Andreas Melbostad had been leafing through “Small Trades”, a book of Irving Penn portraits of workmen in the fifties, when designing his Spring 2017 Diesel Black Gold Collection. Given the foundation of the label in denim – the fabric of the everyman, and workwear in origin – is it any number he found inspiration in their clobber for his clobber? Denim obviously wasn’t the only look offered – there was a healthy dose of leather, shorts and sweatshirts in the season’s fave fabric, nylon, and boxy kimono jackets in quilted cottons, and narrow ticking stripe – but denim dominates. It is Diesel’s expertise with the fabric that’s made their name after all, and here it was innovatively cut into wrap-front jackets pitched with utility pockets, as well as enviably lean and mean jeans. Melbostad’s work here is evidently well-done.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
