Call me behind the times but I must admit that I hadn’t heard of Diesel Black Gold until very recently. Of course, we’re all familiar with Diesel, the Italian clothing label that singlehandedly changed the face of denim back in the 1990s with sophisticated cuts, fresh fabrics and a novel advertising campaign that literally transformed the jeans landscape. Their new premium line extension though, had not come up on my radar. Until now, that is.
I’m invited to London to meet the label’s highly talented creative director, Andreas Melbostad and his boss, Mr. Renzo Rossi, the founder of Diesel, who are both in town to attend Fashion Week and, more importantly, to unveil the stand-alone boutique for Diesel Black Gold on Conduit Street that will set the tone for all global DBG retail spaces.
Interestingly, one thing my early research on the brand kept highlighting was the obvious admiration the label’s creative director has been able to gather among the fashion industry’s elite. A softly spoken Norwegian who began his career with a degree from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Melbostad then moved to London to do a Master’s at the Royal College of Arts. While there, he was discovered and hired by Alber Elbaz whom he joined in Paris at Guy Laroche and later at Yves Saint-Laurent. Stints at Nina Ricci and Calvin Klein followed but it was his most recent tenure at the helm of Phi, the now late lamented New York label, which he brought to cult status in the early Noughties, which really put him on the map.
“I was contacted by Renzo Rossi in the spring of 2012. He was interested to talk to me because of my work at Phi,” Melbostad tells me. Rossi laid out his plan, which was to launch a new halo brand that would bring craftsmanship and tailoring to Diesel’s traditional, jeans-centric codes. Melbostad immediately caught the hook, for über-constructed, meticulously thought-through clothes were just what he excelled at. “From the get-go, Renzo has been very supportive,” he continues modestly, “He has a lot of passion and enthusiasm and this is one of the driving forces behind Diesel Black Gold.”
In many ways, I believe that Melbostad has been blessed in heading brands free from decades of heritage. Such a clear palette has given him license to direct as he sees fit, without being shackled by history or tradition. “On some level this is true,” he agrees, “but at the same time I do feel it is important to have a core attitude and in our case, that is being bold, irreverent and free-spirited. For me, the attitude of Diesel Black Gold is what I find most inspiring.”
“This brand must be an advanced and comprehensive designer contemporary brand but at the same time, it is very important that we tend towards what is believable for Diesel,” the creative director elaborates. “Given that we are positioning it as an aspirational brand, with a high-end price point, the consumer has to feel that there is still something inherently Diesel about it, even if that is a very different type of Diesel.”
Clearly, Melbostad is on the right track. Not only has he firmly established the brand as a purveyor of what can best be described as ‘cool clothes catering to the restrained urban rebel’, he has helped make DBG one of the biggest non-designer labels in contemporary high-end fashion.
When I later talk to Renzo Rossi, a charismatic Italian who looks more like an aging rock star than the chairman of one the industry’s most important groups, he is visibly proud of what they have already been able to achieve. “I am very happy because we are becoming an important brand in terms of sales. At the beginning it was difficult to gain respect but now we have that, as well as significant traction and that’s due to our professionalism.”
A quick look at the latest Autumn/Winter collection in the store immediately shows that DBG is monochromatic in its nature. “I love to work in just black and white,” Melbostad explains. “Any design I do starts with a silhouette that leads to cut and construction. Only after that do I consider texture and the play of texture. Colour tends to be at the end of it all. But Diesel is not a brand that is very specific about colours so you know it’s natural to play to your strengths and then later challenge those strengths.”
Naturally, leather and denim feature heavily but the brand is also very much an incubator of innovation. Adding novelty finishes like wax coating, metallic leaf and exotic skins mean that there’s an edgy sensibility to the collection.
“There’s a balance to it all. I believe in a point of view rather than innovation for innovation’s sake. I believe in adding modernity but retaining a sense of timelessness. If you take Diesel, a brand that is already very famous and something people know well and you position it at a higher end, then you really have to prove yourself. It is fundamental that we bring an integrity to our products with a design approach and a quality of cut and construction.”
As we conclude our time together, I pose one last question to Mr. Rossi, enquiring where he hopes the Diesel Black Gold brand will be in five years time. “I want it to be on every department store’s contemporary floor and I want us to be the most important brand there. At the end of the day, when you compare us to other brands in this category, we have the knowledge of how to do retail, how to control inventory, manage distribution and guarantee margins. This is what I want and this what I expect.” I may still be a newcomer to the brand but I reckon it’d be a foolhardy man who bets against that.
