Renzo Rosso

Built in 1592, the bridge hasn't been restored since 1975. The restoration is expected to take 18 months, once the preliminary research is carried out, and should be finished by February 2016, according to a statement by Venice city officials. In a phone interview with the newspaper Corriere della Sera, Rosso explained "Master craftspeople will meticulously clean the stone, which will take some time, it’s a bit like restoring a painting. The cleaning will be preceded by a careful analysis of the bridge, which will include study of the foundations by scuba divers. We want this restoration to last for the next 1,000 years."

Published for Rosso's 40th and 50th birthdays respectively, 'Forty' and 'Fifty' look at the key moments in Diesel's history, from its "jeans & workwear" beginnings followed by years of groundbreaking advertising, to its current premium positioning. The latter publication includes contributions from the Dalai Lama, Vivienne Westwood, Paul Smith, Alexander McQueen, Maison Martin Margiela, Bono, Vincent Gallo, Naomi Campbell, Terry Jones, Kevin Roberts, Peter Saville, Dazed & Confused, Numéro and Vogue.

Published on Renzo Rosso' 60th birthday, "Radical Renaissance 55+5" traces the evolution of his forward-thinking group of companies and features the provocative photography of eye-catching campaigns, groundbreaking runway shows, and previously unreleased behind-the-scenes images. The volume explores the worlds of design visionaries including Martin Margiela, Nicola Formichetti, John Galliano, Consuelo Castiglioni and Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren.

Born in Brugine (Padova), since the mid-1970s Rosso has resided in Bassano del Grappa, Veneto. In an interview with CNN in 2004, Rosso said he usually spends his free time practicing yoga and Pilates, playing soccer, jogging, and snowboarding.

Rosso dropped out of the University of Venice in 1975 and began to work as Production Manager at Moltex, a local clothing manufacturer that produced trousers for various Italian clothing labels. Moltex' parent company, the Genius Group, was run by Adriano Goldschmied who would eventually become Rosso's mentor and Future Business partner. During Rosso's first two years at Moltex the company grew rapidly. In 1978, after Rosso had managed to increase the company's production beyond what Goldschmied actually considered possible, Rosso wanted to leave the company in order to start a new Business on his own. However, Goldschmied convinced Rosso to stay by offering him a 40% stake in Moltex and by agreeing to form a new company together, thus forming Diesel. Following the new partnership, Rosso also became shareholder of the Genius Group, which gathered brands such as Replay, King Jeans and Viavai. Created Goldie label which Katharine Hamnett designed a collection for, before launching DIESEL among others.

The event was advertised through the release of a video titled 'Diesel SFW XXX Party Video', which immediately went viral and spread rapidly across the Internet, mostly due to its ironic take on 1980s style pornography. By 2011 it had been viewed more than 20 million times online and Classified as one of the most successful viral campaigns ever. Additionally, the anniversary event also featured the production of a limited edition pair of jeans, called 'The Dirty Thirty'. The denim, which were for sale for one day only (on the date of the birth of the brand) at the extremely discounted price of €30 and modeled by Daisy Lowe, caused 'hysteria' and lead consumers to form mile-log lines outside Diesel stores around the world. These jeans were sold out within just a few hours worldwide.

After taking charge of Diesel in 1985, Rosso strived to build a team of international, like-minded designers. Thereafter, and ever since Diesel established itself on the international market, Rosso has consistently credited the company's success to his hard-working staff. When Diesel was awarded "Advertiser of the Year" at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in 1998, Rosso wanted to play a prank on the organizers. When he was asked to come onstage, he surprised the 3,000 guests by bringing his whole Creative Team on stage; all dressed the same way and wearing identical wigs that mimicked his curly hair. Before accepting the award, he introduced everyone in his team one-by-one to the audience, and explained that the prize in fact belonged to his hard-working team, not just himself.

Founded in 1989, ANDAM (National Association for the Development of the Fashion Arts) seeks, in the words of its President Pierre Bergé, "to identify emerging talents in contemporary fashion design and offer them the means to exist, to produce a runway show during Paris Fashion Week, and to establish and develop their label in France, thus perpetuating the dynamism of the Parisian fashion scene." Thanks to its sponsors (Fashion GPS, the Pierre Bergé Yves Saint Laurent Foundation, Longchamp, Yves Saint Laurent, Galeries Lafayette, thecorner.com, OTB, LVMH, Swarovski, Hudson’s Bay Company), as well as of two public institutions, the DEFI and the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, ANDAM is the largest international fashion Prize, a driving force in the development of new fashion designers in France. Renzo Rosso, was the mentor of the 2013 ANDAM finalists. In addition to the financial endowment of the prize, the winners benefited from the strategic, creative and commercial coaching of a worldwide fashion industry Entrepreneur, helping the winners develop their label and build an international reputation.

