Shattering Archetypes and Subverting Tradition
Review of Diesel Fall 2025 Fashion Show
By Angela Baidoo
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
Denim Disruption, Twisted Tradition, Elevated Experimentation
No one does denim quite like Glenn Martens. Having brought it back from the brink of mass commercialisation and out of a basic focus on fit – skinny, flare, wide, then skinny again – the designer has elevated it to the pinnacle of design and demonstrated that it can be much more than its humble workwear beginnings through innovate technical treatments – think extreme fringing, burn-outs and trompe l’oeil effects.
Today’s show, as per last season’s denim-covered set of recycled off-cuts which became a carpeted runway and tempted showgoers to pick up a piece to take home as a momento, was all about the spectacle. Taking place at the Allianz Cloud venue, guests entered through a black curtain which concealed a Guinness World Record holding inflatable that was completely decorated in graffiti, as was the 3.2km of fabric used to dress the set. What a way to Wow! As phones couldn’t stop capturing the scene until the moment the show started. In todays notes there was a further explanation of the set design as the brand revealed “In the biggest ever known graffiti installation…over three kilometers of graffiti fabric, [was] made by a global street art collective of around 7,000 amateur and expert graffiti artists.” The brand is nothing if not hyper-aware of the power if its community (referred to as the ‘True Democracy of Diesel’) and has of late taken an inclusive approach when it comes to getting them involved in their show moments. Think back to last fall and those floor-to-ceiling video screens which were broadcasting the goings on in the homes of fans worldwide, using their phone and laptop cameras.
Known as a city with a steadfast dedication to the feminine, especially its love of a lady, this season we are witnessing a select few stick two perfectly manicured fingers up to the establishment by presenting their own subverted view on the ‘Fair Lady’, and at Diesel that most popular of traditional fabrics -the tweed – went techno. As the Diesel girl who we are used to seeing in mini dresses, low-cuts and low rises made a play for the prim and proper.
Today Martens wanted to mix up archetypes and play with tradition. This saw tweed, bouclé and jacquard look renewed and styled in a disruptive way. ‘Little Bouclé jackets were provocatively paired with extreme short-shorts and the addition of a matching peplum – prim on top and punk on the bottom, and basque tops featured sweetheart necklines (one more sighting and it’s officially a trend) and were worn with skinny jeans making the case for their comeback. But where the Belgian designers expertise is best served at the brand is when he takes to destroying and distressing the hard-working denim fabric. Experimenting with coatings created denim jackets and jeans that were ‘plasticized’, and flocking on tulle fabric was used to create the ‘trace of garments’ as explained in the notes, with hints of what once was a cable knit floating over models body’s. Rather than subverting the everyday, the designer is making subversion everyday by looking to traditional archetypes and disrupting them so we have to look beyond surface level – a cable knit menswear sweater made entirely of rubber was genius and was quite possiblly a foreshadowing of what he has in store when he takes up his new post as creative director at Maison Margiela.
This collection also marked the launch (on the 27th February) of a capsule collection from 7 graffiti artists across 8 countries including China and Japan, South Africa and Italy, tying in with the theme of the show set which they helped design. Sent a selection of Diesel pieces they took to customising them – perhaps utilising the Diesel branded spray cans which doubled as the show invite – allowing a piece of the set to live on outside of the brief window of the fashion show.
THE DIRECTION
THE QUOTE
I love that thousands of people around the world have worked together to create the set design. We gave the global street art collective complete creative freedom – they expressed themselves each in their own way, on a project that’s taken months to achieves. This is the true democracy of Diesel“
Glenn Martens, creative director, Diesel.
THE WRAP UP
The key themes of collectivity, disruption, and exploding traditions become One for Diesel’s fall 2025 offering, and where it could have been incoherent the thread of fabric bonded together the designers ideas. From reframing classic bouclé and jacquards into trompe l’oeil and perverse new variations of ladylike silhouettes to presenting an update of the ‘Extremely low Diesel bumster jeans’ constructed so they stay on via hidden internal underwear. Diesel is breaking boundaries and records – that inflatable, first seen at the spring 2023 set, actually holds the Guinness World Record for the largest ever inflatable, so say what you will, but this is denim wizardry at its best.
