Diesel Pre-Fall 2026 Collection: Below the Belt
After winning over Gen Z, Glenn Martens now has his sights set on Millennials. While most brands remain locked into the race for the youngest consumers, Martens has already conquered that territory at Diesel with pop-infused collections, inclusive runways, high-impact activations and a clever use of nostalgia for eras Gen Z never actually lived—particularly the ’90s and early 2000s.
For Pre-Fall 2026, however, Martens shifts gears. Rather than trying to go younger, he is broadening Diesel’s universe to embrace a wider and more mature customer base. The designer described the collection as an effort to “open up the Diesel world even further” and address the diversity of the brand’s growing audience.
This season presents a more subdued lookbook and silhouettes that feel slightly more demure, with longer hemlines and a simplified, more polished design direction. Still, Diesel’s Millennials are far from boring. Martens’ signature experimentation—and irreverence—remains intact.
At the center of the collection is a single tool Martens uses to play with proportions and illusions: the oversized belt. It becomes the anchor of the very first look, a cropped denim trench worn with low-rise capri jeans seamlessly attached to a denim corset. The belt reappears throughout the lineup, creating trompe l’oeil effects across pants, midi skirts, long skirts and sharply constructed outerwear.
Outerwear emerges as the standout category, explored in a wide range of textures and techniques—distressed moto-inspired leathers, fluid satin trenches, cable-knit zip-ups trimmed with leather, and shearling pieces patterned like flannel shirts. Among the most striking silhouettes are sculptural cocoon sleeves, seen on a patent jacket with top-stitched detailing and a collarless faux-fur alternative that offers an instantly more mature, quietly luxurious attitude without compromising Diesel’s unconventional identity.
Elsewhere in the collection, Martens plays with a sense of ease and sensuality through silk shirts, double-layered mesh tops and skirts, floral dresses that wrap the body, and devoré denim sets dusted with crystals. Yet he doesn’t abandon the power of nostalgia: grunge-leaning looks with checks, crinkles and layered textures nod directly to the era Millennials actually lived—unlike Gen Z, who mostly discovered it on TikTok.