Since the early 1990s Rosso has won multiple awards across fashion, advertising and Business.

In late 1992 Rosso purchased a farm close to the Diesel headquarters in Molvena, in the Italian region of Veneto, where he began producing wine and olive oil under the name Diesel Farm. Initially the purchase was meant as a gift to his Father, who until then had questioned his choice of career, but who then, for the first time, understood that his son had in fact become a successful Business Entrepreneur. At the time of the purchase the farm and its land was at risk of getting divided into separate lots for multiple buyers, but Rosso was able to prevent this by taking charge of the whole estate. Today the land and the old farm buildings are considered a nature reserve.

In 1994, Rosso reopened the Pelican Hotel on Miami's South Beach strip. The hotel, which was a historical Art Deco building constructed in 1939, had been restored under the direction of his Creative Team after Rosso had fallen in love with the building in 1991 and purchased it one month later. Its kitsch, retro-styled interior with each room being independently designed and different from the others, was considered unique for its time and contributed to Diesel's image of the 'Successful Living' lifestyle. Several years later the hotel was listed by British daily newspaper The Independent as one of the world's "best fashion hotels". Other brands included in the list were hotels by Missoni, Armani, Bulgari and Ralph Lauren, which had all been opened after the Pelican.

In 1995, Diesel became the first major fashion brand to embrace the Internet with the launch of www.diesel.com, which two years later was followed by the first online store of any fashion brand. Later in 1995 the company also launched one of its most popular yet provocative campaigns ever, featuring two kissing sailors staged at the peace celebration of World War II. Shot by Photographer David LaChapelle, it was the first major public advertisement to show a homosexual couple kissing and was published at height of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" debates in the USA, which had led the U.S. Government to refuse entry to military Service for openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual persons. In a long article published by Frieze in 1996, the advertisement was credited for its "overarching tone of heavy-handed humor and sarcasm".

In 1996, Rosso was asked to take charge of Bassano Virtus 55 S.T., the soccer team of his hometown Bassano del Grappa. As a thanks for all the local support that he has received when building the Diesel company, he began to support the team financially and also agreed to help manage the club. Since then, the team has successfully advanced from Italy's lower divisions to the country's third highest division, the Lega Pro Prima Divisione.

In 1997, the English music and trend magazine Select cited Renzo as one of "the 100 most important people in the world who will contribute to the shape of the new millennium." That same year Ernst & Young nominated Rosso "Entrepreneur of the Year" for Diesel's strong development in the U.S.

Rosso received the Advertiser of the Year in 1998 and Grand Prix awards in 2010, 2009, 2007, 2001 1997, and 1992, at Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

Throughout the 2000s, Rosso has been a supporter of AmfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research.,

In 2001 Rosso began Manufacturing and selling wine and olive oil. The products, called Rosso di Rosso (Merlot & Cabernet Sauvignon), Nero di Rosso (Pinot noir), Bianco di Rosso (Chardonnay), Grappa di Rosso (grappa), and Olio di Rosso (extra virgin olive oil) are produced at the 105-hectare Diesel Farm in Marostica, Veneto, a few kilometers from his home.

In 2002 Rosso purchased the majority of the stakes in the Maison Margiela fashion house. Like Rosso, Maison Margiela always had a profound admiration for vintage and authenticity. In the 1990s Maison Margiela became famous for his concept of deconstruction, where he made re-designs of old wigs, canvases and vintage silk scarves, which were transformed into hand-made couture garments. Other similarities between the two can be seen in Maison Margiela's alternative methods in marketing and communication, where the designer continuously refused to partake in face-to-face interviews or photos, and always enforced media relations to be conducted by fax or email. Since the early 2000s' he has been widely acknowledged as one of the most influential and enigmatic designers on the global fashion stage. In December 2009, it was reported that Martin Margiela had quietly left the fashion house.

In 2003 Rosso received Movieline's Hollywood Life Annual Breakthrough of the Year Award in Los Angeles, acknowledging how Diesel managed to break through into the American market.

