Nostalgia is not a feeling normally associated with Diesel’s vision of the world, which favors a more active, propulsive outlook toward the future. Yet for some reason, Andreas Melbostad was feeling a bit schmaltzy. “I was thinking about my years [as a student] in London, when [I’d] just graduated from the Royal Academy of Arts in the mid-’90s. It was a time of raw, essential energy, as captured by photographers Wolfgang Tillmans and Juergen Teller and by i-D magazine. I was a big fan,” he said backstage before the show.
He worked the Fall collection around a new, elongated silhouette; it was a first for Diesel. It had a grungy, cool, romantic feel to it, injected with strength and moving to a fast, pulsing rhythm. Under their long knitted sweaterdresses or narrow zippered leather maxi skirts, models were wearing soft suede sneakers, which allowed them to walk at a quick, gliding pace.
As always with Melbostad’s design ethos, the play on construction and deconstruction, as well as a focus on repurposing and hybridization, was at the heart of the collection, laced by nods to masculine-inspired sartorial ingredients. A Prince of Wales peacoat was shrunken into a fitted shape, topping a maxi skirt covered in paillettes; apron dresses in foulard and cravat micro-prints had a feminine fluidity. The lineup exuded an assertive, confident grace, and the maxi silhouette looked cool. “In my vision, I’ve always tried to provide women with a sense of empowerment, protection, and support,” the designer explained, sensibly referring to the not-so-easy environment we’re confronted with today.
