Y/Project: Bold and bizarre braiding with Fila collab

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Jun 27, 2021

All about rouch 'n' roll and berserk braiding at Y/Project this season, where creative director Glenn Martens' big concept for next spring was interweaving strands of fabric.

 
Fresh from presenting his debut collection for Diesel in Italy, Martens unspooled a show video on Sunday at Paris Menswear Week for his experimental fashion house Y/Project where he threaded and interlaced with abandon. 
 
For Spring/ Summer 2021, Y/Project will dress gals in Aran cable-knit sweaters with braided necklines that don’t have defined places to put your neck; in braided jersey cocktails and asymmetrical denim dresses interlaced at the top.

“Clothes where you can choose your own hole to put your head,” laughed Martens in a pre-show Zoom from his Paris home in the edgy Goutte d’Or neighborhood, just behind the Gare du Nord train station.

 
A spiral story –where garments come in multi layers, and every looked had some braiding. Best of all, faded yellow dresses made in layers of crepe and organza with multi-braided necklines and embellished cleavages.
 
Martens even multiplied shoulders, so they looked like an assortment of petals – made from what looked like fake leather, but was actually plastic.
 
His Escher-like zeal to make people study any garment several times to understand its dimensions evident in cardigans that morphed into shirts; or the Dick Turpin highway-man coats deconstructed at the shoulder.

 
“There are so many things going on in a Y/Project collection, I don’t think a show video needs much art direction. So we shot a simple old fashioned video in a movie studio in Brie sur Marne. While they were shooting Asterix and Obelisk next door! There was even an old Chinatown set and and people running around in costumes. A pretty interesting place to shoot,” laughed Martens, dragging on a cigarette.
  
Between Y/Project and his new gig as creative director of Diesel, Martens has been working seven days a week. Yet he still found time for a collab with Italian active sport heritage label Fila.
 
“Fila is huge in Asia and Y/Project is popular there too, so both our consumers loved the idea of this alliance,” said the Belgian designer, who included 20th-anniversary Fila basketball sneakers with writing at angles on the shoes.

 
The result led to about a dozen looks in a show of 75 passages, 
 
Ever investigational, Martens composed several oversized formal Fila jumpsuits; mini cocktails that were part sweater, and exaggerated sweatshirts and double-panel pants with logos inside that were revealed by a pulling a drawstring.
 
Rouch and roll indeed.