Diesel – Brand Focus

1978 Diesel is Born

Renzo Ross was born into a traditional farming family in Brugine, Northern Italy. By his teens he quickly realised he wanted to see more of the world that farming couldn’t show him. He enrolled in a textiles course and designed his first pair of jeans, they were an extravagant pair of bell bottoms. From that day on Diesel brand was born.

At the time of Diesels creation the denim market was on of superficial perfection, everything was completely clean and straight cut. By hitting the scene with washed denim and selling it at double the price, Renzo single handedly created the world of premium denim. Despite Diesels revolutionary break through the brand faced a hard break at first in the tough market. His vision and passion shone through which is want many people feel created the demand, before long the demand was so high that Renzo couldn’t make his denim fast enough.

Who’s the Man behind Diesel?

Renzo Rosso born (September 15 1955) is an Italian fashion entrepreneur. At the young age of 15 he developed his first designer garment, a pair of low-waist bell bottomed jeans using his mother’s singer sewing machine. From this point on he kept experimenting with different jeans models and would give each pair to friends or sell them at school for an amount of 3500 lire (equivalent to 1.80 euro in current prices).

The Master of Denim

Before Diesel entered the scene denim was strictly workwear, jeans at this time were clean and indigo blue. Treated and destroyed jeans were a symbol of rebellion, the idea of selling vintage and dirty jeans to customers who were looking for a clean and new pair of jeans was shocking, but Diesel had the vision to turn the market norm upside down and offer washed broken and distressed denim as a artisanal luxury product.

In time Diesel has mastered denim, continuously pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved with the most versatile but challenging fabric. Constant experiments with treatments to fabric and washes proved a unique commitment, this differentiates Diesels denim from anyone else. It is not surprising that Diesel denim has become instantly recognisable for its distinctly labelled fifth pocket, has captured the attention of millions of denim enthusiasts all over the world.

Questions answered by Diesel:

What was the market reaction to the first pair of Diesel Denim?

The very first pair of Diesel denim were created by Renzo himself, way before the Diesel brand was born. Renzo Rosso was still in high school and started by creating denim for himself and for his friends. Diesel was the very first brand to launch dirty denim, thanks to the research and passion of Renzo himself customers slowly changed their attitude towards only wanting clean denim. Shortly it came to a point where Renzo couldn’t keep up with the demand for his denim.

How many different pair of denim has Diesel developed?

Like many brands it is hard to know exactly how many pairs of jean have been developed. They can say however that from 1978 to 2012 Diesel has put out more than 2000 different washes. If you think about jeans as a combination of washes and styles, in the past 10 years they have created around 5000 different pairs of jeans.

How has Diesel innovated denim?

Each season Diesels challenge is how to innovate and how to take a fabric that is alive and turn into something new and never seen before. Each of the 2000 washes released is a way of them giving denim their own personality. Some of the innovation created by Diesel has made history.