MILAN — Diesel will once again open the doors of its runway show during the upcoming edition of Milan Fashion Week, WWD has learned.
After opening the spring 2023 show to the public last year, the brand will repeat the successful format that attracted thousands of attendees on Sept. 20, when it will parade its spring 2024 collection. Conversely to its usual lunchtime slot, this season the brand will stage the coed show at 9 p.m. CET at the Scalo Farini location.
Through an online registration process opening on Sept. 6 on diesel.com, anyone will be able to access tickets to attend the show live on a first come, first serve basis. The event will also be livestreamed on the brand’s digital channels.
The move is in sync with Diesel’s inclusive ethos and its creative director Glenn Martens’ commitment to engage with a large and diverse audience. Since joining Diesel in 2020, Martens has repositioned the brand and catapulted it back onto the hype radar by dusting off its straightforward and fun attitude, revamping experimentation and creatively hammering on a threefold focus on denim in all forms, utilitarian inflections and MTV-heyday pop aesthetics.
Most recently, the Belgian designer unveiled the new Diesel flagship store on Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris, a city he considers his hometown having moved there at the beginning of his career to work for Jean Paul Gaultier and subsequently take on the creative direction of French label Y/Project.
Diesel — which is the flagship label of Renzo Rosso’s OTB fashion conglomerate that also controls Marni, Maison Margiela, Jil Sander and Viktor & Rolf, among others — is not the first to have revealed plans for the upcoming Milan Fashion Week, which is to run Sept. 19 to 25.
While the Italian fashion chamber has not released the official schedule yet, Moschino said it will celebrate its 40th anniversary with a special runway show on Sept. 21. For the occasion, stylists Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele, Katie Grand, Gabriella Karefa-Johnson and Lucia Liu have been called upon to spearhead this season’s collection. Each will create 10 contemporary looks inspired by the works of the brand’s late founder Franco Moschino.
As reported, the same day Fiorucci will return to the Milan schedule and present 15 looks that will kick off its new course after the company relocated to Italy under new owner Dona Bertarelli, new chief executive officer — and former Diesel executive — Alessandro Pisani and new creative director Francesca Murri.
The upcoming edition of Milan Fashion Week will be rich in debuts, including the much-anticipated one of Sabato De Sarno at the creative helm of Gucci after the exit of Alessandro Michele last November; Peter Hawkings’ first womenswear collection as creative director of Tom Ford, a brand he has been with for 17 years, and the debut of Gucci alum Simone Bellotti as new design director of Bally, following the exit of Rhuigi Villaseñor earlier this year. Dates for these shows have not been officially disclosed.