4 posts tagged "Andreas Melbostad"
Diesel, Now Unleaded: Nicola Formichetti On His Expansion Plans
“We’re celebrating here!” said Nicola Formichetti, by phone from Diesel’s headquarters in Italy this morning. The reason: The announcement was made today that Formichetti, as was much-rumored when he left his creative director post at Mugler this week, is joining Diesel as its first artistic director. “Mugler was all about creating luxury, and fantasy, and bringing the dream and the entertainment into an already existing brand,” Formichetti said. “At Diesel, I want to talk straight into people’s hearts, people in the street.” Here, Formichetti lays out his plans to put Diesel denim back on the map.
Congratulations.
Thank you so much. Actually, I’m presenting my first project today. It’s our initiative of the Reboot Campaign. It’s the advertisements, starting from June. So it’s the visual side, and we’re going to start a big digital community on Tumblr first. And I want to crowd-source using social media and start getting the armies together, because I can’t do this alone. We need lots of people’s help, and it’ll be a great way to meet new talent and designers and artists. Because Diesel’s such a global brand; the team should be global, too.
Tell me more about the Reboot project.
You can actually go to the Diesel Reboot page. You can just go there, and I’ve already reblogged some of the stuff I liked online. We go in, and you guys can join the community and tell us who you are and what you like. And we’re going to have little missions, so for the first mission, we’ll ask, “What’s your favorite thing?” And another mission would be, “How would you like to see this change?” Or “How would you customize this denim?” And then we’ll give an award per mission. So you’ll get something back. It’s kind of like a dialogue. It’s a new way of using social media, and I’m super excited for that.
What, exactly, does “artistic director” mean? What will your role at Diesel entail?
I’ll be directing the collection. So I’ll look at the entire company—from the clothing to the products, the shows, the marketing, the store experiences, the advertising. All the details. It’s so crazy.
What most interests you about the company?
Well, I love that if you have a great product, and if you have great communication, you can actually get to people. Because that really didn’t happen with me at Mugler. I wasn’t seeing a cool guy wearing my clothes on the street. Yes, Gaga wore it. Beyoncé wore it. But what I wanted was to see someone—like, a cool girl—wearing my jackets or pants on the street randomly. Continue Reading “Diesel, Now Unleaded: Nicola Formichetti On His Expansion Plans” »
Andreas Melbostad, Back In Black (And Gold)
After announcing the departure of Sophia Kokosalaki earlier this month, Diesel Black Gold has reportedly appointed Norwegian designer Andreas Melbostad (pictured, left) to take the reins of the label in October. Melbostad’s name will be familiar to fashion obsessives as the designer of the cult-adored Phi (pictured, right) in the aughts, whose skintight leathers and sexy dresses prefigured fashion’s swing back to the hard-edged eighties look later picked up by other labels. Will he work the same magic in denim? Diesel Black Gold’s commitment to leather suggests he may be a good match. Since the closure of Phi in 2009, Melbostad has consulted for Roberto Cavalli.
Phi Closing
The latest casualty of the recession: the cult-adored NYC label Phi. The pre-spring delivery now in stores will be the brand’s last, and the New York shop is expected to close at the end of January. Talk about a lump of coal to get in our collective stocking.
Our plea to any deep-pocketed backers still lurking out there: Scoop up Andreas Melbostad, Phi’s creative director since 2004. An early proponent (and a very successful interpreter) of the hard-edged eighties vibe, the Norwegian designer led the charge on the body-con look that burned up the runways and strapped every editrix and party girl into the tightest frocks they could find these past few years. Melbostad had recently been experimenting with sportier elements—his Resort 2010 collection anticipated some of the scuba touches on other Spring ’10 runways. His own Spring show drew single-namers like Erin, Lauren, Fabiola, and Carine to the front row. He’s too good to be out of a job.
Click here for a look back through Phi’s collections.
Obscure References, Hot Belts at Phi
As artists go, Richard Lindner is hardly a household name. The painter, born in Hamburg in 1905, put a geometric spin on Expressionism, taught at Pratt and at the Yale School of Art and Architecture, and died in comfort—if relative obscurity—in 1978. All that to say, Lindner isn’t exactly a go-to for designers, but that didn’t stop Andreas Melbostad from building his Fall ’09 Phi collection around the painter’s work. “There’s an interesting corseted quality to Lindner,” explained Melbostad, who said he’d never heard of Lindner until coming across a photo of one of his canvases in a magazine a few months ago. “He had a very compelling take on the female form, as well. So that’s where I started.” Going from obscurity to obscurity, Melbostad next seized on the Willem Dafoe movie The Loveless—a touchstone film for anybody obsessed with black leather or the director Kathryn Bigelow, but kind of a “Huh?” inducer for everyone else. “It’s all about bikers,” Melbostad noted. “So you can see where I got the idea to do motorcycle jackets and bandana prints.” And corset belts and high-heel buckled creeper shoes, both of which moved the Phi crowd to a swoon of desire. Richard Lindner and The Loveless may not be hot cultural commodities, but expect the Phi accessories inspired by them to come to some fame.