Money makes the world go around, but money—or better, the lack of it—gets in the way of creativity and unique forms of expression that are needed in our current times and that, once gone, will leave an emptiness impossible to fill. This is the void we feel with today's news of one of the most generally beloved and admired brands of the last decade, Y/Project, shutting down operations after failing to find a buyer following a series of administrative and creative changes during the past year that were reflecting on their economic performance. This is the story, and this is the sad destiny of houses, brands, and designers that try their best to preserve their creative freedom by remaining independent, but at what cost?
Hundreds of brands and thousands of designers, so many options fill today's fashion market and panorama that it often feels like it is too much, like the oversaturation gets overwhelming. This oversaturation happens not only in an intangible way, when we doomscroll for hours and all the names and faces start to blend with each other; this sensation also translates into what matters the most: money. The luxury market is a jungle where natural selection prevails just as much as in any other field, but in this case the one that survives is not necessarily the most fit, or the most skilled, hard-working, or talented; it is the one with a bigger budget and a bigger name signing their bills.
If it was about skills and competence, brands like Y/Project should be at the top of the pyramid. The project started thanks to Gilles Elalouf and Yohan Serfaty fourteen years ago and was shaped with the appointment of Glenn Martens three years later as Creative Director, holding the title for more than a decade until last year, and with each passing release and collection, it became one of fashion's most interesting brands. With a strong focus on exploration and experimentation with fabrics, materials, techniques, and silhouettes, it was what any aspiring designer pictured as a dream workplace: a space where the main focus was defying the “everything has been done before” statement and birthing new and exciting ways to define what fashion can be.
Martens was the heart and brain of this operation, where his unique and optimistic approach to life and work, plus his undisputable set of abilities, gifted us with many unforgettable pieces and moments. No matter if garments were deconstructed, twisted, turned, elongated, layered, or reversed, Glenn did everything he wanted in Y/Project, and he did it all well. His abrupt exit from the brand in 2024, right after the passing of Elalouf, the only remaining co-founder of the brand—Serfaty having passed in 2013—was already a sign the lights were dimming inside the house, where the numbers were not giving a very encouraging life expectancy to the project.
After some months of searching and failing to find a buyer that would keep the boat afloat, today, on January 9th, just starting the year, the brand announced the shutting down of all operations. With a message thanking the team, the founders, Glenn Martens and Pascal Conte-Jodra, previous company manager, the story of fourteen years comes to an end. After this, several of the pieces that reflect their history and contribution to the industry will be donated to museums and institutions like Palais Galliera in Paris, MoMu in Antwerp, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
How well-known or respected a brand is or how much we love it doesn't translate into profits, and even if, in our eyes, proposals like the one of Y/Project are worth buying the entire archive, if the people who have the money to do it don't do it, then there's nothing endless creativity or passion can do. This is nothing but the sad reality of a big portion of the industry, the one that outside conglomerates try to survive on their own, and that, despite fighting and resisting more than what is possible, has to draw the blinds and bid farewell to the potential of a unique source of creation that is now lost and that will be hard to find again.
