DIESEL LIVENS UP UNION SQUARE
Byline: Peter Braunstein
NEW YORK — Over the years, Union Square in Manhattan has been a cultural hub for such diverse activities as shopping, May Day rallies, skateboarding and muggings, but nothing in its history has prepared it for the newest milestone: the opening of the Diesel superstore last Thursday.
The 11,000-square-foot store is only the third Diesel flagship to open in the U.S., joining its sister flagship in midtown Manhattan and the Post Street superstore in San Francisco.
“There’s really no other clothing stores around here, so we landmarked Union Square as a Diesel fashion location that targets New York residents,” said Diesel associate marketing director Paul Witt. “It’s at the center of trends, from skateboarders to NYU students.”
The location, at 1 Union Square West, may at first glance seem counterintuitive, given that many Greenwich Village shoppers tend to head south into SoHo as part of their shopping route. But the Diesel store may end up as the natural starting or spillover point for shoppers attracted to Union Square by the HMV megastore or the United Artists multiplex on 14th Street — and Diesel certainly attracts the same demographic.
The new Diesel flagship is a study in contrasts. On the one hand, it boasts the world’s first 55DSL shop, housing the Diesel clothing and accessories line devoted to skate rats, snowboarders and “those who live hard,” as Witt put it. Yet this retail novelty is situated in the landmark Lincoln Building at 1 Union Square West, which was first built in 1889 and had the distinction — for three whole weeks — of being New York’s tallest skyscraper (it was all of nine stories high).
The main Diesel store, at 8,300 square feet, is composed of two floors and resembles the set of MTV’s “Total Request Live.” The top floor is focused on denim and includes the hallowed “denim wall,” showcasing Diesel’s current jeans offerings, supplemented by a “Denim Guidance” chart. Downstairs, the stairwell leads directly to the deejay booth, and the bottom floor is earmarked for fashionistas, showcasing footwear, women’s jeanswear and men’s and women’s sportswear.
The store is replete with the quirky touches one has come to expect from Diesel: dressing-room doors on one floor are marked “devilish,” “delightful,” “dangerous” and “delicious.”
“We’ve integrated the seasonal campaigns into stores like never before,” said Witt. Diesel’s fall-winter 2001 advertising campaign, which solicits customers to “save themselves” by inhaling pure oxygen or drinking urine, is amplified in the store through various devices: a shelf behind the lower-level checkout counter is lined with oxygen tanks.
Next door, the 55DSL store is basically a giant slacker den, replete with a hip-hop-spinning deejay and lounge couch where customers can avail themselves of Playstation 2. In the 14th-Street window, a slacker-mannequin sitting in a lounge chair is watching skate-rat videos in a TV room boasting a Bruce Lee poster. The only missing element of authenticity in 55DSL: the smell of spilled bong water.
WWD caught up with Diesel chairman and owner Renzo Rosso, who flew into town to commemorate the flagship opening. Having co-founded Diesel in 1978 and acquired full ownership of the company in 1985, Rosso mused that Diesel’s anti-authoritarian, free-spirited, idiosyncratic brand image may stem in part from his coming of age in Italy of the late Sixties.
“I was born in 1955 and lived through the revolutions of 1968 — the hippies, the sunflowers, the Beatles,” Rosso recalled. “They were the Seattle people [anti-WTO protesters] of their day. And people rebelled against everything — their parents, but also their clothing. Before ’68, the clothing was bulky and ill-fitting.
“Then, I remember the first pair of pants I ever designed: low-waisted, orange bell-bottoms that flared out extremely. It was a great time to be alive.”
According to Rosso, today’s consumer is more savvy and more choosy.
“Diesel has 1,800 different models — if you count shoes, shades and children’s stuff, we have 2,700 different models by season,” he said. “That makes it easier for us to sell more products to a variety of stores and allows for varied presentation. It’s not like Gucci, Armani or the Gap, where each store looks the same.”
Rosso feels that Gap’s model of universal store uniformity is out of sync with modern consumers, who increasingly seek out shopping experiences tailored to their specific needs.
“Starbucks, the Gap — their philosophy is outdated,” he said. “People want customization, not just in clothing but in music. Home-made music, deejay compilations — that’s where the trend is now.”
Recently, Giorgio Armani made some controversial comments to the Italian press in which he sided with the anti-globalization protesters and denounced the worldwide domination of American culture. Rosso, for his part, both agrees and disagrees with Armani’s assessment.
“I still admire America; I learned to do business in America,” he said. “What’s not great is that the Americans want to sell anything to anybody just to make money.”