Since Nicola Formichetti has taken over as Artistic Director of Diesel, a lot of changes have happened over the past few months. For the brands latest Spring/Summer 2014 campaign, Nicola found 17 young creative people through Tumblr who acted as the faces and voices of the Diesel Reboot campaign, then the week before last, Nicola took over Gallery Lafayette and he found 6 artists again through Tumblr to show their work within the department store, with a full takeover outside with large institutions inside. Nicola is very present in using digital outlets to find young creative people and to champion them, allowing them to have a voice in an industry that most don’t.
Following on from the campaigns, last week Diesel then partnered with the amazing Photographer Nick Knight to shoot Nicola’s first collection campaign for Diesel, entitled #DIESELTRIBUTE. The campaign was shot entirely on iPhone┬® and focuses on the glitching capabilities and filters of today’s best in class photo and video apps. The campaign, both revolutionary and conceptual in spirit, includes portrait and group shots of this new Diesel tribe, all while providing a detailed look at the #DIESELTRIBUTE products that are about to be offered worldwide.
In terms of Diesel clothing, this is Nicola’s first capsule collection for the brand and he celebrates this by paying tribute to the DNA of the brand through elements sourced from its 35-year historical archive, and with it has reinterpreted and produced hand-made, customised and made in Italy, must-have iconic items.
By designing with a personal take on iconic references, Nicola resets the visual language of Diesel with customized, detailed, and original new garments. “This collection is my homage to the DNA of Diesel,” says the newly appointed Artistic Director. “Visiting the Diesel factories in Italy was incredible. The decision to use these found materials from the archive in a new way was immediate. These new, limited edition and artisanal explorations of denim and leather are two very important steps into designing the future of Diesel.”
Launching in-store today, the collection covers both menswear and womenswear and comprises of 11 pieces of apparel, 7 accessories and 4 intimate options. Items range from jackets to shirts, vests to jeans. The highlights include Western-inspired shirts with labor intensive “worn-in” effects, t-shirts taken over with immersive digital prints, and a selection of new styles that use the same breakthrough fabric innovation previously only available in the Jogg Jeans range, but in a slim skinny fit, designed directly by Nicola. You can see 3 exclusive photos in the top row of the gallery below, 2 of which are the new denim shorts and a new white tank top. What do you think of them?
The iconic fabric patches used in the denim #DIESELTRIBUTE collection have been taken from the past Diesel collections with rock inspirations and restyled purposefully for this capsule. On top of this, bespoke moto club images such as the Eagle have been created to signify a stamp of belonging to this world of Diesel iconography and serve as a visual ownership of the original, fearless Diesel spirit.
Patches are cut and laid by hand in the formation of larger, constructed shapes, and all buttons and metal accessories are treated with tumbler treatments. Across the accessories range, custom bottle caps and studs created by Nicola anchor and unite the product offering. In an added touch, Diesel pays tribute to its Italian heritage in each garment, adding red, white and green buttons to the pieces.
Also, the promotion for Diesel doesn’t stop there! They will be holding a celebratory #DIESELTRIBUTE event with Nicola hosting. This will take place at the brands flagship Covent Garden store on Friday 8th November! Don’t forget to attend and meet Nicola himself and see more about the new collection!
