Glenn Martens Is Leaving Y/Project
After 11 years at the helm of the label, Glenn Martens is leaving Y/Project.
In a shock announcement, the Parisian brand unveiled Martens is stepping down as creative director, a post he has held since 2013.
When Martens joined Y/Project – following the untimely passing of its founder, Yohan Serfaty, after a battle with cancer – the company was in bankruptcy. Forced to create interesting runways and innovative collections but strapped for cash, he was obliged to design in a manner whereby pieces could be worn in a multitude of ways, by “making sure the exact same pieces could come back on the runway twice without people noticing.” He soon embraced this topsy-turvy way of creating, concocting highly technical clothes where swollen denim, disjointed sports garb, thigh-high Ugg boots and deconstructed ready-to-wear have become Y/Project’s handwriting. All instead of brash logo placement and overt branding.
“When a customer buys Y/Project, we do not give them an answer, we give them a question,” Martens told us in an interview back in 2022. “We push people to really query who they are, what they want to do and what they want to be. It took forever for people to understand the identity of the brand. I’m very proud of what we’ve been doing with Y/Project. It’s not [been] an easy baby, but now it’s a grown-up.”
Since 2020, Martens has split his time between Paris and Milan, where he is the artistic director of Diesel. He has spent the last four years reigniting the global appeal of the Italian fashion giant through innovative catwalk shows, viral campaigns and sustainable denim innovation – all fuelled by a Noughties, sexy attitude.
“Y/Project thanks Glenn for his unique contributions to the label and wishes him the best for the future,” wrote the brand in a statement. “Glenn Martens thanks Y/PROJECT and Gilles Elalouf, the late CEO of the brand who tragically passed away last June, for giving him the support and freedom to express his vision while expanding on the creative artistry that the label established.”
Y/Project is set to stage a show at Paris Fashion Week on September 29, with the brand’s next creative director yet to be announced. Martens will remain at Diesel.
Photography by Oliver Hadlee Pearch.
