The History of Diesel Jeans Brand

The history of Diesel jeans began in Italy in 1955 with the birth of Renzo Rosso, future establisher of the brand, the man who once said “We don’t sell clothes, we sell lifestyle.” Young Rosso turned out to be an enterprising boy and in the age of 10 he already established his own business selling rabbits. At the age of 15 he began to study fashion in the first Italian fashion school and in his twenties started to design clothes in a small textile company called Moltex. Together with the owner of Moltex, Adriano Goldschmied, 1978 Rosso created the new company – Genius Group, the cradle of many successful trademarks – Katherine Hamnett, Martin Guy, Goldie, Ten Big Boys and Diesel. The name “Diesel” was chosen as an avant-garde symbol of oil crisis of the 70’s and as an international word that could bring jeans brand worldwide success.

1979 the first men’s wear collection appeared under Diesel trademark and in 1981 Diesel clothes was already exported to other countries. The net of importers created by Renzo Rosso greatly contributed to the success of custom jeans brand abroad. In 1984 Rosso presented clothes line for children called “Diesel Kids”. This considerably widened the target market of his brand. In 1985 the amount of business made up 3,9 millions of dollars. Rosso managed to buy out the deal of Goldschmied and other partners and thus became the only owner of Genius Group. Now he could concentrate on manufacturing denim. The company logo- Iroquois- becomes an identification sign of those who wanted to look radical and avant-garde.

In 1991 the company establishes a Diesel USA brand, and its annual turnover comes to 125 millions of dollars. From now on the company starts to invest more money in advertising campaigns. The new marketing strategy combined humor and politics – two themes unprecedented in advertising before. Diesel’s slogan “For successful living”, calls for creation of one’s own church and religious cults, scandalous ads “The End”, “Alpine Village”, “No More Tears” and “Jesus Lives” make the brand more and more popular. 2002 Diesel begins to work with Karl Lagerfeld creating custom denim clothes for the line “Lagerfeld Gallery”. 2003 the company starts to work with “Dsquared 2” brand and presents its first collection of jewellery called “Jewellery Diesel”.

Renzo Rosso is nominated for Entrepreneur of the Year award and has already got Advertiser of the Year award. He rides luxurious Dacati Monster, listens to heavy metal and spends holidays in his own hotel “Pelican” in Miami. He once said “Diesel is not my company, it is my life” and we believe him. Jeans by Diesel are manufactured in Italy only. The style of Diesel is genuine and progressive, sometimes even radical. But high quality is always on top.

Diesel presents two seasonal collections of customized denim a year – autumn|winter and spring|summer. Each collection consists of about 20. 000 models. The brand has its lines Diesel Denim, Diesel Male, Diesel for Females, Space Parts (a line of underwear und accessories), Diesel Leather, Diesel Kids and 55 DSL (a special line for skate- and snowboarders). Besides the company owns Diesel Shades sunglasses line as well as Diesel Perfume and Diesel Footwear. Custom jeans by Diesel can be bought in 10.000 shops in 76 countries. A true Empire of Diesel!