Glenn Martens is named Maison Margiela’s creative director
It’s Martens in Martin. Glenn Martens is the new creative director of Maison Margiela, the company announced today.
“I have been working with Glenn for years, I have witnessed his talent and I know what he is capable of,” said OTB president Renzo Rosso. “After Martin, who gave life to the house and his unique craft line, and John, who made it the most point seam in the world, I am proud to have a third designer at his head. Glenn, who studied Royal Academy in the Fine Arts of Antwerp like Martin, has already shown his prowess and his vision in sewing ”.
Glenn Martens said: “I feel extremely honored to join the incredible Margiela house, a truly unique house that has been inspired by the world for decades. And I thank Renzo for the confidence he puts in me.
The Belgian designer, who will remain the creative director of Diesel, will replace John Galliano, who supervised Margiela between 2014 and last year. Today’s appointment has been highly speculated since Martens left Y / Project in September 2024. He had spent 11 years at the independent label in Paris, which has since closed. His commercial success at Diesel, allied with the irreverent spirit and the brilliance of his work acclaimed by criticism in Y / Project, rightly made him the front of the position to which he was confirmed today .
In a recent Vogue affairs The interview, the founder and president of the OTB, Renzo Rosso, suggested that Martens would be a good choice for the cult luxury house. “Glenn is a designer, not just a designer. Like John Galliano, designers have a different way of design. Each piece has a story to tell, “he said while rumors were swirling on the next chapter of the company.
In the same article, Martens, 41, born in Bruges, responded to rumors on his future by confirming only that he focused on chicken farming. This unconventional attitude (fashionable, not to chickens) synchronizes finely with that of the house whose creative leadership hammers are about to suppose. There are also striking parallels between the career arcs of the reclusive founder of the house and that of its new creative director.
In addition to sharing nationalities, Martin Margiela and Glenn Martens graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Anterp: Margiela in 1979, and Martens in 2008. The two men moved to Paris to continue their careers, and all Two started working for Jean Paul Gaultier: Margiela in 1984 and Martens in 2008. This is where their paths – at least for a while – diverged. Margiela co-founded her eponymous brand in 1988. The next stage of her possible successor there, Martens, was to take the bar in Y / Project in 2013.
