Glenn Martens Takes Maison Margiela to Shanghai

22:10And even though we don't have anything really in common, I think aesthetically, but I just think that it was such an amazing, I mean, it's done so many amazing things. Big shoes to step in, but for the moment, everything goes very well. So we're very happy.

22:25Glenn Martens:Yeah, that's such a special thing when you sort of bump up against your icon like that, right? Yeah, my God. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's very humbling. But I think it's motivating because you want to honor them also. You want to also make sure that your legacy is honoring all the work that they have done and that your legacy is at the same level and that they also look... And you don't want to copy them because it's your turn. It's your moment to bring a different way of looking at this house. but you want to celebrate them and respect them. So, voila. Voila. So, this is the first traveling show for you.

23:06Glenn Martens:And what are the challenges of doing something like that? Traveling shows have become quite popular in fashion, I think, you know, over the last 10 years. I mean, challenges for me, I don't think we have that many challenges because we're really proud of how we're doing it because we're really, it's not a traveling show. It's really like we are deciding that the headquarters of Margiela will for three weeks be in China. And the production is there, everything is there, the casting is there. It's not just doing it like saying hi and bye. I think for me, the most important thing is, of course, I mean, when you understand that your global brands, Magella is a global brand, is loved all over the world.

23:41I think it's very important to understand who you're talking to and who you're engaging with and to understand the needs of everybody. I don't think it's, in my personal opinion, But I don't think like working from your little Parisian bubble is relevant when you're global brands. So for me, it's always extremely fascinating. And I've always loved traveling around and listening and talking and seeing what they love, for what reason people love what. The challenge that we have is just to make sure that I just hope everybody has fun. That's really. But I think we will. It's a very playful company.

24:16Glenn Martens:So do I have this right that simultaneous with this like 21-day road trip, you're also doing something online where you're sort of putting folders up and they're open to the public and people can access all sorts of Margiela information? It's part of this transparency policy that we're trying to play with and present a little bit. And I think, of course, it's a bit linked to what I said earlier. I think Maison Magella is the most plundered house in Paris or in Europe. It's completely plundered. And, of course, a lot of people don't understand that this is part of the codes of the brands, which were here way before me.

24:54So with China, we also enjoyed that moment to actually do a global, a little bit like, yeah, it's cool, let's say. It's a global little workshop. And, yeah, we decided to bring out the Magella folders, which is, first of all, that talks about the archive. So all the stories you're going to see on the runway or in exhibitions also represented inside the folders with the archive of Martin and John. On top of that also, we have the whole process of working. So I think it's quite nice for people in industry which maybe don't understand so well how things happen to see what is the casting, what's the planning, how much time does it take to do fittings.

25:33Now we're going there, now we're going there. So you can actually really follow up every single step of the whole team and understand what's happening behind such a massive project because it's not just the creator director coming and doing some magic sticks. It's an army of people working together, building something together. And it's really like we Margiela. And I think it's quite nice to, I feel also part of the whole policy of the brand. I mean, I should not be here talking to you because I've always said since day one that I don't want to be the spokesperson for this house because it's really about the clothes.

26:05It's not about the people. Of course, it is because it's you and I respect you a lot. And I couldn't say no. But yeah, it's definitely important for, I think, for the world to understand that this Shanghai show is not creative director kind of moment. This is like a global brand moment. This is all us. This is about clothes, about love for fashion, about the passion for the house. And yeah, to be very transparent on that. It's interesting.

26:32Glenn Martens:The Bianchetto part of the project, I think, really taps into that idea that we, Margiela, can you explain what's happening? Because it sounds very cool and I hope you bring it to New York City someday. I think we will because we were very proud of it. It was very exciting. So basically, I hope it works out, though. We have to test it out. But basically, we are privatizing like a huge badminton aula. Like I think, I don't know how many fields there are. It looks like two football fields together. and plays an army of mannequins, Stockman mannequins. And I think each time there's like around 500 maybe kids who can, kids or people, whatever, who can come, put their garments on the mannequins and then together with the whole team, we're doing a Bianchetto workshop.

27:18So we're all painting those jackets and the pants and whatever. And then there's a drawing moments, ceremony also around it. And then we stamp it, give it four stitches because there are official Magella items because they've done with the Magella team. And so everybody can come home with this artisanally made Bianchetto brand at Margiela Armand. So I think it's quite amazing. It's quite fun. I think we're expecting to see paint fly around. Yes, yes.

