“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” »