Chaos has many names. Subversion. Disruption. Turning the world “on its head”. Doing things the “wrong way” instead of the “right way”...as if the world is that black and white. To Diesel, the world clearly isn’t. Debuting their Fall/Winter 2025 show this past Wednesday, February 26th, at Milano Fashion Week, Diesel brought with them an explosion of color. An amalgamation of organized chaos fit with graffiti and a life-size sculpture of mannequin limbs serving as a viewing chamber for their equally subversive and eye-popping FW 2025 collection. 

This year’s collection, inspired by the mantra “Dare to be Diesel,” features the largest known graffiti installation, meticulously created by creative director Glenn Martens and various international graffiti artists. The installation where the show is held uses over three kilometers of graffiti fabric brought to fruition by a street art collective of approximately 7,000 graffiti artists. Glenn Martens shares his excitement over the accomplishment stating, “I love that thousands of people around the world have worked together to create the set design. We gave the global street art collective complete creative freedom – they expressed themselves each in their own way, on a project that’s taken months to achieve. This is the true democracy of Diesel.”

The final product is a chamber of disruption, diversity, and electrifying stimulation with concept design by Studio Dennis Vanderbroeck. A landscape that perfectly matches the energy of this year’s raw, perfectly imperfect collection, emphasizing the distressing and subversive styling of the pieces. The collection explores versatility within texture, patterns, and layering, with all looks styled by Ursina Gysi. It is clear throughout many garments that this year’s collection is about embracing the adrenaline of risking it all while disregarding pre-conceived fashion and societal constraints. 

The tailoring of some garments is purposefully loose and unconventionally free-flowing, with jeans being held only by adjustable underwear and waistbands as opposed to a conventional belt. Models are seen on the runway styled in clashing patterns and imperfectly layered garments, with high-cut bouclé jackets paired with extremely low-cut skirts, jeans, and pants. Destructive aspects of the looks are represented through raw stitching, distressing, and asymmetrical clashing of materials. No garment is left untouched, as pilled bouclé coats, collarless denim outerwear, extremely puffy jackets worn loosely like shawls, and trompe l’oeil bodysuits worn as tight-knit sweaters reveal themselves on the runway. 

Diesel's promotion of the subversive and destructive extends throughout the show, where every detail mirrors the space and collection’s revitalizing chaos. The models, cast by Establishment NY, are wearing eerie, glossy colored eye-contacts, and some models have hints of graffiti on their faces, as well as bright colors in their hair, with hair courtesy of Gary Gill and makeup courtesy of Inge Grognard for MAC Cosmetics. The show’s attendees, which included Victoria Monét, Lennon Gallagher, and Hoshi, were also treated to an original electronic and synth-based soundtrack composed by Senjan Jansen playing as the models strolled through the graffiti chamber and maneuvered around Diesel’s Guinness-World record-breaking inflatable structure introduced to the world at their SS 23 show. 

Courtesy of Diesel, photography by BFA.

In addition to the many groundbreaking feats of this year’s show, Diesel will also drop a Street Art Capsule Collection on Thursday, February 27th, 2025, which highlights six artists who helped create the show’s graffiti set. This international group of artists includes Roy XR Chen, Ryota Daimon, Farai Engelbrecht, Phree Huster, Brianna Toomer, and Red Longo. Each artist received Diesel pieces of graffiti, which were eventually scanned and printed.