27:43Glenn Martens:And it'll be so interesting to see what people bring. Are they bringing vintage Margiela? Are they bringing some other competitive Paris label? It would be kind of cute, actually. I'm always laughing with the idea that they bring some competitive brands and then just stamp Margiela on top of it. But yeah, it's up to them. They have the full freedom. they can turn anything into Magella. And that's the beauty of it. I mean, everything can become Magella. So in China, what do you want to do besides your job? What is on your agenda? You'll be there for quite a long time. That is a very good, because obviously we're going to be there for three weeks.

28:17So we need to, I mean, it's going to be a lot of work and fun, but I mean, I'm a little bit of a geek.

28:21Glenn Martens:Because I ask because you are a big adventurer, like I've seen on your Instagram. You like to go sort of as remote as possible. So where are you going to go in China? It depends. I have a double thing. I think I like to go camping for like two weeks in the north of Norway and sleep in the wild. As I also am very, I love history. I'm very, a bit of a history geek. So obviously I won't have a time I guess to go to the Chinese mountains or some kind of desert where the planning is quite intense. But I've never been to Beijing, I've never seen the Forbidden City, I've never seen the Great Wall. So hopefully we're gonna, I think we're gonna have some time to do those kind of things and see some pandas with a bit of luck.

29:05Glenn Martens:Don't make Murphy jealous. No, it's going to be painful not to see him for three weeks, but okay. He's got to become a big boy.

29:16Glenn Martens:We're going to take a quick break.

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30:44Glenn Martens:so you are uh one of the busiest men in fashion you are running two uh two brands or creative directing two brands right now margiela and diesel so i think that's a really hard hard thing to do manage two brands how do you get it done how do you divide your time how do you split your brain? But I'm also very lucky because I think both brands are quite alternative to the industry. I think Magella by Core, of course, is a luxury brand, but it's so independent that there's no, I don't feel any kind of competition. So I don't have that weight of the game of fighting against somebody else because we're really unconventional.

31:20We're really independent. Diesel is exactly the same. It's like, it's alternative to the luxury market also because it's a lifestyle brand. We maybe show in Milan, but we are all about denims and t-shirts and sweaters. So it's really about attitude more than actually fashion. It's about be cheeky and successful living. So the whole kind of weight of competition is not there, which helps a lot. Then secondly, I think we're very blessed. The teams feel really friendly. We really enjoy a lot. I mean, a diesel, of course, a bit more than a Magela because Magela is way more serious. But diesel is really about party and fun and drinks.

32:00So I think it never really feels like going to the office. And then I think the biggest secret is for me to really get away in the weekends. I mean, like just like go to the countryside with the dog and dig holes to plant trees.

32:14Glenn Martens:Yes, 40 trees or something like that? Last weekend, yeah, I had to, yeah, I shipped 40 grown-up trees to my countryside house and I was digging them myself. I saw the footage. You rented a bulldozer or something? I bought a bulldozer for my Christmas. Oh, my God. Yeah, it was my own Christmas present. I have like a little, I don't know, you call it the bulldozer, like the thing who digs holes. Yeah. I felt like a proper boy. My nephews would know. I don't know. Mine too. It's really like you really feel like a boy. I never thought I would become that kind of person, but it's really addictive. But that house or that kind of countryside moment really gives you a lot of calm.

32:49And I think that's really the thing, the power of being work. I mean, I'm a workaholic and I love my work and I have no problem. But I think sometimes to be able to completely cut off is really my discovery for a clean brain. And of course, cutting trees definitely makes you not think about something else. It's too intense.

33:11Glenn Martens:So watching this Paris Fashion Week unfold, you sort of addressed this at the beginning, but are you missing it at all? I do. I mean, actually the nice thing, to be frankly honest, I mean, of course I'm missing it. The nicest thing that I discovered though is that as you don't have a show, You don't have the late nighters with the models fittings or whatever. So I'm having like Paris Fashion Week dinners every night and I have time to see you guys coming over. I'm not that stressed. I mean, like when you came, of course, you came like a few days ago. I was busy, but I was not like crying either.

33:41Actually, also quite nice because I really have time to actually socialize and mingle and meet people, which I normally wouldn't do. But yeah, we're going to be back in September. I mean, like it's unless my CEO has another idea of going somewhere else. But I think it's nice to, I mean, we also, I mean, we are a global house for sure, but the founding and we started in Paris and it's very much linked to Paris. So I think it's quite important to be here and to show in Paris.

