Glenn Martens Is Maison Margiela’s New Creative Director

Glenn Martens, recognized for his reconstructed denim and avant-garde silhouettes, is the brand new inventive director of Maison Margiela.

Confirming a report on WWD.com on Jan. 25 that flagged Martens as a frontrunner, Margiela stated the Belgian designer, additionally inventive director of Diesel in Milan, would write “the following chapter of the home, constructing on its distinctive codes and model values.”

He succeeds John Galliano, who in December wound up a 10-year collaboration at Maison Margiela that delivered trend thrills, cultural moments and enterprise development galore.

The announcement from Maison Margiela and its mum or dad firm OTB Group didn’t specify when Martens would present his first assortment for the model.

It’s understood Martens will even proceed on the inventive helm of Diesel, additionally managed by OTB.

Commenting on the appointment, OTB Group chairman Renzo Rosso stated: “I’ve labored with Glenn for years, I’ve witnessed his expertise, and I do know what he’s able to.

“After Martin, who gave life to the maison and its distinctive Artisanal line, and John (Galliano), who made it essentially the most cutting-edge couture home on the planet, I’m proud to have a 3rd couturier at its helm. Glenn, who studied at Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Advantageous Arts like Martin, has already proven his prowess and his imaginative and prescient in couture.”

Rosso’s son Stefano, who’s chairman of Maison Margiela, stated Martens arrives “at a key second of its historical past and on well-defined and strong tracks.”

He added that the Belgian designer would “additional construct upon the heritage of the home which we’re past proud to have in our group.”

Martens stated he was “extraordinarily honored to affix the superb Maison Margiela, a really distinctive home that has been inspiring the world for many years. And I thank Renzo for the belief he’s placing in me.”

The affable designer rose to trend fame because of his 11-year stint helming Y/Undertaking, which earned a cult following for its twisted constructions, however shuttered earlier this month when it couldn’t discover a purchaser to rescue it from monetary woes.

Y/Undertaking was positioned into receivership by a Paris industrial courtroom final September following the demise of Gilles Elalouf, who cofounded the model with the late Yohan Serfaty, and the departure of Martens the identical month. The label had severe cash-flow points, underscoring a tricky panorama for small and mid-sized manufacturers navigating the slowdown in luxurious spending.

To make certain, Rosso has lengthy had Martens on his radar, tapping him in 2018 as a visitor designer of his experimental capsule collection Diesel Crimson Tag, one yr after Martens bagged the celebrated ANDAM trend prize, of which OTB is a historic sponsor and mentor.

In October 2020, Rosso named Martens the full-time inventive director of Diesel, which had not put in a marquee expertise since Nicola Formichetti exited in December 2017 after a four-year tenure.

Martens actually suits the mould of the daring, edgy skills favored by Rosso, who famously recruited Galliano in 2014 to steer Maison Margiela.

Martens grew up within the Belgian metropolis of Bruges and graduated from Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Advantageous Arts in 2008. Jean Paul Gaultier noticed his commencement present and instantly conscripted him as junior designer for his ladies’s pre-collection and the G2 males’s label.

Martens would go on to affix Y/Undertaking in 2010 and take the inventive helm of that model in 2013, accruing a status for revolutionary reducing and an experimental method to trend.

The designer, 41, likes to tumble collectively disparate references, from classical tailoring to streetwear to offbeat historic references, together with Flemish Previous Masters. He’s additionally recognized for his avant-garde silhouettes that incorporate exaggerated and twisting volumes.

The designer attributes his penchant for deconstructing and reconstructing clothes to his first experiments as an inside structure graduate, later adapting the method to material as a trend scholar. “At first my garments appeared extra like packing containers, all the things was super-stiff. My very first skirt was principally a pizza field,” he instructed WWD in a 2019 interview.

Martens has dabbled in couture. In 2022, he was known as again to Jean Paul Gaultier for a one-off high fashion assortment. Because the second visitor expertise on the Puig-owned home, he centered on robes.

To make certain, Galliano might be a tricky act to observe at Maison Margiela. The British designer’s tenure culminated with the spring 2024 Maison Margiela Artisanal present that gained common acclaim, put full-throttle creativity again on the trade agenda and propelled Galliano to the very prime of the style heap.

(Galliano has but to point his future plans.)

Martens arrives at a home that flourished lately, regardless of an erratic presence throughout Paris Vogue Week.

Whereas the corporate doesn’t break down revenues by model, market sources estimate revenues at Maison Margiela are approaching $500 million, with nearly all of gross sales stemming from immediately owned retail and on-line gross sales.

Licensed Maison Margiela merchandise, headlined by perfume and eyewear, are estimated to generate greater than $200 million in annual revenues. 

Right now, the Paris-based home boasts about 120 shops globally, 50 of them having opened within the final 4 years, and 43 of these in Asian nations, led by Japan, China and South Korea.

OTB controls the Diesel, Jil Sander, Maison Margiela, Marni and Viktor&Rolf manufacturers, manufacturing arms Workers Worldwide and Courageous Child, and holds a stake within the Amiri model.

OTB grew to become the primary shareholder of Maison Margiela in 2002 and took full management in 2006. 

Founding designer Martin Margiela, typically described because the trade’s invisible man for his Greta Garbo-like methods, retired from trend in 2009, with OTB letting an nameless staff stick with it his legacy. Maison Margiela steadfastly refused to establish any members of its design staff, although trade insiders know Demna, at present inventive director of Balenciaga; Bottega Veneta trend star Matthieu Blazy, who’s taking over the design reins at Chanel in April; and Nina-Maria Nitsche, previously inventive director of Brioni, cycled by way of the studio.

Together with the Antwerp Six, Martin Margiela put the small Belgian metropolis of Antwerp on the worldwide trend radar, founding his home in 1988 and introducing cleft-toed boots, deconstructed fashions and all-white shops.

The founder earned a status for stirring up controversy and pushing trend concepts to the acute, as in his use of outsized silhouettes and his iconoclastic runway shows.