Inflata-nation

Diesel SS23 hosted a Guinness World Record-breaking inflatable sculpture
Fashion | 22 September 2022

Rebooting and rewinding the pop culture clock of a beloved denim brand, Glenn Martens is very much still on his inflatable antics at Diesel. This time, he’s implanted the world’s largest inflatable sculpture inside the venue of the label’s latest show. For the occasion, 5,000 guests took to a vast stadium in Milan, with the brand allocating 1,600 of the 3,000 tickets available to the public to students, many aspiring designers in their own right.

At first, Martens eased us in with some sculpted, high-waisted denim; but something was amiss… they were decaying, scraps of fabric withering away over the top of tulle underlays. Belts were chunky and frayed, holding up huge, blingy rhinestones as jeans arrived double-waisted in graduating hues, crafted with a maze of patchwork pockets. Elsewhere, matching loose vests were defiled by cigarette burns and jersey dresses well-worn, distressed even, cut mini for clubbers, or long to serve on-the-go daytime glamour.

The denim fantasy continued with menswear – big and voluminous. Faded denim boots blended into faded denim jeans and their faded denim knee pads, worn with faded denim hoodies under a thick, faded denim trench coat, oversized and trailing by the leg. And remember those aforementioned frayed belts? They coiled around model Amelia Gray in a thick layered bustier, Diesel insignia front and centre.

If you hadn’t picked up on the concentration of whimsy already, it soon took over full-force via Wotsit-orange zipped jumpsuits and leather jackets cut with all the trimmings poking out through flattened seams. Raver-like trousers got the same supersized treatment, skulking behind athletic pink slip-dresses with varsity straps and last season’s belted miniskirts, wrapping the body in a sheen of patterned metal with matching slinky handbags and barely-there bandeaus. Here was Glenn Martins hitting his stride at Diesel, bouncing all the way to the top. 

GALLERYCatwalk images from Diesel WOMENS-SPRING-SUMMER-23





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