Milan Fashion Week 2023: Diesel show opens against a backdrop of 200,000 condoms

Friends arriving to Diesel’s Milan Vogue Week exhibit on Wednesday may possibly have been shocked by the established: a big mountain of condoms. The Italian model unveiled its Tumble-Wintertime 2023 selection towards a backdrop of above 200,000 Durex bins, nodding to both sexual intercourse positivity and a forthcoming collaboration with the contraceptive business.

“We like to enjoy at Diesel, and we are severe about it,” inventive director Glenn Martens stated in a statement. “Have enjoyable, regard each and every other, be safe.”

Without a doubt, the whole collection explored themes of liberty, enjoyment and experimentation, with versions strutting all over the condom avalanche in ultra-low-rise jeans, denim clothes with sheer meshed lace panels and ripped silk attire held with each other by precarious-looking chains. The accompanying techno soundtrack was interspersed with the audio of explicit moans, reinforcing the message that Martens is out to press boundaries.

A product wearing a silk costume with draped chains on the runway. Credit score: Victor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images

Because becoming artistic director in October 2020, the Belgian designer has steered Diesel — lengthy known for its provocative promoting and luxe jeans aesthetic — towards far more experimental works by using of denim. He has also been playing with upcycling. This selection by yourself featured leftover nylon that was coated with a further sort of plastic and heated, deadstock faux fur painted to seem just about like liquid and biker jackets that were being blow-torched and transformed into structural items.

A glance from Diesel’s Tumble-Winter season 2023 collection. Credit: Victor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Photographs

And, of course, he has designed Diesel’s established design and style some thing of a speaking issue throughout trend week.

In February 2022, at Martens’ publish-pandemic runway return, the label greeted attendees with five inflatables placing a sequence of cheeky poses described by Diesel as “self-assured, exuberant and happy.” Each and every was modeled on a authentic particular person and ranged from all over 25 ft to 55 ft huge. Invites for the present bundled an edible thong produced of red and white candy.

Then, for its Spring-Summer season 2023 presentation previous September, Diesel erected an massive inflatable that acquired a Guinness World File for the world’s premier ever blow-up sculpture. (The label also invited the general public to attend the demonstrate, breaking with manner week’s unique norms to host a whopping 5,000 people today.)

Designs stroll pass the ‘mountain’ of brilliant crimson condom packing containers. Credit score: Victor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Photos

The condom “mountain,” as Diesel described it, made for nevertheless a different viral instant beneath Martens’ path — a move that promotes each the label’s new selection and risk-free sexual intercourse. In maintaining with the theme, invitations were being sent in the variety of Durex packs, when a article-runway push launch introduced that Diesel will be distributing a further 300,000 condoms across its outlets all over the world in April. A person jersey T-shirt viewed on Wednesday’s runway also hinted at what is to come, with the basic Diesel “D” logo swapped for Durex’s “D”.

Major image caption: The Diesel presentation’s established.