34:10Glenn Martens:This has been such a big time of change. I think you were part of a group of something like 15 or 16 designers who sort of started refreshing these heritage labels. what do you see when you look around at your generation well um it was really impressive no i don't think in history that happens no i mean i think it's completely unprecedented but i think it happened just organically i don't know why it happened like this but yeah no i think what i what i i mean i hope just people enjoy it because it's further a bit like the hunger games you know like it's um also to be very honest of course um and it's not a critique but of course 2026 is really We have to play also the game of social media and we have to play the game of what's happening outside of the classic part of people of the industry.

34:59People like you, of course, know about fashion and have studied it and have seen it. So, of course, when we receive reviews from you, I really know it comes from somewhere and I take it serious. But you also have this whole new generation of people which are entitled to also give critics through social media. and maybe have way more followers than you and me have together. And maybe you're not so educated about the brands and they don't know so much about it because they may be too young and they weren't born when those days were happening. And that can have, those critiques also can have actually as intensive backlash on your work.

35:40That's, I think, also one of the reasons why we did the Magela Folders, to really claim who we are and teach people what we've done in the past. but I know that actually yeah between me and my colleagues this is it's it's a very different era for sure it's really like um it's uh it's not always purely about the creativity um and um so I know it brings a lot of stress so I just really hope that all all my friends are enjoying it because at the end of the day I think fashion is really that no that's the reason why we started fashion is because it brings joy and I think that's I mean if it's like a sexy diesel denim which like lifts your ass and makes you look hot, great.

36:16But if it's like an amazing artisanal collection which brings you away from your reality and you dream away, that's the other way. But what they all have in common is that it brings joy and happiness. And I think that's what we should try to do.

36:31Glenn Martens:Well, let's talk about your Diesel show last week in Milan because I think it did bring us in the audience a lot of joy. We walked into this enormous space and where you've shown before and done just as impressive installations. But this time it was, the number I heard was like 50 ,000. I think it was 500 ,000 actually. 500 ,000. I think it was a mistake somewhere in the marketing was 500 ,000. So tell us how all of those, everything was chosen. I mean, I was sitting in front of a piece of an inflatable raft with a piece of pizza on it. The pizza was added at the end. I have to say. That wasn't, you weren't storing that from some long lost show or collection.

37:15But like a little cherry on the cake. But yeah, no, the idea is, of course, with Diesel, we always try to play this a bit alternative also, because obviously we are a part of the Milan Fashion Week. So we're next to Prada and Bottega, all these beautiful brands. But we actually are very different because we are lifestyle and we are denim and things. So that doesn't mean that we don't belong there, because I think when we do clothes, especially treatments, they are so developed. They have a take, they are part of fashion. So yeah, bringing, I think within this fashion week, I always try to find sets or ways how to explain what we do with a little twist.

37:47Diesel has always been a brand that has thrived on partying way before me. And Diesel is actually, thanks to Renzo Ross, so I think it's a brand which has kept a lot of their memorabilia. The archive of 45 years of Diesel is exploding. It's like a three-story high building full of t-shirts and denims or whatever. But they also have in the set a lot of memorabilia from shop experiences and openings and raves and birthday parties. So instead of letting them all get dust there, we decided to take them out and actually celebrate the past and all those years of partying. So it was an ocean of party memorabilia from 1978 till 2026.

38:29And the models were kind of like finding their ways through it.

38:32Glenn Martens:There was a plushy pig who was lying down in a bed. He had clearly had a very exciting night too. And he was dead still for the whole show. And then he started to turn his head. And then we couldn't take our eyes off of him. He only was allowed to move at the finale. But that was a bit like I wanted to freak you guys out a bit because I was thinking like, they're all there for like 15 minutes watching this installation and this, yeah, Prusche bear, a pig. And I thought I was kind of cute at a certain point, they would come alive. And so I hope it worked. We were totally charmed. It worked. But yeah, I was like four, there were four different pigs because in each side of the venue, there was a pig.

39:19So it was four lovely Italian men who had to chill for like 20 minutes. Sweat. Sweat.

39:27Glenn Martens:You mean sweat, not chill. For that chill. But they didn't complain. They were really like just there laying it. It was kind of cute. Yeah, yeah. So we should also speak briefly about Y Project because that is the brand, your tenure there, where you put yourself on the fashion map. And I actually felt like I saw a little bit some Y Project-isms in that Diesel show, especially the sweaters that were all sort of rumbled up and misbuttoned at the beginning. But tell us about Y Project. Y-Project, of course, was my baby. It was such an amazing time, 12 years, because I really grew and became the designer I am through Y-Project.

