Y. Project

If you love construction over logos, Y/Project rewards you more than almost any label of its size. The signature trompe-l'oeil and twisted denim and the multi-way garments are engineered for double-takes, which is exactly what made the brand a cult favourite under Glenn Martens. Buy it for the cut and the cleverness, not for a status monogram.

Because the appeal lived in the patternmaking rather than the price tag. Under Martens the house built its name on deconstructed, hybrid constructions and garments designed to be worn in multiple ways, with exaggerated proportions and twisted denim as recurring signatures. Critics framed it as proof that, as British Vogue put it, bonkers is best.

Start with the denim. The label's trompe-l'oeil and twisted-seam jeans are its most recognisable calling card, the clearest expression of its distorted take on a Parisian wardrobe. From there, the modular, worn-multiple-ways pieces are the next step into the brand's logic.

Glenn Martens is the Belgian designer who served as creative director from 2013. He had been founder Yohan Serfaty's first assistant and stepped up after Serfaty's death, expanding the label into womenswear and steering it toward the experimental, gender-fluid deconstruction it became famous for.

Y/Project was launched in 2010 in Paris by French designer Yohan Serfaty and businessman Gilles Elalouf, originally as an avant-garde menswear project. Serfaty's early collections leaned dark and architectural, with elongated silhouettes and sombre outerwear.

No. Following Elalouf's death in 2024 and Martens's departure, the company entered court-supervised receivership and could not find a buyer. In January 2025 the label announced it would cease operations after fourteen years, citing financial difficulties.

They share an avant-garde, deconstructed DNA, which is partly why the comparison is so natural. Y/Project's twisted, multi-way constructions and exaggerated proportions echo Margiela's appetite for garments that question how clothes are built and worn. The two are kindred conceptual houses rather than direct rivals.

A deliberately distorted take on Parisian dressing: exaggerated proportions, twisted denim and surreal, modular silhouettes. Later assessments linked its multi-way pieces and warped proportions to an early-2020s appetite for Y2K-inflected nostalgia and meme-ready shapes on social media.

For collectors of conceptual fashion, yes. The very thing that made it niche, its engineered and one-of-a-kind constructions, is what gives the archive lasting interest now that no new pieces are coming. Focus on the trompe-l'oeil denim and the modular garments that are most identifiably Martens-era.

Let the garment do the talking. Because the pieces are built around twisted seams, hybrid layers and multiple wearing options, the smartest move is to keep everything around them quiet, so the construction reads clearly. One statement Y/Project item against simple basics is the brand's own logic.