Founded by Renzo Rosso and denim innovator Adriano Goldschmied in 1978, Diesel helped pioneer the high-end jeans category in the nineties. Having convinced a generation of guys that pre-shredded denim was worth paying extra for, in 2007 the company launched the more grown-up Diesel Black Gold line. While more sartorially inclined, it retains Diesel's signature deconstructed look. The Diesel team looks at any occasion as a potential party (last year's around-the-world bash to launch Diesel TV comes to mind), and on opening day of their largest store -a Fifth Avenue "mega flagship"- they brought the good times to the Black Gold runway. A trumpeter busting out jazzy renditions of Lou Reed and Nirvana hits set the stage for a collection that may have been inspired by the Roaring Twenties but was mostly an ode to today's street culture.
Creative director Wilbert Das took intriguing elements of the heyday of jazz and gave them the Diesel treatment in a collection shown to the soundtrack of Miles Davis’ "Kind of blue". It evoked impoverished robber barons, facing down the Great Depression in their now-wrecked Gilded Age wardrobes. Suits patterned with variants of Prince of Wales checks came pre-rumpled, stained and mended. The jeans were mostly on the baggy side and were paired with vintage-looking waistcoats, jackets and even spats. Diesel’s message to modern men : if this recession becomes chronic, you know where to find us.
Creative director Wilbert Das took intriguing elements of the heyday of jazz and gave them the Diesel treatment in a collection shown to the soundtrack of Miles Davis’ "Kind of blue". It evoked impoverished robber barons, facing down the Great Depression in their now-wrecked Gilded Age wardrobes. Suits patterned with variants of Prince of Wales checks came pre-rumpled, stained and mended. The jeans were mostly on the baggy side and were paired with vintage-looking waistcoats, jackets and even spats. Diesel’s message to modern men : if this recession becomes chronic, you know where to find us.
