Since Nicola Formichetti stepped down from Diesel last December, the company hasn’t named a successor. Instead, through its Red Tag Project, it has opted to work with a plethora of designers including Hood By Air’s Shayne Oliver and Y/Project’s Glenn Martens.
Continuing with that way of thinking, it has partnered with VFiles to work with four new designers from the VFiles Community to repurpose existing Diesel pieces.
“The specific goal for us was to try and talk to a younger consumer that might not have grown up with Diesel,” said Stefano Rosso, the chief executive officer of Diesel North America. “We want to reintroduce the brand and allow people to use Diesel as an open source platform for a new generation to have fun and play with.”
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The brand tapped Eric Lawrence, who previously assisted Matthew Williams on the launch of Alyx and collaborated with Mr. Completely on the “Anger” collection; Bandulu, a New York brand that updates vintage clothing with embellishments and embroidery; Menyelek, another New York-based label that’s known for reconstructing and piecing together garments; and Oblanc, a unisex clothing and accessories brand rooted in sustainable streetwear. The pieces they designed are on sale in VFile’s SoHo store and online. The items are priced from $75 to $1,000.
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“It was interesting for us to connect some of our young designers in the VFiles Community with a big brand like Diesel and see what happens,” said Julie Anne Quay, the founder of VFiles. “It’s a small enough project that we could do something like that because we aren’t making units of product. It made sense. This is an introduction to see how two brands can work together.”
For the past couple of years Diesel has made a concentrated effort to align with the younger audience VFiles draws and while Rosso said a lot of these initiatives, including a knockoff store on Canal Street, are investments for the future, the company has seen an uptick in interest.
“In the last year, data from the e-commerce side has shown that we have an increase of spontaneous visits to our web site, which is what we are aiming for,” said Rosso.
As far as a Formichetti successor is concerned, Rosso deferred to his father, Diesel founder Renzo Rosso.
“I don’t know if there is a goal to [replace] Nicola,” said Stefano. “So far the Diesel design studio has been doing well and to have the opportunity to reinterpret the brand with several people instead of one is more modern.”