Glenn Martens to Exit Diesel

Glenn Martens will step down as creative director of Diesel following the denim brand’s fashion show in Milan next week.

Martens, who is also creative director of Maison Margiela, will retain his position at the Parisian house. Both brands are owned by OTB Group. In a statement on Friday announcing the move, Diesel did not say who would take over the creative lead from Martens.

When Martens joined Diesel in 2020, he inherited a brand that had lost much of the cultural relevance it enjoyed in the late 1990s and 2000s, when its distressed denim and distinctive branding made it a must-have among younger consumers. Diesel had attempted several creative revivals, but with mixed results.

The Belgian designer had a mandate to reshape the brand across product and communications and spent his first months sifting through Diesel archives with founder Renzo Rosso seeking characteristics that would give the brand relevance. His first Diesel campaign, “Diesel x Diesel,” mined the late-1980s archive and pushed it into deliberately cheeky, exaggerated territory, offering an early indication of his attempt to make the brand feel contemporary rather than simply nostalgic.

Martens “transformed the way the brand is perceived, forging a strong connection with younger generations and creating a solid foundation for its future,” Renzo Rosso, Diesel’s founder and the chairman of OTB, said on Friday. “He brought Diesel back to the centre of the global fashion conversation while preserving the openness, energy and accessibility that have always distinguished us.”

Under Martens, Diesel also became identified with the designer’s distinctive approach to denim and deliberately provocative imagery. His shows and campaigns pushed the brand beyond its traditional jeans business and back into the fashion conversation, while retaining the accessible positioning that has been central to the brand over the years.

The turnaround also coincided with a broader effort by OTB to strengthen Diesel as one of its core brands. Diesel remains the group’s largest brand by revenue, and Martens was given considerable freedom to reshape its product and image. His departure leaves OTB with the question of how much of the momentum built by Martens can be sustained without the designer at the helm.

The creative change at Diesel comes after OTB earlier this year named Andrea Rigogliosi as the brand’s chief executive. The role had been vacant for almost three years, with Rosso stepping in to oversee the brand.