Glenn Martens Will Make His Debut at Maison Margiela at July Couture

Glenn Martens will make his debut as the new creative director of Maison Margiela with a couture show in July, WWD has learned.

The Paris fashion house confirmed that the Belgian designer would start with a Maison Margiela Artisanal show for the fall 2025 season. The runway event is being scheduled during Haute Couture Week, scheduled for July 7 to 10 in the French capital.

“This marks the beginning of an inspiring new chapter for the maison, rooted in our core creative values and shaped by Margiela’s couture heritage. Under Glenn’s direction, couture will continue to ignite creativity for the brand and drive boundary pushing designs,” Maison Margiela said in a statement shared exclusively with WWD.

Maison Margiela Artisanal collections have been part of the calendar since 2006 as a member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. In 2012, Maison Margiela was officially named an haute couture house.

However, the company last presented an Artisanal collection for spring 2024, a blockbuster that ended up being the swan song of British designer John Galliano, who spent 10 years leading the house. That seminal show won universal acclaim, put full-throttle creativity back on the industry agenda and propelled Galliano back to the very top of fashion’s creative heap.

Last January, Margiela’s parent company OTB Group announced that Martens, already creative director of its Diesel brand in Milan, would succeed Galliano and build on the house’s “unique codes and brand values.”

That announcement did not specify when Martens might show his first collection for the brand, while remaining at the creative helm of Diesel.

“Glenn, who studied at Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts like Martin [Margiela], has already shown his prowess and his vision in couture,” OTB Group chairman Renzo Rosso said at the time, referring to the one-off haute couture collection Martens did for Jean Paul Gaultier back in 2022 as the second guest talent at the Puig-owned house.

Martens’ debut at Maison Margiela will contribute to a newsy couture week, which will feature the swan song Balenciaga couture collection by Demna, who is becoming creative director of Gucci, another Kering brand; the return of Iris Van Herpen, who is now adopting an annual cadence for haute couture, and an award celebration and still-life presentation combo for Giambattista Valli.

Martens has yet to disclose his design intentions, while stressing he is “extremely honored to join the amazing Maison Margiela, a truly unique house that has been inspiring the world for decades.”

The affable designer rose to fashion fame thanks to his 11-year stint helming Y/Project, which earned a cult following for its twisted constructions, but shuttered earlier this year when it could not find a buyer to rescue it from financial woes.

To be sure, Rosso has long had Martens on his radar, tapping him in 2018 as a guest designer of his experimental capsule series Diesel Red Tag, one year after Martens bagged the prestigious ANDAM fashion prize, of which OTB is a historical sponsor and mentor.

In October 2020, Rosso named Martens the full-time creative director of Diesel. He certainly fits the mold of the bold, edgy talents favored by the Italian fashion entrepreneur, who famously recruited Galliano in 2014 to lead Maison Margiela.

Martens grew up in the Belgian city of Bruges and graduated from Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 2008. Jean Paul Gaultier saw his graduation show and immediately conscripted him as junior designer for his women’s pre-collection and the G2 men’s label.

Martens would go on to join Y/Project in 2010 and take the creative helm of that brand in 2013, accruing a reputation for innovative cutting and an experimental approach to fashion.

The designer, 41, likes to tumble together disparate references, from classical tailoring to streetwear to offbeat historical references, including Flemish Old Masters. He is also known for his avant-garde silhouettes that incorporate exaggerated and twisting volumes.

OTB became the main shareholder of Maison Margiela in 2002 and took full control in 2006.