The Paris fashion industry is hungry for the next big thing, and judging from his oversubscribed fall show, Glenn Martens’ Y/Project is on many people’s short list.
Martens has been igniting the local scene with his playful approach to women’s wear, born out of what was initially a men’s wear-only label, after its founder Yohan Serfaty died in 2013. Items like super slouchy denim boots and oversize spiral pearl earrings have won him fans including Beyoncé and Rihanna.
Since Y/Project won the ANDAM Grand Prize last year, the spotlight on the brand has grown more intense. Could it be the next Vetements? Certainly, Martens has the same penchant for hybrid clothes and oversize volumes as Demna Gvasalia, who was a few years above him at Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
His added ingredient? A tongue-in-cheek humor that lent his show, held at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, a campy appeal. Consider the high-heeled versions of the thigh-high Ugg boots he debuted at his men’s show in January, or the corduroy pants with a burlesque-style embroidered fig leaf over the crotch.
The designer worked a fringed curtain into a spiraling pencil skirt, topped with reams of loosely draped lilac taffeta, and spliced strips of fake
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