Is Diesel finally making a comeback?

‘It was one of those brands that was my first young adult love stories,’ he says, smoking cigarettes like un vrai Parisien as he zooms in from the French capital. ‘So there’s an emotional factor with Diesel. It’s a brand I grew up with. It was huge. Honestly, it was the sexiest thing in my teenage time. It was the very first brand I consciously bought. I was 16 or 17 and I was bartending, and I saved money to get some Diesel denim. Also Y/Project is very eclectic, independent and we stay away from the hype. Diesel is the same. It’s not luxury. It’s not mainstream. It’s in this grey zone where everything is possible. I feel quite privileged that both companies I work for have a very independent status.’

Martens will carry on creating a more luxury product at Y/Project, making ‘the most crazy, ridiculous, artistic, conceptual expressions’, so Diesel is his opportunity to design more democratically, with the price range moving from £10 for socks to more than £1,000 for leather jackets. ‘You’re talking to people all over the world. It doesn’t matter your background, religion, sexuality, country, how much money you make — Diesel has a place in any household,’ he says. ‘I’ll be more of a social designer, which is really exciting, because you have the power to do something, and that comes with some responsibility.’

Today, brand relevance is as much about ethics as it is aesthetics, and to Diesel’s credit, it did activism decades before the current trend. As much as the brand was adored for its jeans, it was celebrated for thought-provoking ‘shockvertising’ in the vein of fellow Italians, Benetton. The adverts, made in partnership with Swedish ad agency Paradiset DDB, tackled issues around politics, religion, global warming, sexuality and race. ‘They were one of the first brands to talk about minority and gay rights. They’ve always been very engaged,’ says Martens, referring to campaigns that challenged all-white casting and had two gay sailors kissing.

A responsibility that Martens will face that other Diesel designers didn’t when they were pumping out fast fashion 20 years ago is the environment. ‘The battle in 2021 that maybe wasn’t there in the Nineties as much is, of course, sustainability,’ he says. With Diesel: Library, a new range of evergreen denim pieces, he has already revisited the supply chain in only six months. ‘We managed to completely ensure that these garments, which make up 40 per cent of our turnover at the end of the day, are sustainable. In any other kind of company that would have taken two years of meetings, but with Diesel, I could do it straight away.’

To make denim less polluting, he is working with factories to ensure cotton is ozone-treated (to use less water), avoid chemicals and use sustainable or recycled trimming. He also points out that many of us wear a pair of jeans for much longer than most other items. ‘Denim is very sustainable because it’s a very long-lasting material. If you have a good pair of denim, you’ll wear them forever.’

Martens wants to take sustainability and circularity to the masses and is frank about how they’re often issues for the privileged few. ‘My mother was a single mother raising my brother and me. She was a full-time nurse, then on the weekends, a cleaning lady just to make money for us to survive. Of course, she didn’t give a f*** about recycling. There are many people who are in the same place but I hope Diesel will be part of a whole group of people who are helping to raise awareness.’

Martens wants to take Diesel beyond its ecological and activist credentials and make it a ‘fun, active, sexy brand’. He takes a final puff of his cigarette. ‘Diesel owns a kind of street culture language and I can just push it more, make it more experimental. Diesel brought a lot of joy and that’s the most important part. That’s how I like to design and how I like to wear my clothes: to enjoy.’