Few things excite the fashion industry more than a highly covetable collaboration — and one brand that understands this better than most is high-street favourite H&M. From its recent partnership with Magda Butrym to previous collections featuring Balmain, Mugler, and Simone Rocha, among others, the brand has built a strong reputation for its highly successful collaborations.
Much to our delight, this collaboration is set to be H&M’s most disruptive yet, partnering with Belgian designer Glenn Martens. Martens began his fashion career in 2008, joining Jean Paul Gaultier as a junior designer, but he is better known for his 11-year tenure at the now-discontinued Y/Project. In October 2020, he was appointed Creative Director at Diesel, revitalising the brand, and most recently, in January 2025, he took on the role of Creative Director at Maison Margiela.
H&M x Glenn Martens promises to fuse the designer’s conceptual approach to dressing with the retailer’s focus on designer details at accessible prices.
Pushing the boundaries of traditional high-street design, the collection will showcase a variety of womenswear, menswear, unisex pieces, and accessories, taking some of H&M's best-selling wardrobe staples and reimagining them into exaggerated forms. Think voluminous thigh-high suede boots, deconstructed denim, and most notably, pieces reworked into Marten's infamous "pinch" effect design.
“I see this collection as a big family of garments, all of which have multiple purposes and personalities: like people, they grow and change each day. I am always interested in the clothes that we really live in, and the idea of archetypes and wardrobe staples was the starting point for this very special and joyful project with H&M,” says Martens.
Offering an initial preview of the collection set to release on 30th October, H&M has unveiled an exciting first look featuring Joanna Lumley and Richard E. Grant dressed in distorted garments, expertly layered to create stylish yet disruptive looks. We simply cannot wait to see what comes next.
