No one does denim quite like Diesel and this season, the brand’s fabric of choice built the foundation of the show space as fifteen tonnes of denim scraps lay underfoot on the runway. The opulent setting wasn’t just to keep on theme either, each and every shred of denim will be reused or repurposed, reiterated by creative director Glenn Martens in the SS25 show notes, “There is beauty in waste, in what is distressed and destroyed. It’s in the circularity of denim waste, and into the distressing that we build into the collection. This is the disruption of Diesel: we are pushing for circularity in our production as hard as we push the elevation of design.”

Building on notions of regeneration, many of the 70-plus looks this season focused heavily on distressing as fringing hung from the hems of slip dresses, jeans were characteristically dishevelled, and garments arrived in a devoré jacquard where the cotton was burnt away from the tulle beneath. Coats were made entirely from leftover spools of denim thread, jersey tanks were printed with traditional Prince of Wales checks and archival Diesel bandana prints were knotted across various pieces throughout the collection. Classic form-fitting silhouettes were elevated with shredding or embossed with the impression of an overload of necklaces while double loom knits hung close to the body. As models descended on the runway for the finale – eerie contact lenses in tow – Martens’ vision for SS25 was cemented, echoed in the show’s opening soundtrack of an AI voice repeating “Diesel is Denim.”