With a new CEO and strategic plan, the original “designer denim” brand began to seriously consider the matter of a comeback. But can it be modernized in methods while maintaining the essence of history?
Editor’s note: This article is from the WeChat public account “BoF Fashion Business Review” (ID: Business_of_Fashion), author BoF Bo Fu Club.
Breganze, Italy-Italian jeans manufacturer Diesel has a plan to fight the epidemic, which is far more technical than adding a plastic spacer in front of the checkout counter. Last week, the company announced a collaboration with the Swedish Polygiene Technology Company to develop a denim fabric treatment method, which said it can “physically prevent 99% of the virus activity” within two hours of exposure to the virus, including the new coronavirus. Jeans using this technology will be available next spring.
Although it may sound unbelievable, Diesel is betting on anti-virus jeans and believes that this will make it stand out in the highly competitive jeans market. This company is seeking to regain the same success as it did in the heyday of the late 1990s and early 2000s. At that time, its founder Renzo Rosso built Diesel into a global giant brand through provocative marketing and carefully controlled denim production and innovation.
In the first decade of this century, Diesel started the rise of the “designer denim” era. At that time, as denim changed from pure casual wear to a single product that could replace formal wear and office wear, brands specializing in jeans that cost more than $200 became more and more popular. Diesel has attracted many customers with its washing and care service for limited edition “dirty jeans”. This low-rise distressed jeans was interpreted by Daisy Lowe in the advertisement at the time and captured many consumers.
But “designer denim” has become an ordinary commodity almost as fast as it has become a separate category. Now, every consumer-facing brand and independent designer brand have launched a denim series. Tights and sports pants have replaced jeans and become the daily uniforms of many people. And Diesel hopes to remind consumers why jeans are favored by them in the first place.