Glenn Martens will debut with at Maison Margiela with Haute Couture The designer's first collection for the brand will be unveiled in July, during Paris Fashion Week

We already had a taste of it in February, when for the Diesel FW25, Glenn Martens designed tweed jackets and coats with an elevated design. But now it's confirmed: the first collection of the new creative director of Maison Margiela will be haute couture, presented in July in the official calendar of Paris. It will therefore consist of designs belonging to the Maison Margiela Artisanal line, the same one that received a huge wave of attention last year, thanks to the doll make-up and the sensational dresses by John Galliano. The former creative director worked on the maison's haute couture for ten years, bringing Margiela's name back to the top of the fashion industry—alongside his own, after the scandal he was involved in back in 2011. After bringing Diesel's name back into the spotlight from 2020 until now, it is now up to Martens to maintain the reputation of Margiela Artisanal, a task that will see him engaged on multiple fronts within OTB. 

This summer's Haute Couture Week, scheduled from July 7 to 10, will feature some of the year's biggest events for the entire fashion system, making it the perfect opportunity for the debut of Margiela Artisanal's new creative director. Alongside Martens, we will see Demna's last collection for Balenciaga, who is now leading Gucci, and the return of show-stopper Iris Van Herpen, the designer of 3D dresses who has decided to return to the runway once a year. It will be a week full of high expectations and emotions for fans of Galliano's Margiela, who will surely have some doubts about the maison's new artistic direction, as well as for fans of Glenn Martens' Diesel, who will see their favorite creative in one of the most experimental ateliers in all of Paris. At the same time, it will be hard to silence the chatter and criticisms that will surface among industry insiders—a classic, insurmountable occurrence in these past two years, marked by countless debuts and farewells. After all, despite the luxury crisis, Haute Couture Week has become a major affair: the sector is growing by 10% since 2024, according to Bernstein estimates, and this year it is expected to reach a total value of 5 billion euros. 

Although we don't have any previews of what Martens' couture for Margiela will be, observing the latest collections of the Belgian designer for Diesel (and even for Y/Project, before he left it in September 2024 and the brand closed last January) some predictions can be made. Martens' designs often focus on textile research, technological innovation, and dedication to denim. The exploration of such a fabric, so simple yet so significant in fashion history, has allowed the designer to reinvent Diesel's aesthetic by engaging with young people, the brand's main clientele. The same might happen with Margiela Artisanal, although in this case, it will be about establishing a connection with a more specific and exclusive clientele—a factor that the designer, «for democratic fashion», has never really considered. This will be the biggest challenge for Glenn Martens as the artistic director of a high-fashion maison: continuing to be politicized, youth-oriented, and aligned with their socio-cultural interests while producing designs that have historically catered to elites more than the general public. It is what both Martin Margiela and John Galliano managed to achieve before him, a challenging legacy that Martens will have to honor in the collections to come, starting from next July.