Mood board: There’s something liberating about the lavish. There’s escapism in opulence. Glenn Martens took the creative helm of Y/Project in 2013. In recent seasons he has steered his label away from the confines of ultra-cool streetwear into something more magnificent, haute couture-inspired and dramatic. Young designers today are not to be defined by one passing trend. Looks are bold. Decades are mashed up. Silhouettes are tongue-in-cheek. Y/Project’s A/W 2019 collection includes dreamlike medieval dresses, 1980s denim hotpants, spliced and diced 1940s fur coats, and a final section of hilariously hyperbolic evening gowns. A Renaissance faux fur, faux leather pleated dress and a body swathing meringue-like ball gown.
Finishing touches: Y/Project’s gaiter-like boots have become an accessory signature. Only emphasised by the brand’s 2018 collaboration with Ugg on huge shearling-lined waders. For A/W 2019, these were imagined in leather, and had both a swashbuckling and equestrian élan.
Best in show: Building up a strong set of accessories is an essential for a blossoming brand. Often bags, shoes and jewellery are the commercial bread and butter of a fashion label. Y/Project’s hyperbolic catwalk jewellery is gaining momentum, and offers a deliciously ironic comment on how these pieces vye for attention on the runway. For A/W 2019, styles were huge. Shards of coloured glass or hammered metal twisting around the ear lobe, bold chokers formed from the figures of nude women, huge spirals of metal, dangling from the ear towards the décolletage.
Y/Project A/W 2019.
Y/Project A/W 2019.
Y/Project A/W 2019.
Y/Project A/W 2019.
-
Naim Audio builds out-of-this-world music systems. Wallpaper* has had a listenBritish manufacturer Naim is renowned for its hand-built systems and extreme commitment to quality, as well as its long-standing partnership with Bentley. We visited Naim’s Wiltshire factory to see where the magic is made
-
Paris Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2026: live updates from the Wallpaper* teamFrom 24-29 June, Paris Fashion Week Men’s arrives in the French capital. Follow along for a first look at the shows, presentations and other fashion happenings, as seen by the Wallpaper* editors
-
Kengo Kuma’s ‘Paper Clouds’ in London is a ‘poem’ celebrating washi paper in construction‘Paper Clouds’, an installation by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, is a poetic design that furthers research into the use of washi paper in construction
-
Paris Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2026: live updates from the Wallpaper* team
From 24-29 June, Paris Fashion Week Men’s arrives in the French capital. Follow along for a first look at the shows, presentations and other fashion happenings, as seen by the Wallpaper* editors
-
What the Wallpaper* editors are looking forward to at Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2026As Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2026 begins in Florence, the Wallpaper* style team select the moments they will be looking out for – from Jonathan Anderson’s anticipated Dior debut to outings from Wales Bonner, Kiko Kostadinov and Prada
-
This monumental Valentino book is a true Italian fashion epicSpanning oral testimony, sketches and magazine spreads, ‘Valentino: A Grand Italian Epic’ (published by Taschen) charts the career of Valentino Garavani, whose mononymous Roman house would define a vision of Italian glamour
-
Donna Trope celebrates the power of the Polaroid in Paris‘Polaroids used to be my rejects, and now they are my holy grail,’ says the beauty photographer, as she shows rarely seen images in a Paris exhibition
-
‘Don’t forget to get the bread!’ Serge Lutens writes an ode to a singular perfumePublished exclusively by Wallpaper*, Serge Lutens writes an ode to Jeux de Peau, a singular perfume of his creation inspired by a childhood memory of baking bread
-
Inside the new Fondazione Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti in Rome, which opens with an ode to ‘Valentino Red’Wallpaper* gets a private tour of the new Roman institution, PM23, which opens with an exhibition of ‘dialogues’ between Valentino Garavani’s designs and a catalogue of red-hued contemporary art
-
Inside Valentino’s intimate New York ‘listening room’, designed with TerraformaUniting with Italian collective Terraforma, Valentino continues the phenomenon of the ‘listening room’ with L’Atelier Sonore, a plush new space in its Madison Avenue store complete with an eclectic sonic programme for vinyl aficionados
-
What did Christian Dior’s favourite ‘invisible’ flower smell like?Dior’s Francis Kurkdijan recreates the scent of a rare lily of the valley species in Le Muguet, the first olfactory chapter of new perfume collection Les Récoltes Majeures
