DIESEL SS24
Unperturbed by the downpour, Diesel's Milan Fashion Week outdoor extravaganza unfolded featuring a sprawling 150-foot scarlet runway accentuated by pulsating techno beats and colossal digital screens. Counting over 5,000 attendees, Diesel's Spring/Summer 2024 collection was the pretext to celebrate a collective ritual.
Further democratizing Diesel's enchantment, Glenn Martens generously offered thousands of tickets through a lottery system, granting fortunate fashion enthusiasts access to the brand's enchanting world. The SS24 collection, comprising 73 distinctive looks, showcased Diesel's unapologetic penchant for shredded denim aesthetics. Senjan Jansen's electrifying soundscapes imbued the atmosphere with a vibrant, almost rave-like energy, uniting attendees in celebration.
Unperturbed by the downpour, models strutted confidently in bleached T-shirts paired with distressed grey bottoms, their movements revealing glimpses of skin through artful tears. Discolored anoraks and knitted tank tops bore faux wear-and-tear white splotches, while V-neck dresses and oversized cardigans were meticulously deconstructed. In a totalizing storytelling effort, the garments were a testament and an anticipation of the aftershow rave party. Times come from the future.
Martens artfully evolved Diesel's youthful streetwear into looks infused with a gritty realism, reminiscent of the everyday reveler's attire. High-impact graphic tees resembled audacious movie posters, while models donned full silver ensembles as if from a distant cosmos. Diesel's daring leather pieces, adorned with incendiary "D" graphics obscured in smoke, ignited the runway. The grand finale featured a dazzling array of golden costumes, with plastic-like tops, skirts, and bodycon dresses sensually embracing the contours of the human form.
And for as much abused this proposition has become, it still retains a radical value: make kin, not babies. Building a habitat coextensive with your bonds, turning a space into a community, is an intrinsically political act. Beyond the surface, or maybe mapping the surface as dance floor space, for SS24 Diesel goes political: if a community is a shared narrative, a common process of worldbuilding (which doesn’t mean pure coincidence nor does it require a unique mythology), then a rave can be the rhythm of this narration.
photography & 3D scans DONALD GJOKA
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