In 2004 Rosso, received the International Leading Entrepreneur Award in Monte Carlo. Presented at the Monaco Investors Week, it honors the efforts of a businessman who represents vision, professional ethics and the courage to undertake a particular venture.

Rosso has received honorary degrees from University of Verona, Italy, in 2005; and from the CUOA Foundation of Altavilla Vicentina, Italy, in 2000, who cited Diesel as "one of the entrepreneurial phenomena of the 1990s."

In 2006 Hollywood Life magazine prized Rosso with the "Fashion Visionary" award in Los Angeles, and cited Diesel "as one of the most innovative and successful brands in fashion."

In 2007 this approach took another step, leading to the infamous 'Heidies'. It mocked the phenomenon of reality TV and was one of the first ever campaigns by a fashion brand solely based on the Internet. It featured two Models that were locked inside a room and who did whatever the online viewers suggested. The Models played two mentally crazy women who, wanting to claim their 15 minutes of fame, had taken an intimate Diesel sales guy as hostage, closed themselves up in a hotel room and hijacked the company's website; requesting that they be selected for the next Diesel advertising campaign. The employee was said to work for Diesel Intimate, as the campaign was in fact the launch for the brand's new line of intimate and beachwear. The campaign became a huge success, and reached over 100,000 views daily while it was live. It was awarded at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival that same year.

In June 2008, Rosso donated 2,000,000 HKD ($250,000) to the Special Relief Fund for Children Affected by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, established by UNICEF to help children affected by the tremor in southwest China on May 12.

In 2009, Rosso, together with Millennium Promise, started supporting the development of the Only The Brave Millennium Village, in Dioro, Mali. Following the model of the Millennium Villages, which help communities lift themselves out of extreme poverty, the first steps in Mali included distributing seeds and fertilizers to boost agriculture, providing bed nets to decrease malaria, and the construction of a new health clinic. Additionally, a new primary school, equipped and run with solar panels, was built with expanded classrooms, latrines for boys and girls and a new school kitchen. In the spring of 2010 Rosso visited the village to personally oversee the development. At a press conference in September, the CEO of Millennium Promise, John McArthur, said "Renzo and the Only The Brave Foundation bring an extraordinary spirit of creativity and entrepreneurship to this collaboration, all driven by passion to end extreme poverty."

In 2010, Rosso was named Millennium Promise Millennium Development Goals Global Leader in conjunction with the Millennium Development Goals Summit, at the United Nations in New York.

In October 2011, Rosso was knighted Cavaliere del Lavoro by the President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano. The award ceremony took place at the Quadriennale in Rome and was broadcast live on RAI in Italy.

On July 26, 2012, Rosso created the Brave Circle Fund to help people hit by the 2012 earthquakes in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. A personal endowment of 5 million Euro, is dedicated to setting up a micro-credit program for local people and small and medium enterprises who need help in reconstructing homes and businesses, but who normally would not have access to the traditional banking system because of their lack of guarantees. At launch, Rosso said the aim was to fund "700-800 projects with € 5,000-50,000 each" and explained that it will be developed in collaboration with Etimos Foundation, a not-for-profit organization based in Italy, with experience in micro-finance.

In the spring of 2013, Rosso named Nicola Formichetti, the former Stylist of Lady Gaga and creative Director of Mugler, as Diesel's Artistic Director. The announcement followed days of speculation and was met with positive response across the fashion world and daily news press. In an interview with V Magazine following the announcement, Rosso said "I finally met somebody as crazy as I am", and explained that Formichetti's new responsibilities will be overseeing "the total view" of Diesel's brand, including product, communications, marketing and interior design.

In 2015, Rosso took part in the documentary film Marithé + François = Girbaud directed by Jérémie Carboni.

On December 14, The New York Times reported that Rosso would donate 5 million euros to restore Venice's famous Rialto Bridge. The donation would be made through Rosso's holding company OTB. In a statement to WWD, Rosso said "A modern Entrepreneur should help, not replace, the public administration that is often overburdened with costs", explaining that "Venice is close to my heart, the city where I went to university, and a point of reference for me." Following the donation, Alessandro Maggioni, Venice’s councilor in charge of public works, said, "We are facing a period of severe crisis in Italy, and even a city like Venice doesn’t have the means to cover all the restoration and maintenance works its immense cultural heritage would require. This is why Renzo Rosso’s commitment is so important for us: it is a message for the entire world."