Diesel’s “Sex Positive” A)W´23 Show

Diesel’s provocative autumn/winter 2023 show at Milan Fashion Week saw guests being sent a box of condoms as their invitations – oh, and a mountain of 200,000 additional boxes on the runway. Below, Vogue’s fashion critic Anders Christian Madsen shares his key takeaways from the collection.

The venue was filled with condoms

At the centre of Diesel’s warehouse venue was a big red mountain of condoms – 200,000 boxes to be exact. A box had been sent to every guest in the post along with our seat number. “Sex positivity is something amazing. We like to play at Diesel, and we are serious about it. Have fun, respect each other, be safe,” creative director Glenn Martens said. The set design heralded a collaboration with Durex in the shape of a capsule collection, which launches this April.

It was all about techniques

Martens’s safe sex theme came with a soundtrack that sampled the panting of porn films, but apart from the usual sex appeal this wasn’t a sex-centric Diesel collection. Rather, it continued the demonstration of techniques and intricacy Martens has been exploring since taking the reins of the brand in 2020. They range from ripping to glazing but all have the same effects in common: degeneration, deterioration and erosion.

Martens made a case for denim devoré

The show opened with a series of dresses, skirts and jeans crafted in denim devoré, which left some denim patched intact and other parts of the garments transparent. It looked as if you’d covered the body in a giant sticker you could only partly peel off. Martens expanded the effect in a diamanté column dress, which cemented the riches-to-rags premise of the collection.

It was savoir-faire for a new generation

With his denim devoré firmly imprinted on the runway, Martens opened the floodgates of techniques: a sheer dress was flocked with the memory of jeans, a knitted dress unraveled into fluff as if it had been picked, and the trains of gowns deteriorated behind them. For the generations Martens designs for, the look of “Successful Living” – as is Diesel’s slogan – is now entirely deceiving.

It featured teeth and lip prints

Some of Martens’s more graphic pieces included repurposed deadstock faux fur coats trapped inside plastic shells, smocked glazed coats that resembled slime, and textures so stiff they must have been hand-painted. Towards the end of the show, he sent out a series of lip and teeth prints that – the massive pile of condoms in the room considered – felt pretty suggestive.