The huge pit packed with orange baloons inside of Y/Project‘s runway had a message: fashion is fun. For the label’s autumn-winter 2020 menswear and pre-fall 2020 womenswear, Glenn Martens wanted to bring on optimism that comes with dressing up. Martens distorts his clothing, amplifying details and suppressing others with a wit and invention that really surprises the eye. This season these distortions included a clash of Elizabethan corsetry against corporate dressing and duvet, winter-sportswear (a collaboration with Canada Goose is coming!). Disemboweled suiting saw strips of satin, sometimes black, sometimes shades of blushy pink, beautifully meshed and promoted to the exterior, a technique carried over into a contoured minidress for women. Martens, as usual, does exciting and far from obvious texture combinations, from mohair knits to heavy velvets. A white lined women’s denim shirt and skirt were mind-bogglingly beaten, twisted, and whipped into what resembled a piece of wearable art. There must be some paranormal force standing behind Glenn’s organic, fluid-like silhouettes.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.