An all-new episode of The Most podcast is here & we’ll get through these trying times together. This week, Dominique spends time with the wonderful Glenn Martens, Creative Director of Y/Project, who represents the best of Belgium on the global stage. His award-winning designs are coveted for their innate innovation, their refusal to be anything less than extraordinary. Martens has completed a whirlwind hike to the award-winning position he holds today and freely shares memories, learned lessons, struggles, strokes of luck and victories with an unflappable sense of humour - always. His effervescent, transformative, ‘multiple-personality’ fashion is widely acclaimed now, but when Martens took on the role of Creative Director after honing his craft with greats like Jean Paul Gaultier and Bruno Pieters, Y/Project was a brand in mourning. Carefully guiding his team through a period of transitioning, he took the label from a tiny studio that wasn’t equipped to make shirt collars to being worn and supported by global icons like Rihanna, Solange & Beyoncé and scaled the brand from a dozen of stores to 150 points of sales worldwide. From early days to future dreams, Dominique and Glenn Martens get into it.
First, Dominique shares the story of how this conversation came to be:
“I had been wanting to invite Glenn Martens on the show for a while. He was on one of these little The Most-lists I keep, but I hadn’t reached out yet. And then I got news that he was going to give a public lecture for the Maarten Van Severen Foundation in here Belgium. And I thought: I need to buy tickets. And then David Flamée from MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp reached out and said: “Hey Dominique – we are supporting this event and I got tickets for you if you want them." I gratefully accepted but didn’t say anything about an interview. Sometimes it just be like that. But I wrote in my journal: I really want to interview Glenn Martens. And two days later: I received another mail. This time from Marij De Brabandere, the co-founder of the Maarten Van Severen Foundation and Maarten Van Severen’s widow, who was organising the lecture together with KASK Gent School of Arts. Maarten Van Severen was Belgium’s most prolific furniture and interior designer. He created gorgeous furniture that is still influential and being produced to this day. He worked alongside architect Rem Koolhaas for a long time. You should look up his work and life. Anyway, Marij’s mail read: "I am looking for someone to introduce Glenn Martens at the lecture. I reached out to Walter Van Beirendonck for recommendations. He recommends you.” Life gets so crazy sometimes, right? So I replied to Marij that I was honored and of course would do it. Then Glenn Martens himself reached out to me and said that instead of him doing a lecture, he would rather have me interview him on stage. I mentioned the podcast and asked if we could do another interview and get to know each other before the event. Glenn said: "Of course." And that’s how I ended up getting not one but two interviews.”
Just press play below:
