Modern Weekly – China – April 2015

Modern Weekly – China – April 2015

Modern Weekly – China – April 2015

Modern Weekly – China – April 2015

Modern Weekly – China – April 2015

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Be stupid; Be Cool; Be Brave

--A trio of DIESEL’s founder Renzo Rosso

How does Renzo Rosso, the founder of DIESEL and the even larger fashion conglomerate OTB,

keeps his fashion empire always young and fresh? In simple words, there is a trio of “fashion

blindness” adopted by the bigwig: be stupid, be cool and be brave.

Renzo appeared at DIESEL’s flagship store in Shanghai Kerry Center with a hotchpotch of

accessories: a statement leather necklace with metal pendants, a pair of well fit jeans with

sneakers on the end, and a maroon baseball jacket atop with rough curly hair. It’s hard to tell

whether it was an old-school rock’n’roll star or a fashion magnate who builds the empire of

OTB group that graced the store. He bent over and extended both his hands for greeting, and

spoke with a passionate and strong Italian accent.

In order to create a more diversified looks for Modern Weekly’s photo shooting, he

spontaneously took off his tops and changed into a T-shirt casually grabbed from his store.

After his tattoo- a Mohican head portrait, on the left shoulder came into exposure, he

clenched his fist and showed off the tattoo on his finder, RR, the initials of his name.

“The glass from DIESEL’s homeware collection looks full of mechanism doesn’t it?” as Renzo

asked Weekly’s reporter, lifting a screw-like glass from the table. Like a giant bar, DIESEL’s

planet store is not only filled with denim wear for both men and women, but also dotted

with a variety of lifestyle products like shoes, watches, eyewear, jewelries and perfumes.

With all of these, Renzo is building an ideal life prospect that every fashionista might be

aspiring to.

The interview was more of a store tour, with Renzo walking around the store with

undisguised excitement.

“This is our world largest and most beautiful store. It feels great to be on site for the first

time. But as a Virgo who is always in pursuit of perfection, I want to improve some of the

details,” said Renzo, occasionally stopping to check the rows of watches displayed in the

store during his tour.

Renzo is more than ready to tap into the Chinese market, hoping to appeal to the huge, rising

crowd of the young, energetic and those interested in fashion in the country. Taking

advantage of the occasion of Shanghai Fashion Week, Renzo made his trip to China this

month.

Starting from the denim brand DIESEL, Renzo has developed the group of Only The Brave

(renamed as OTB since 2013) into a multi-brand fashion empire. He is one of the few in the

industry who managed to take a brand from the LVMH group, and he started the acquisition

from as early as in 2002. After acquiring Maison Martin Margiela, he also gradually made

himself a shareholder of designer brands like Viktor&Rolf and Marni. Apart from that, the

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Staff International, a branch company of OTB, is also in charge of manufacturing and

distribution for Dsquared2, Just Cavalli, and Marc Jacobs Men.

A rather “silly” fashion magnate, however, Renzo revealed that while making an investment,

the impression that whether a brand is cool and stylish enough is often prioritized over its

profitability.

Smartness generates no success

Be Stupid! is an ad campaign tailor-made for DIESEL by Renzo years ago. The most successful

campaign features slogans like “smart people have brains, and the stupid have balls”, “Stupid

may fail. Smart doesn't even try”. The slogans are both the life philosophy for Renzo and the

business tips summarized in his biography. The emphases are being brave, challenging the

normality and following one’s own instinct.

“There is no such thing as a successful entrepreneur for me. I never do things for money. I

am a stupid man from an Italian farm indulging in his own ‘stupid’ ideas. And it proves my

stupidity is very valuable,” as Renzo put it, candidly, adding that he always follows his passion

and instinct. As a matter of fact, he has already decoded the mechanism of the global retail

market. The world is not made up of different tribes or nationalities, but a variety of

communities with a sharing interest in music, sports and fashion. They may speak different

languages, but they are buying the same things. Therefore, what he wants to create is a new

world with a unique cultural identity.

Like an outsider who accidentally broke into the world of fashion, Renzo has created a

fashion empire defined by the style of rock’n’roll with denim and jeans. Different from many

of other Italian brands established in cities like Florence, Milan and Rome and inspired by the

rich and luxurious Italian style, the root of the fashion empire should be traced back to

Renzo’s boyhood, a teenager who was crazy all over the American pop culture.

Renzo was born in 1955 at a farm in north Italy’s Brugine town. There were only one

automobile and two television sets in the whole town at his birth. In the vicinity of the town,

however, there was an American military base, where he had his first encounter of the

American culture, at the age of five.

A group of American soldiers, arriving in a fancy Cadillac, stopped by at the farm by his house

for picnic. The visit was as alien as from the moon, and the present from the soldiers for the

five-year-old, a box of delicious pudding, tasted “just like the American dream”. The interest

in everything new from America was thus piqued. James Dean, the teenage movie star who

often played a role of the “beaten generation” on the screen, later became his idol. Even

later, the rebellious lifestyle led by Dean was integrated as an important part of DNA of

DIESEL.

Renzo might be carefree and unrestrained by nature, but there was also an undeniably acute

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sense of business born with him. And luckily, the hard work he toiled with his father on the

farm in early years didn’t stifle his talent and desire for creativity. After given a piece of

denim by his classmate, Renzo made his first jeans flares with his mother’s sewing machine

at 15. The pant proved more than a hit among his classmates. He was encouraged to make

more and sold them to his little clients at the price of five euro a pair. The casual success

enlightened Renzo, making him to realize that fashion was a profitable business.

After graduating from Marconi Technical Institute’s industrial textile manufacturing major,

Renzo got employed by a denimwear company, Moltex founded by an Italian called Adriano

Goldschmied at 20. Two years later, he purchased 40 percent of the company’s share

through the financial help of his father. In 1978, with diesel becoming a popular energy, the

duo branded their products after the vogue word.

Renzo may not be a talented fashion designer, but he can always tell what would attract

young people. His intention to bring changes to the denim market and to cater to the young

fashion-oriented customers resulted in the idea of making vintage jeans. At 30, Renzo

became the sole owner of DIESEL with 500,000 dollars and the Moltex share he had.

The fresh new start, as the complete owner of DIESEL, was unsurprisingly difficult. During the

first few years, he personally took a hand in the work, using stones and sandpaper to polish

the denim in order to create the effect of vintage jeans.

“Who would want to buy a pair of seemingly old jeans?” The idea caught up most people

more than crazy when he delivered those vintage jeans to retailers for the first time.

A pair of Ralph Lauren jeans, the most expensive of its kind, was priced around 50 dollars by

then. But Renzo had the guts to charge 100 dollars for the cheapest pair of denim from

DIESEL’s shelf. The retailers didn’t agreed to sell his denim until Renzo promised them that he

would purchased all those back if no one bought them.

It turned out Renzo knows young people. The denim were selling like hot cakes. On one hand,

the unique technology used by DIESEL has kept the made-in-Italy fabric completely different

from American denim, being unusually soft and flexible. More importantly, the denim wear

not only speaks the language of American culture, but is also infused with a variety of

fashion elements like the wild western style, or the bizarre gadgets from the second-hand

shop.

The adherence to price and craftsmanship also helps to explain the reason why Renzo could

turn the once cheap work uniform into a sexy and stylish category of fashion items. Vintage

denim have thus found a place in those luxury department stores from Log Angeles, Boston,

Seattle and New York.

Fueled by the same wildness and madness, the Italian farm man pioneered further into the

global market. By the end of 1990’s, DIESEL had a sales network of more than 10,000

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locations around the world, and the revenue reached 30 million dollars. Renzo later cut half

of the sales points in order to focus more on the establishment of the brand’s own stores. In

1996, Renzo opened DIESEL’s first flagship store in US. Located on Lexington Avenue in New

York, the store is right opposite the store of Levi’s, its competitor.

“We want to show them how nice our denim are,” said Renzo, provocatively. Different from

other global fashion chains, Renzo strived to create a unique design for every individual

store.

Now DIESEL’s flagship store has turned into a carnival Mecca for fashionistas. In the

15,000-square-foot space of DIESEL’s flagship store, Renzo has also set up a bar with DJ panel,

allowing parties and fun events taking place once every few months. DIESEL’s carnival parties

also have earned its reputation as a marketing gala. In 2008, DIESEL held uninterrupted party

at 17 cities around the world in celebration of its 30 years anniversary. Artists and devoted

fans of the brand were invited altogether to share the moment. Aside from denim wear,

theme parties centered on accessories like watches and perfume have also surprised the

industry constantly.

Unrestrained and vigorous ideas for ad campaigns share Renzo’s secrets of success, other

than the brand’s ahead-of-trend designs. Every season, there is a fun story to be told and

some jokes about the latest world news to be cracked.

In 2001’s ad campaign, for example, the rich and poor countries were rearranged. Wealthy

socialites from Africa partied on limousines. Unimaginably queer news made the headlines

of the newspapers in models’ hand, as champagne glasses occupied the other hand.

“European developing countries targeted by African tobacco industry,” “African Union space

program meets criticism for plans to use Europeans in intergalactic travel,” “African hostages

free after being held for 148 days by Californian rebels”, as some of them read.

Ad campaigns of DIESEL are always full of controversies. The 2010 Spring Summer one, Be

Stupid, is a winner of Cannes Advertising Awards of the year, but got banned by the

Advertising Standards Authority of UK for being “vulgar and anti-social”. In response, Renzo

called on “stupid people” to form a new country.

“A stupid dream is cherished by DIESEL, in which a new country would be established. New

laws would be compiled, and justice demanded. By assimilating the essence and rejecting

the dross of other countries, a new country founded only by the brave comes into being.”

Renzo made it impossible for people to ignore DIESEL with these impressive ads.

Other than that, a substantial number of Renzo’s critical remarks also created topics and

caused widespread discussion. “Why found a charity foundation while politicians are doing

nothing?” “Why celebrities from the fashion world always show up with bodyguards? It’s so

hypocritical.” Contentious quotes like these on the other hand are in harmony with the

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brand’s ad campaigns.

Make hay with the young

It may sound utopian to form a nation of stupidity founded only by the brave, but Renzo

does manage to create a fashion empire formed “only the brave”.

It is not difficult to spot one or two characters shared by the brands of Renzo’s OTB group, a

multi-brand fashion empire, as it is in the DNA of DIESEL, together with Maison Martin

Margiela, Viktor&Rolf, and Marni, to be rebellious and ahead of time. The mission for Renzo

is to bring them from their hometowns to the world, be it Paris or Milan.

In fact, Renzo is more focused on the management of OTB group, rather than taking charge

of every individual brand. Taking DIESEL as an example, as a rising number of young and

fashion brands have carved up the market, the once innovative brand was also threatened by

the problem of aging and not evolving. Although it remained to be original in terms of design

and manufacturing, the challenge of always staying cool and fresh became critically

important. Renzo realized that there existed a gap between the brand and its consumers and

DIESEL should stop following a stereotype routine. Only by adopting an unconventional plan

can reshape DIESEL’s brand image as being wild, fun and ahead of time.

The first job is to find a trendsetter so that DIESEL could recapture the eye of young

consumers. The man popping into the mind of Renzo is Nicola Formichetti. It was a rather

bold appointment. In April, 2013, Nicola Formichetti took the role of DIESEL’s artistic director,

in charge of DIESEL’s product design, marketing and interior design of the stores.

Although Nicola used to be Lady Gaga’s stylist and had worked with a substantial number of

fashion magazines, he lacked professional expertise of fashion design. For Renzo, however,

the reasons that consolidated Nicola’s appointment lie in other potentials. With a huge

fandom online, Nicola creatively and actively keeps in touch with his followers on the social

network.

Talented designers could always find favor in Renzo’s eyes, regardless of his history and past.

John Galliano was a forceful illustration, who became the creative director of Maison Martin

Margiela under the invitation of Renzo in October, 2014. It seems that Renzo is not afraid of

triggering disagreement, as the former chief designer of Dior had made himself a dejected

talent with his anti-Jewish remarks in 2011.

On the other hand, the decision to have John Galliano, a designer famous for his

extravagantly exquisite style, managing a fashion house advocating simplicity is a stone in the

lake. Nicola once commented that “the decision is not very Renzo, but this is Renzo”. The

industry was not convinced about Renzo’s inventive pick until January, 2015, when Galliano’s

debut show for Maison Martin Margiela surprised the Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week.

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“I don’t carp and cavil at the creative work of a brand,” as Renzo revealed about his tips of

working with talented designers. In fact, he strives to allow every individual brand of his

group to keep its originality and identity. He has never required the brands he acquired to

relocate its headquarters. Therefore, Margiela remains in paris, and Viktor&Rolf in

Amsterdam, together with their independent design and marketing team. It is the job of

each brand to operate independently as it is the group’s to leverage its expertise and

resources to offer a platform for these brands to expand globally.

The fashion empire should always stay modern, fresh and energetic, as Renzo hopes. At OTB

group, although it is encouraged to create an open and cooperative environment for product

design, it is also essential to make a scientific plan from the beginning, since Renzo believes

the combination of creativity and business is the key to survive competition. Therefore, he

would even headhunt from fashion consumption conglomerates like Unilever.

In terms of the rising e-commerce market, Renzo had his attention well divided as well. From

as early as 2006, Renzo has taken the initiative to sell products through luxury e-retailer Yoox.

He has been shrewd enough to have Red Circle Investment, a private company of his family,

becoming a stakeholder of the website. As the share increased to 8.6 %, it is now the largest

stakeholder of the website.

The merger of Yoox and Net-a-Porter, which results in a world top fashion e-commerce site

with 1.4 billion dollars of annual sales, has again proved the judgment of Renzo, as an

investor.

The investment of Renzo varies from the field of organic food, electric automobile, vineyard

and farming. Never driven by profit, Renzo illustrated his philosophy of being cool with his

own life.

It is said that Renzo gets up at 5:55 every morning and practices Yoga or Pilates precisely at

6:15. He barely misses the breakfast with his children, enjoying every minute of family time.

While on vacation, he finds as much fun and excitement in water as in the business world

with a plunge from his own three-floor yacht, Lady May. It seems that in the fashion world,

he is an almost-60-year-old Peter Pan who hardly ages…