40:08And everything there was also about experimentation. It's really a brand which started from playing with wearability. Nothing was really supposed to be worn the way how you wear it. It was a brand which was really talking about individuality, so we didn't believe in this kind of army effect. As everything was twistable and there was Ys and everything, and everything, there's no way you could actually wear the item the same way as you start on the runway. Even me, I couldn't start it the exact same way because it just had an life in itself. And I was really trying to celebrate individuality. I think it really became big.

40:43We grew in a time of logomania where all those brands, luxury or not, were just putting big logos everywhere. And we decided to do the opposite. So we were really hoping that our customers would actually look at themselves in the mirror and really have that reflection of like, who am I? How do I want to be perceived? And I think clothes can really change so much. That's why I'm wearing a Margiela blouse blanche. You know, like, I mean, everybody in this brand is wearing a blouse blanche because it's part of the tradition, but it's also part of like trying to take away who you are to become like more neutral.

41:13And so we all work together at the same level. But yeah, if I would wear a crazy Y project item, I would definitely be the center point of the attention. So, I mean, like clothes can so much alterate your perception. I think it was an amazing time. And I think it closed down two years ago because my business partner passed away, Gilles, and so the founder and the CEO. And the family didn't feel like continuing it. And that was quite fine, to be honest. I think it was, of course, a very painful moment because, of course, you lose your best friend and your partner in crime. But yeah, we all got over it.

41:49And I think it was beautiful. We celebrated well. and thanks to all of those crazy things we've done together there, I managed to end up at Magella. Yes, here you are. I don't think I would have gotten this job doing nice silk little flower dresses. I mean, I think it's also Renzo was really impressed by the way how I... We all were.

42:10Glenn Martens:Is it true that you had an eponymous brand that was called Glen Martins before our project? Very in the beginning, yeah, yeah. I mean, from the very beginning, I really knew I was going to be a very, very bad assistant. so that was quite clear I'm very stubborn I'm like I always know things better it's very annoying to be around me but so yeah so I was like okay I'm not going to be able to work in this industry inside of a house in a more classic way so I quite knew it was not going to be a success but I also thought that if it's not a success maybe it's going to be a portfolio and it's thanks to that portfolio I became the creative director of Y Project and then was at Y Project and then thanks to the Y Project portfolio, I became a director of Diesel and now I'm here.

42:54Glenn Martens:Do you have ambitions to have your own eponymous label again ever? Not at all. I really don't care. I really think it's really about the beauty of work and the team spirit and of course being able to make products that you really enjoy doing. The nice thing now being 42 is that I'm young but I'm also old enough to have said like I did a lot and I have an amazing platform which is Magela where I can really do all the crazy experimentations, but I also just indeed loved making an organic t-shirt, a Diesel Day Organic with a logo. And I think that's where it stops really. It's really about the work and the product and making people happy.

43:30If it's under my name or anybody's name, I really don't care. So it's, yeah, it's about work.

43:37Glenn Martens:All right. Well, we're going to let you back to work, but one more question we have to know. Does Murphy have his own white lab coat? He does. I think we should get it out though. I mean, I was quite curious.

43:50So basically on his birthday, January 6th, I was in my office doing some kind of meeting and my assistant comes in like, SOS, Glenn, SOS. And I'm like, what's happening? You have to come to this meeting room in this office here. So I'm coming there. Murphy always follows me. And the whole studio had a surprise birthday party for him. So he had his first, I mean, I'm 42, never had a surprise birthday party. This little buddy has like year one. he had it and they had made secretly when I was doing other things they had made a little lab coat for him so he's part of the family but he officially hates it he's not really into clothes he's a wild boy he likes to he likes to but there it is we're gonna try to put that on with all the love and passion no but it's really amazing it's really I do think it's also why I'm I'm quite more peaceful I think the moment in the evening you're just like with buddy you forget about work completely oh yeah you don't like this no you don't like this

44:47Glenn Martens:He's got a little grimace on. Look at you. Oh, isn't that perfect? Apparently I had two fittings. I don't know. I really, I wasn't aware of it. Well, Glenn and Murphy, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. Thank you so much for coming and meeting us in Paris.

45:12The Run Through with Vogue is produced by Chelsea Daniel Alex De Palma and Alex John Burns with help from Emily Elias The show is engineered by Brand Bandi and mixed by Mike Kuchman Bye

45:34From PRX Thank you.