2024 pushed the concept further with an eight-hour rave attended by more than 7,000 people.

The experimentation soon extended beyond the runway. Fall/Winter 2025 incorporated a massive crowdsourced graffiti installation, while Spring/Summer 2026 transformed Milan into an interactive exhibition, scattering transparent egg-shaped enclosures containing the collection throughout the city. Each presentation expanded the possibilities of audience participation, turning Diesel's democratic spirit into a tangible cultural experience.

These events expanded Diesel's cultural reach while preserving its association with nightlife, youth movements and collective expression. Their unconventional formats generated considerable attention, but the underlying strategy was more substantial than spectacle.

The traditional front row was no longer the sole measure of influence. A young consumer attending a free rave, watching the event online or encountering an installation on the street could develop a relationship with Diesel without purchasing anything.

For a generation whose experience of fashion is increasingly shaped by digital communities and shared cultural moments, such openness carries considerable significance. Diesel was becoming a brand that people could engage with as an experience, a creative identity and a social space.

The Business of Being Relevant

Behind the theatrical runway presentations, Diesel's transformation was supported by a measurable commercial recovery.

According to parent company OTB Group, Diesel recorded a 13.1% increase in turnover in 2023 compared with the previous year. By then, Generation Z accounted for 35% of its customer base, while womenswear represented almost half of the brand's business. These figures suggested that its renewed cultural prominence was translating into a younger and more diversified audience.

Momentum continued into 2024, with revenues increasing by 3.2% at constant exchange rates, even as the wider OTB Group experienced declining turnover amid difficult luxury-market conditions. In February 2026, OTB reported that Diesel had achieved its highest level of profitability in a decade during the 2025 financial year.

The recovery was, of course, a collective achievement. Alongside Martens' creative direction, Diesel invested in retail restructuring, direct-to-consumer channels and international store expansion. Its repositioning as an alternative to conventional luxury reflected strategic decisions across design, marketing and commercial operations.

Yet Glenn Martens supplied an essential ingredient: cultural credibility. His collections gave audiences a reason to reconsider the brand, while his accessories and public presentations helped translate that attention into a coherent identity.

The commercial success also revealed something about the evolving luxury landscape. Diesel found renewed appeal without abandoning its industrial roots or competing directly with traditional heritage houses. Its proposition combined experimental design, recognisable products and an irreverent attitude within a comparatively accessible segment of the fashion market.

Diesel SS27, his final presentation offered a fitting farewell. Inside a club-inspired venue, 200 performers from the Marseille-based collective (LA)HORDE mingled with the audience, gradually transforming the show into a collective performance. Ella Snyder, who had opened Martens' first Diesel runway presentation, returned to close his last.

Six years after his appointment, Diesel had regained the confidence to stage a spectacle entirely on its own terms.

Fashion's fascination with creative directors often encourages the belief that a remarkable designer can rescue a struggling brand through the force of individual vision. Glenn Martens' tenure at Diesel certainly provides a persuasive example of creative leadership, although it also reveals the limits of that narrative.

His success depended on the strength of a pre-existing identity. Diesel had already spent decades cultivating its irreverent attitude, its expertise in denim and its relationship with youth culture. Martens possessed creative intelligence to recognise the continuing value of those foundations and the technical ability to make them relevant to contemporary fashion.

There is an important distinction between reviving a brand's popularity and restoring its ability to evolve. The former can be achieved through a successful collection, an influential accessory or a viral runway moment. The latter requires a creative identity strong enough to continue generating possibilities after the individual responsible for its transformation has departed.

As for now, turning his attention fully toward Maison Margiela, Diesel faces that question with renewed commercial confidence and a more clearly defined cultural position.

The ultimate measure of Glenn Martens at Diesel may emerge in his absence. A successful revival brings a brand back into fashion conversation. A lasting one gives it something worth saying long after its most influential voice has moved on.