For Diesel, a campaign is never just about the clothes and for their Fall/Winter 2026 campaign, the brand takes that idea literally, sending life-sized cardboard versions of models around the world and inviting each city to become part of the story.
The latest visual chapter from Creative Director Glenn Martens and Art Director Christopher Simmonds begins in the studio, where photographer Verity Smiley-Jones captures models in the new Diesel collection against a vivid red backdrop. The resulting images are enlarged into cardboard cutouts and shipped from London to New Delhi, travelling through Shanghai, Cairo and Rio de Janeiro along the way.
In each city, the same cast is dropped into a completely different environment, surrounded by local people, architecture and everyday life. In London, Erika Kamano places the models among the crowds and pigeons of Piccadilly Circus. In Shanghai, Fish Zhang captures Diesel’s 3-D Denim and Bicolor Leather against the city’s construction-lined streets, while Malak El Sawi brings the campaign to a rooftop overlooking the pyramids in Cairo.
In Rio de Janeiro, Rergio Richard takes the collection to Ipanema, capturing the cast alongside beachgoers with the Dois Irmãos mountains in the distance. The journey ends in New Delhi, where Megha Singha captures the models on a rickshaw tour through the city.
The concept turns a traditional fashion campaign into something more spontaneous and democratic. The collection itself follows Diesel’s playful, boundary-pushing approach with standout pieces including 3-D Denim, trompe l’oeil cable-knit denim, Cut Out Floral Knits and Wrinkled Boiled Knitwear, alongside the new D-Heel jean and accessories including the D-COCCO stiletto sandal and Stinger Watch.
Running throughout the campaign is the D-ONE, Diesel’s new bag of the season. Its slouchy leather silhouette features buckled straps inspired by worn belts threading through denim loops, designed as an adaptable everyday piece that can travel as easily as the campaign itself.
Ultimately, Diesel FW26 is less about a single image than the idea of seeing fashion through many different perspectives. By taking its studio-made characters into the real world, Diesel hands part of the creative process over to each city and the people who inhabit it.
