Never expect Glenn Martens to follow the beaten path: he would much rather, as always, take the corner at full speed and let everyone else choke on his dust. In a landscape where every brand seems to beg Gen Z for attention, Martens settled that matter long ago. Under his command, Diesel has become nothing short of an amusement park for Zoomers: iridescent pop, public happenings, and winks to the 1990s and early 2000s an era this generation knows only through the filters of algorithms.
But instead of continuing this slightly infantilizing dance of seduction, Martens now turns toward the Millennials a group that no longer needs to be told how to fasten a belt or survive a fashion system that mutates faster than the seasons. His pre-fall 2026 collection, he announces, aims to “open up the Diesel universe even further” and speak to a broader audience. An ambition that, delivered with almost nonchalant calm, says far more than any marketing manifesto.
The lookbook suddenly feels more solemn, more grounded: silhouettes that cover up, hems that drop as if to signal a new sense of gravitas. Has Diesel grown up? Yes but not too much. For Martens has never confused maturity with melancholy. The irreverent spark, that almost insolent nonchalance he injects into the brand, remains very much alive.
The wide belts true weapons of trompe-l’œil open the show. In the very first look, a cropped denim trench converses with a faux low-rise denim pant, as though Martens were delighting in scrambling visual cues, making the eye wobble. These belts become a leitmotif: sculpting midi skirts, elongating silhouettes, underscoring coats that unfold into a full symphony of textures. Patinated biker leather, satin flowing like ink, twisted knits enriched with leather panels or shearling printed like flannel — Martens plays with surfaces the way a conductor savors dissonance.
Cocoon-sleeved silhouettes impose their presence with near-theatrical authority. A patent leather jacket, traced with bold topstitching, feels fit for a futuristic heroine; a collarless version in bonded faux leather claims an adult sophistication without relinquishing the streak of insolence that keeps Diesel vibrating.
Farther along, silky shirts billow like flags in the wind, double-layer mesh creates a mysterious halo around the body, and florals sway in dresses with charming curves. Devore denim sets, sprinkled with crystals, glimmer as though Martens had decided to make nostalgia dance on a carpet of light. And of course, the siren call of grunge is irresistible: crumpled checks, rebellious layering a barely veiled reminder that while Gen Z discovered this era as recycled trends, Millennials lived through it, scars and triumphs alike.
Martens seems to understand that nostalgia, when wielded intelligently, becomes less a refuge than a weapon. And in this collection, he wields it with the precision of a designer who knows exactly what he reveals and what he keeps in the shadows.
FM