ModeaParis: Y/Project FW 2015 offered an interesting collection on the very first day of Paris fashion week, but only the BDMOTP photographer was able to make it, undersigned staff writer on a different assignment. We were nevertheless able to obtain the press release from the show and it appears that the menswear designer for the brand is currently (since 2013) Glenn Martens, from Belgium, who is also known for having worked with H & M, and notably with Jean-Paul Gaultier on G2 (menswear Gaultier 2).  Martens’ signature is the use of new tech materials which are graphically tailored and cut into forms and shapes of structural, almost architectural, elegance.

When you look at the images below you will be able to clearly distinguish the look, feel, and style that makes the Y/Project collection Martens’ own. First look at the materials used and you will notice advanced and unconventional things like vinyl and synthetics woven into structures. This is the first thing to look at because it gives a feel for what the designer is trying to say about the age in which we live.  Secondly look carefully at the different types of cuts and you notice that many of the pants and trousers are baggy, the shirts and jackets traditional, and some of the coats rather retro, which reinforces the collection’s impression of rather post-modern and contemporary, especially in the light of blending the male and female form which we so often see today on the runways.  Except the coats and their retro cut, all of this could have been worn by women today. Then move on to the colors, and you notice that the entire collection stays on the winter-ish spectrum, with hues of blue, grey, and beige except for the one blatantly colored space odyssey red creation which is most certainly put in there to emphasize the modest colors of the rest.

The crowd almost seems to blend in on the background, they look like a Seattle Washington Sunday afternoon Starbucks crowd sheltering from the cold outside, but taking style points from the latest and greatest collection. If there is one to be made it is perhaps that Martens succeeded into making the casual look very fashionable and interesting: It’s clearly that contrasting mix of synthetic materials cut into the more traditional shapes that makes for this outstanding look, and the colors and patterns are just a bit off accordingly. Wickedly there is one picture with a cobalt blue trench coat on vinyl black pants and black platform shoes while the model is sporting a red choker – he seems to match the denim blue of the bearded guy sitting on the right watching him who sports a blue denim baseball hat with a red cap. Your style Y/Project à la Martens has come full circle at your local Starbucks.

Posted by Sandro Joo and photos by Franz Kennedy.