Streetwear is king. Celebrities are the de facto aristocracy of today, with rappers and singers occupying the top ranks pop culture and fashion-wise. Enough with glorified normcore; how about some jeans, hoodies and workwear worthy of royalty?
Glenn Martens sees the moment we’re in clearly and has risen to the challenge with his strange, highly original romantic blur of 18th century and 21st century fashions. It’s made Y/Project one of the most interesting things coming out of the elite Paris “underground” today. By underground, we mean that’s he’s not even below sea level — everyone is watching but there’s no luxury conglomerate contract yet.
After the show, Martens said that he was thinking of Nineties rappers as the royalty. “We have a lot of historic references, like scarves with kings and queens on it, and curlicues and volumes in taffeta and wild silk that have little links to aristocracy as it can be used today,” he said. To that end, he elevated the tracksuit to noble new levels, shrouding a black style in a swirl of tulle, and pairing an elaborately cut ribbed shearling bomber with scrunched sweatpants with embroidered swirls down the legs instead of sporty stripes. Martens does a lot of weird stuff with pants that improbably works, such as wide leg jeans that fall into a madly swirled and scrunched cuff, jeans cut into briefs and waders and track pants with bloused, draw-stringed legs.
You May Also Like
He accentuated the grandeur by styling jackets with hoods up, either drawn tight around the head or framing the face in fur. Flesh was on display in corsets and bodysuits, such as a black thong wrapped in pink tulle, but most of the silhouettes were strikingly full-coverage but not at all prudish. A silvery white beaded hoodie dress and matching track pant ensemble was modest, regal and edgy. It’s tempting to classify the look as casual glamour, the elements born out of everyday items. But there’s was really nothing casual about it. Martens elevates the ordinary. For example, the sweeping, relatively spare white T-shirt gown, slit straight up the thigh, with a green tee draped around the neck like a gym towel was a T-shirt fit for a 2017 queen.