- Words Yazzi Gokcemen
Trading in a costly runway for a lookbook, Glenn Martens marks his ten-year tenure at Y/Project with futuristic designs and fabulous fans, from Charli XCX to Mia Khalifa.
The official, physical shows of fashion weeks aren’t the only place to discover next season’s styles. Staging such a spectacle demands heavy labour and funds which, after producing a collection, can feel insurmountable even for those at the top – like Glenn Martens whose AW24 presentation for Y/project has arrived as a lookbook.
Pivoting from the Paris runway was a practical decision. Aside from being pre-occupied with Diesel, where Glenn’s been director there since 2020, the Belgian designer told Vogue, “Very honestly, we had a cash flow issue… It’s €450,000 EUR for a show, or €450,000 EUR for pre-payment for production and making sure the collection is on time on the sales floor.”
Y/Project unveiled the lookbook on Tuesday, which celebrates a decade of Glenn at the brand’s helm. Removing the frills and theatrics of a catwalk is a testament to the visionary designs which speak for themelseves. Building on Y/Project’s beloved aesthetic identity – statuesque draping, sculptural denim and formalised streetwear – Glenn blew up and distorted silhouettes with more drama. The looks are nevertheless effortless thanks to stiff ruching, grunge touches and deliberately misplaced or misdone fastenings.
Fuelling hype, the lookbook features iconic faces as well as fashion. Among the celebs are musical mega stars Tyga and Charli XCX plus it girl Mia Khalifa, who fearlessly sports a sheer black catsuit. As fans of Y/Project, their organic inclusion is a genuine ode to what Glenn has achieved at the label. The rest of the lookbook’s cast affirms as much, with venerated fashion heads such as editor Camille B Waddington, stylist Ursina Gysi, and designer Xuly Bet model alongside people like Belgian Olympian Élodie Ouédraogoand, the label’s in-house team and Glenn Martens’ father, Martin.
The Y/Project tribe look show-stoppingly unstoppable. Some of our favourite pieces include asymmetric jeans, where waistbands fall to mid-thigh and defy gravity, and chiffon hoods, which offer a delicate contrast to stiffer structures. Arriving in a muted palette of sandy hues, dusty blues, plums and solid black, the lookbook certainly has a Dune vibe to it.
The collection’s fusion of combatant and otherworldly qualities feels right for the times. Glenn is known for masterfully capturing the zeitgeist, which is why he also debuted Y/Project’s collab with Salomon – 2023’s most unassuming it shoe brand. Skipping the haughty affairs and unnamed models of Paris Fashion Week seems appropriate for Y/Project AW24 – a celebration of the earnest creativity which Glenn continues to triumph with.