For its spring-summer 2023 collection, presented in Milan on September 21, 2022, Diesel made an impression. The invitation was accompanied by a blown blue glass butt plug, fashioned on the island of Murano. “We don’t necessarily advise guests to use it, but hope they appreciate the artistic quality,” so we say at the Italian brand.
Sex, what better fuel after all to claim “a successful life” (a successful living), the famous Diesel slogan that has fallen into disuse and revived by Glenn Martens since his arrival as artistic director at the end of 2020.
The Milan parade, all in grunge, SF and seductive silhouettes, took place against a background of minimal techno, sometimes covered by the breath or the gasps of a metallic male voice and in the middle of a decor thought as a demonstration of size . Either a quartet, or rather a foursome, made up of giant gray characters, entwined, intertwined, kneeling, lying down, busy… Thirty-seven meters high by 49 meters long, “the largest inflatable sculpture ever made”, immediately had the label certified by the very official Guinness Records.
At Diesel, pleasure is serious business. And the claw was not at its first attempt. For the Spring-Summer 2022 collection, it was a cock ring – this penis ring intended to maintain the erection and to increase male pleasure tenfold – which accompanied the invitation. When sending this one, which was to remind journalists and buyers to watch the show presented on video because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Glenn Martens says he thought of Anna Wintour.
How would the indestructible Empress of vogue against this object? Did she even know what a cock ring ? “Anna” not having – officially, at least – protested, Martens did it again. By way of card stock, he also sent thongs made of candy necklaces or Durex condoms. And so this famous anal plug, which played at testing the limits of good taste.
Find the “Surprise invitation” series here.