Introduction
Glenn Martens is a Belgian fashion designer whose career connects experimental Paris fashion with industrial denim and, since 2025, Maison Margiela. After studying interior design in Ghent and fashion at Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts, he worked with Yohan Serfaty and at Jean Paul Gaultier before being publicly appointed Y/Project’s artistic director in November 2013.
Martens’s January 2014 debut began an eleven-year Y/Project tenure. He expanded the label from menswear into a sustained women’s programme, developed its mutable construction and collaborative image system, and moved to unified co-ed collections in 2021. Y/Project won the 2017 ANDAM Grand Prize and appeared as Pitti Uomo’s guest brand in 2019; Martens’s final official collection was published in March 2024, and his departure was announced on 6 September.
Diesel appointed Martens Creative Director on 8 October 2020. He guest-designed Jean Paul Gaultier haute couture in 2022 and became Maison Margiela Creative Director on 29 January 2025 while continuing at Diesel. His first Margiela Artisanal collection was shown in July 2025, followed by ready-to-wear and combined ready-to-wear/Artisanal presentations.
Design ethos
Martens builds silhouette through displacement. Sleeves, collars, fastenings and trouser panels are lengthened or redirected so that garments twist, wrap and change position on the body; historical costume, workwear and street dress enter the same pattern system.
Denim acts as an industrial laboratory. At Diesel, washes, devoré, distressing, bonded layers and trompe-l’œil surfaces make wear and processing legible, while Y/Project used related ideas through modular cut and unstable volume.
At Maison Margiela, found material and Artisanal handwork have added density to that practice. The houses remain distinct, but across them Martens repeatedly tests how familiar clothing can be deformed, reassembled or made to carry more than one mode of wear.
Disclaimer
Career history
2026
Maison Margiela did not appear on the official Paris Fashion Week womenswear Autumn/Winter 2026–27 calendar in March 2026. The absence preceded the house’s combined ready-to-wear and Artisanal presentation in Shanghai on 1 April.
2025
Glenn Martens became Maison Margiela creative director on 29 January 2025. His opening collections joined masks, recovered matter and Artisanal handwork to an increasingly direct ready-to-wear wardrobe, followed by a combined show in Shanghai in 2026.
2024
Y/Project publicly announced Glenn Martens’s departure on 6 September 2024. The chronology does not prove that his exit caused the company’s insolvency or that insolvency caused the departure; no interim creative director or authorised studio successor was documented.
2024
Y/Project cancelled its planned 3 March runway after choosing production pre-payment over show expenditure. The house published the 53-look Autumn/Winter 2024 collection online on 12 March as a friends-and-family anniversary portrait.
2021
Autumn/Winter 2021 was Y/Project’s first unified co-ed seasonal collection. The 64-look digital presentation consolidated men’s and women’s development into a longer cycle and also introduced the continuing Melissa footwear collaboration.
2020
Diesel appointed Glenn Martens Creative Director on 8 October 2020, effective immediately. His remit covers the mainline and broader brand image, while licensed categories retain their own operational partners.
2020
Y/Project launched Evergreen during the Spring/Summer 2021 digital period and received €150,000 from the ANDAM Family Fund. The programme revisited established pieces outside ordinary seasonal markdown, while separate men’s and women’s online presentations kept collection output active.
2019
Y/Project showed at Pitti Uomo 95 as the invited guest brand. The 9 January presentation used the Chiostro Grande of Santa Maria Novella and marked an international-platform milestone for the mature label.
2018
Y/Project introduced its first handbag and eyewear programmes with the Spring/Summer 2019 womenswear presentation on 27 September 2018. The bags were developed internally with Isa Kauffman and made in Italy, while eyewear was developed with Linda Farrow; neither programme formed a separate legal division or sub-brand.
2017
ANDAM awarded its 2017 Grand Prize to Glenn Martens for Y/Project. The €250,000 award included mentorship and in-kind support and became a material growth milestone rather than a change in ownership.
2016
Y/Project by Glenn Martens was selected as a finalist for the 2016 LVMH Prize. The recognition increased the label’s institutional visibility but did not constitute investment, acquisition or a collection award.
2016
Y/Project presented Autumn/Winter 2016–17 at Lycée Charlemagne as its first verified show on the official Paris women’s calendar. Women’s product had appeared earlier, so the event records institutional expansion rather than an absolute first garment for women; sources conflict between 1 and 2 March.
2013
Gilles Elalouf appointed Glenn Martens after Yohan Serfaty’s death and a successor search. Martens’s first securely located collection appeared in January 2014; he expanded womenswear, developed Y/Project’s mutable construction system and remained until his departure was announced on 6 September 2024.
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