A Collection That Travels the World — On Paper
There is something disarmingly intimate about a paper doll. It belongs to the realm of childhood bedrooms and quiet afternoons, of scissors tracing along dotted lines and tiny wardrobes spread across kitchen tables. It is an object so analogue, so deliberately fragile, that when a house like Diesel chooses it as the centrepiece of a global fashion campaign, the gesture lands with the force of a manifesto.
For its Fall/Winter 2026 campaign, Diesel has done precisely that — reviving the nostalgic art of paper dolls to introduce its newest collection to the world. Under the creative direction of Glenn Martens, the Italian brand continues its tradition of subverting expectations, transforming an icon of simplicity into a vessel for high-concept storytelling.
Glenn Martens and the Art of the Unexpected
Since assuming the creative helm at Diesel, Glenn Martens has consistently demonstrated a rare ability to marry irreverence with sophistication. The FW26 campaign is no exception. By reimagining the brand’s seasonal offerings through the lens of paper dolls, Martens collapses the distance between luxury fashion and collective memory, inviting audiences into a world where garments are not merely worn but played with, assembled, and imagined.
The new collection, as Diesel describes it, embarks on a journey around the world — a fitting metaphor for a campaign device that is inherently portable, democratic, and universally understood. Paper dolls know no borders; neither, it seems, does Martens’ vision for the house.
A Global Voyage Rendered in Miniature
The subtitle accompanying the campaign — “the new collection sets off on a journey around the world” — hints at the breadth of references woven into the FW26 lineup. While the paper doll format offers a playful entry point, the garments themselves carry the full weight of Diesel’s design ambition. Each illustrated figure becomes a canvas upon which the collection’s silhouettes, textures, and moods are distilled into their purest form.
It is a bold editorial choice: rather than relying solely on the conventional arsenal of celebrity faces and cinematic film sets, Diesel strips the campaign back to something almost childlike in its directness. The clothes must speak for themselves — flattened, simplified, yet somehow made more vivid by the constraint.
Why Paper Dolls, Why Now
In an era saturated with AI-generated imagery, hyper-produced video content, and algorithmically optimized campaigns, Diesel’s return to paper dolls reads as a deliberate act of resistance. There is a tactile honesty to the format that digital platforms cannot replicate — a reminder that fashion, at its core, is about the relationship between a body and a garment, even when that body is made of paper.
The decision also speaks to a broader cultural moment in which nostalgia has become one of fashion’s most potent currencies. From archival revivals to vintage-inspired silhouettes, the industry is increasingly looking backward in order to move forward. Diesel, under Glenn Martens, simply does it with more wit than most.
The Diesel Continuum
This campaign reinforces Diesel’s position as one of the most conceptually daring houses operating today. Where other brands lean into predictability, Diesel leans into play — and in doing so, reminds us that fashion campaigns can still surprise, still delight, and still mean something beyond the transaction.
The FW26 collection is now making its global debut, one paper doll at a time.
