Welcome to Behind the Scenes, a series in which we track the designers as they put together some of the most anticipated shows of each season.
The Diesel studio was bustling with people one day before the brand’s Autumn/Winter 2024 show. Model Alton Mason was there for his fitting, as was techno DJ VTSS, who twirled as stylist Ursina Gysi figured out the fit of her dress. All things considered, the mood was relaxed – or at least appeared to be.
“You know, the day before the show it’s always crazy. But we’re calm because of the live stream,” Glenn Martens says with a smile, gesturing to a camera in the corner, watching the whole room like Big Brother for fashion. “I think everybody’s trying to pretend that we are really under control.”
Four days out from the show, on 18 February, live-stream cameras were set up across Diesel HQ and the Milan show venue to give fans unparalleled behind-the-scenes access. From Diesel’s website and Instagram, anyone could tune in to watch the entire process of preparing a fashion show, across casting, styling, fittings and the atelier. The stream – which has no audio – will run until the show begins. “There is no censorship at all,” Martens says, speaking on Zoom from his home in Milan a week leading up to the show. “I have to behave! And also wear something nice. Typically I’m in my tracksuit, track pants and a dirty T-shirt.”
Martens had never opened up his studio to cameras before show day, but he moved through the space with a smile during the fittings, tugging at a hem or adding an accessory to a look as it passed by. “You are already gorgeous, but you’re gonna be like – Diesel,” he said to beauty influencer Meredith Duxbury who’s walking the show, as he checked out her freshly dyed red hair tipped with black paint at the ends.
With this concept, Martens is breaking an important rule of fashion by showing the collection before it hits the runway. “We like to go against the flow and have fun,” he says. Maybe it’s for the best, considering there will be plenty happening at the show beyond the actual clothes. On display will be seven enormous screens each projecting a live 100-person Zoom call feed. Registration to participate in the Zoom – which will have each attendee on mute – opened up 13 February on Diesel.com, inviting fans from all over the world to get a virtual front row seat to the AW24 show. One thousand participants were chosen first-come-first-served, and will be rotated across the video screens in case anyone freezes or does anything inappropriate. The spots were gone in 90 seconds, according to the brand.
“These 700 members of the public will see what’s happening at the show and we will see their reactions live,” Martens says. But that’s not enough – Martens wants the whole lid blown off. The show’s soundtrack will be the noise of the backstage and front of house teams, pumped into the venue unedited. Everyone, from the PR team to Martens himself, will be mic’d up. “It’s full transparency, 360, no hiding,” he says. “My PR is a little worried.”
For Martens, who joined Diesel three years ago while still running his own brand, cult label Y-Project, the goal is to reach and excite not just the luxury fashion customer at Milan Fashion Week, but Diesel’s global consumer, who might spend $60 on a T-shirt and take zero interest in fashion week or high-end clothes. The result is typically large-scale, inclusive shows and events. His debut show, which broke the Guinness world record for the largest inflatable sculptures ever created, was open to 5,000 people, including 3,000 members of the public. For AW23, the show set featured an enormous mountain of condoms, which were later distributed for free at Diesel stores. For Spring/Summer 2024, the show was part of a 7,000-person, eight-hour rave open to the public.
This season’s show may be his riskiest yet. “I’m very happy about the whole concept, but it’s an experiment, which makes me a bit more stressed,” Martens says. “There’s a lot of mistakes when you create a collection. You don’t show those moments. But it’s an important part of the process. It’s good to show how much work goes into this, that we arrive at 9am and leave at 2am each night.” So much for work-life balance. Martens admits to tuning in at night and texting his team to say “maybe different shoes”, even after he’s gone home.
Maintaining relevance, competing with yourself
Martens had the idea for this show in the taxi on the way to last season’s. “I was with my stylist and set designer and we were like, ‘How can we make this bigger next time?’ Before the end of the show I’m always thinking about the next one.” The concept originated with the noughties phenomenon Chat Roulette, where you’d meet random people via video chat online. That evolved into the Zoom call – a safer choice, considering Chat Roulette’s seedier associations.
“Fashion week is for editors and influencers and press. And it still needs to be that, but I want to bring in the family of Diesel, which is my buddies in the clubs of Berlin and London, the kids who are at high school, people who have no access to any runway,” Martens says. A lot of luxury labels have “the woman” who wears their clothes, he adds. “But for Diesel, it can be anyone, regardless of your gender, sexuality, your wallet, where you come from, whatever.”
The aim is to entertain audiences at home and inject fun into local communities. “Our beating heart is everyday people. It’s great that we do fashion week, but I don’t want us to sell our soul,” Martens says. He frequently refers to Diesel as “alternative luxury”, a phrase he and Renzo Rosso, president of Diesel parent company OTB, have both used to explain the label’s positioning, which spans the high-end and high-street in terms of offering and price point (that $60 T-shirt versus €3,495 for a leather coat).
Martens’s democratic approach has borne fruit. OTB sales surged 12 per cent to €1.8 billion in the 12 months ending 31 December 2023, the company announced last week. Rosso cited the Diesel turnaround as a key driver, alongside strong DTC performance and strong revenues at other OTB brands Marni and Jil Sander.
“We’re on such a high, we didn’t expect to have such amazing feedback,” Martens says. “I’m only on my fifth show and it exploded quite fast. So there’s no road map.” Before he took on Diesel, the brand wasn’t in an economic crisis, but more of an existential one, he says. “At the end of the day it’s a 40-year-old brand. I’m 40 too and I’ve dyed my hair blonde. You have to refresh yourself!” Martens set out to define Diesel’s identity, and early in his tenure created a brand bible around a consistent vision to reach new, younger audiences and inspire new clients to buy “what they would want without knowing that they want”, he says.
Martens may be throwing Milan’s biggest spectacles, but he still understands the city’s expectations when it comes to craft and design. He uses clever methods to create exciting, fashion-led clothes that don’t always bear a luxury price tag. “Once you’re on the calendar next to Prada, Bottega Veneta, you can’t show just a T-shirt and sweatpants,” he says. “You have to stand up. I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t do the creative thing.”
Instead of starting with the finest leather or silk, Diesel’s garments start with more affordable fabrics like cotton or jersey. They’re then given complex treatments like acid washing, varnishing or shredding, to give them a unique and elevated feel. In this collection, the theme of transparency is reflected in the clothes, with puffer jackets acid-treated to reveal the inner padding, or jersey floral dresses shredded at the hem to reveal the legs.
He also, within months of his appointment, launched a manifesto for the brand, with bold aims to reduce its use of raw materials. Under his tenure, Diesel denim has gone from 5 per cent organic cotton or recycled materials to 50 per cent. The show pieces, he admits, are not at the 50 per cent responsible mark. But they have much more limited distribution than the carryover T-shirts and denim, so for now that’s where he’s focusing his efforts. “The majority of garments that we sell are five-pockets and T-shirts. That doesn t mean that we don’t own a place on the catwalk, but that’s why we play things a little differently,” he says.
As is Martens’s pattern, even in the midst of planning his imminent show, he’s already thinking about what’s next. Turns out he landed on his next show concept two nights ago while brainstorming with his sound designer Sam Janssen over negronis.
Stay tuned. As for today’s show, those who’ve tuned into the stream may already know what to expect. But the designer isn’t worried that will dull the impact. “Maybe it will be a bit less exciting for certain people. But I think fashion is about different moments of magic. There’s the excitement of watching those models passing by with the music, the venue, the sets. Right now, you see the ingredients, but not the cake.”
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