A Night of a Thousand Lives
Review of Diesel Fall 2026 Fashion Show
By Angela Baidoo
Milan Fashion Week opened with experimental excess from Diesel creative director Glenn Martens who detonated the idea of the “archive” all over his runway in spectacular fashion. For Fall 2026, staged inside Milan’s Superstudio Maxi, Martens didn’t just reference the past, he physically unearthed it from vaults for guests to observe the ‘living record of the brand’s evolution since 1978’
The cavernous venue was transformed into a chaotic shrine to Diesel memorabilia. 500,000 objects amassed over four decades (by Diesel founder Renzo Rosso from numerous runway sets ) were piled high in a hyperbolic ode to kitsch. Motorbikes, microwaves, blow-up dolls, boom boxes, Santa figurines, cigarette butts, and even a “furry” character emerging from a rumpled bed formed a wild runway whose main aim was to celebrate the morning after the night before. Deliberately distorted, twisted silhouettes were frozen in place via boiling and resin-coated treatments to create a permanent record of living a thousand lives in one night.
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
Wild Nights and Walks of Shame
Designers referring to the archive as a source of inspiration has become a rite of passage when nothing else will suffice. But, at Diesel Glenn Martens literally brought the archive to the people for fall 2026.
The organised chaos inside Milan’s Superstudio Maxi was a gluttonous feast for the senses, especially the eyes. For piled high and (almost) wall-to-wall were every kind of trinket, paraphernalia, multi-coloured trim, blow-up doll, TV, Microwave, Aprilla motorbike, picnic blanket, bust and butt (of the cigarette variety), boom box, husky, Santa figurine and ‘furry’ costume – later revealed to be inhabited towards the latter half of the show, stirring as it did from a messy bed. This hoarders paradise of memorabilia, making up Diesel’s runway, was the culmination of forty years of collecting by brand founder Renzo Rosso. Speaking backstage the designer confirmed that the treasure trove numbered over 500,000 individual pieces.
In all the seriousness that has permeated ‘fashion week’ fashion and the dampening down of any sort of maximalist leanings in the wider luxury market, what has been lost is the fun designers used to have with their collections. Once called dopamine fashion or revenge dressing (as a post-pandemic reaction) the joy that was once felt from purchasing a golden arches emblazoned sweater (Jeremy Scott’s Moschino) or a fully air-conditioned insect-shaped ensemble fitted with its own fan for hours of inflatable fun (Anrealage) has been sidelined in concession to the bottom line. Fashion as commodity requires a standardisation of style, the reason why so many collections have started to morph into one another.
Not so at Diesel, speaking backstage the designer wholly rejected this minimalisation of fashion and brought back the hedonism, unadulterated, uncensored, and unsupervised fun that could only be experienced on a wild night out. The sort of night where the outdated notion of the ‘walk of shame’ becomes a strut of defiance “it was about the morning after, after a party. It’s about having your most shameful walk of shame, but really enjoying it, nailing it, making it fun.” The day after the night before, in the designers eyes, means having no regrets. Abandoning a lover in a hotel room, with clothes twisted and haphazardly thrown on in unexpected stylistic combinations that just work, was the scenario that was playing in his mind for fall.
Embracing the odd and irregular there was a deliberate, and somewhat aggressive, twisting of fabric around the torso. Intentionally developed so the warped surfaces remain in suspended animation. Denim featured baked-in creases and knitwear was “boiled into shape” as he revealed when talking about the techniques featured in today’s show. Wrinkles, all-night wear, and cracks are positively encouraged, with Martens speaking to the fact that he was reminded of a time when “big wild party days [meant] you were sweating the whole night, and the next morning you have to wear again your garments, and they all crack, and they’re all dry” which inspired the resin-treated denim to freeze the evidence of a memorable night.
As innovation around fabric remains the foundation of the designers work, and in some cases feels like this is where he starts his season (with experimentations first, and silhouette second). What appeared wrong felt very right, with his off-kilter designs also ‘super-wearable’ as was his mission. “All the clothes are a little bit twisted. They’re constructed to not be able to be worn normally” he revealed. Within the collection this appeared as flocked denim that looked lovingly ‘aged’, denim outerwear faced in leather, woven plaids and graphic T-shirts wrapped into skirts, and florals over-printed and pulled apart so they ‘cracked open’ for a subversive take on the waisted midi-dress. There was also a youthful energy to his palette of ‘elemental shades’ in dusty pink, raspberry sorbet, fiery orange, and mint green. Paired harmoniously or jarringly, the washed treatment of leathers and shearlings could signal a possible return to fun-coloured leather.
THE QUOTE
It’s about the moment you wake up, or you have no idea where you woke up, you have no idea or no memory of yesterday, but you feel really good because it had to have been a good night.
Glenn Martens, Creative Director, Diesel
THE WRAP UP
The last year in politics has caused seismic changes in the industry, and while some may choose to concentrate only on their art what is happening outside fashions window is getting harder to ignore. So a reaction by a designer, in whatever form it may take can still be recognised as forward momentum. When asked by The Impression backstage for his thoughts on the dark times we are living through the creative director responded with optimism, optimism seen throughout todays show, as he concluded “It’s very difficult, but I think the whole idea of fashion is moments that also bring joy and happiness. I think is one of the most powerful things this industry can do. Is make people feel happy and sexier in a pair of denims and maybe make them dream when they see shows like this. That’s what we try to do. We are still trying to be a brand which is giving hope and joy”
