Y/Project


Y/Project was a Paris-based fashion label founded in 2010 by French designer Yohan Serfaty and businessman Gilles Elalouf. The brand became known for its avant-garde tailoring and gender-fluid approach to dressing, particularly under the creative direction of Belgian designer Glenn Martens.
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History

Y/Project was launched in 2010 by Serfaty and Elalouf as an avant-garde menswear project. Serfaty's early collections were characterised by elongated, architectural silhouettes and sombre outerwear with a distinctly dark, dystopian mood.
After Serfaty's death from cancer in 2013, Elalouf appointed Belgian designer Glenn Martens—who had been Serfaty's first assistant—as creative director. Under Martens, Y/Project expanded into womenswear and became known for its experimental, deconstructed constructions and gender-fluid reinterpretations of wardrobe staples.
Following Elalouf's death in 2024 and the subsequent departure of Martens, the company entered court-supervised receivership and failed to secure a buyer. In January 2025 the label announced that it would cease operations after fourteen years, citing financial difficulties and the inability to complete a sale of the business.

Style and influence

Under Martens, Y/Project became associated with a deliberately distorted take on Parisian dressing, using exaggerated proportions, twisted denim and garments engineered to be worn in multiple ways. Critics highlighted the label's trompe-l'œil denim, hybrid constructions and gender-fluid styling as emblematic of a wider shift towards more eccentric, experimental dressing in luxury fashion. In a farewell piece, British Vogue described Y/Project as a small but influential brand that proved to fashion that “bonkers is best”, crediting its surreal silhouettes and modular garments with changing how fashion fans think about clothing. Later assessments have linked the brand's deconstructed, multi-way pieces and exaggerated proportions to an early-2020s appetite for Y2K-inflected nostalgia and meme-ready silhouettes on social media.