
Y/Project: Guests were ushered into the Santa Maria Novella church at dusk, each of us handed a torch. Plunged into winter darkness, these flashlights became the only source of illumination to Martens’ surreal show, as haphazard globes tripped around the cloister, echoing the stars in the sky above. The surreal is Martens’ metier. With their playful, eccentric glitches, his clothes were both fiercely fresh and prophetic. Over the last five years his ‘deconstructionreconstruction’ approach has influenced a lot of what we see now – the pop-up pants and double-shoulder shirts for which he has become known were this time softer and rooted in a perverse play on notions of masculine luxury. ‘It is about menswear but looking at all of the different types of guys who come through Y/Project and who exist. This led to more experiments with tailoring. A lot more than before,’ he said. Heteronormative codes are critiqued and cut up: Argyle sweaters are slashed or wrapped into layers of printed tulle. Denim jeans are given curved seams, rich classic camel coats and sleek dinner suits are messed up. The vitality of the clothes was far from the flush pomp of pop. They were a rallying cry for more conceptual, artistic discourse in a superficial, troubled world.