Glenn Martens announces his departure

Glenn Martens, who has been with Y/Project for over ten years and became creative director in 2013, is leaving the company. The ready-to-wear brand known for its experimental approach and the prolific designer have announced the end of their collaboration in a brief statement. The brand thanks the designer “for his unique contribution,” without giving any further indication of a potential successor or future projects.

It just highlights how Glenn Martens created “a compelling story for the brand, leading to a period of impressive growth, winning both critical acclaim and commercial success,” The announcement is sure to send shockwaves through the fashion world, even if it was a foregone conclusion. 

Since 2020, the Flemish designer, who is also creative director of Italian jeans manufacturer Diesel, has had less and less time to concentrate on Y/Project. At the last Paris Fashion Week, in February, the label’s show was cancelled at the last minute. Glenn Martens’ last show, in October 2023, will live long in the memory, with a breathtaking collection full of inventive constructions and materials. 

This decision comes on the heels of the recent death of Gilles Elalouf, co-founder of the brand with Yohan Serfaty. Glenn Martens pays tribute to him, thanking “Y/Project and Gilles Elalouf, the brand’s late CEO who tragically passed away last June, for giving him the support and freedom to express his vision while developing the creative art established by the label.”

This marks the end of a fundamental chapter for Glenn Martens. The designer joined Y/Project shortly after its launch, becoming Yohan Serfaty’s assistant, a role he took over in 2013 following Serfaty’s death. From the outset, he established himself as one of the most interesting designers on the Paris fashion scene. 

In the space of ten years, he has expanded the brand’s offering from menswear to women’s ready-to-wear and accessories, and above all given it a new creative impetus. His bold creations, with their inventive and unexpected constructions, have made a lasting impression over the last decade, as illustrated by his latest collection for autumn-winter 2024/25, unveiled in a lookbook. In it, he revisited his great classics, from unstructured jackets to trompe-l’œil trousers and corkscrew shapes, all worn by friends and family, as a final tribute to this adventure.

Trained as an interior architect in Bruges, then a graduate of the Royal Academy of Antwerp, Glenn Martens has established himself on the catwalks through his creativity, reinventing a new men’s and women’s wardrobe, working on the themes of architecture, construction, modularity, reversibility and versatility. With Y/Project and his multi-purpose garments that lend themselves to all sorts of possible interpretations, he won the Andam prize in 2017 and 2020.

Deprived of its star designer and its last founder, the house is preparing to face an uncertain future, especially as its financial situation is said to have deteriorated in recent years.