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| ITS#FOUR finalist Christoph Froehlich tells us all about winning the Diesel Award |
| March 14, 2006 |
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Very astonished I went on stage hearing my name on the speakers of the catwalk.
I felt very happy and pleased when the lady who announced the prize gave me this envelope and the strange oversized heart and Renzo Rosso was shaking my hands. Now university definitely was over and a career in fashion was here to head on with.
Opening the envelope later in the evening, I realized immediately that this was not such a good idea. In the letter the first meetings with the creative heads of the Diesel design department were already announced and they should already happen within the next 7 days. So for the evening I just was hiding the letter in the depth of my bag and enjoyed partying with all this nice competitors on a beautiful evening at a hangar in Trieste.
Still with a hangover, on the next morning, I opened the envelope again. Now I was properly reading the letter, and honestly I was very shocked about all these deadlines that I needed to keep right in order to get my collection with Diesel done.
- 1st meeting within 7 days with the creative director and the Diesel style office representatives
- Deadline for the final designs within 5 weeks
- First prototypes within the maximum of 8 weeks.
- Second prototypes within the maximum of 11 weeks
My dreams of a relaxing summer immediately imploded in my mind. Just finished with my nerve-wracking studies in Antwerp, would this mean that I would have to continue with the same intensity. More late night shifts in my studio and still no time for my girlfriend?
With this and other questions in mind one week after the competition I was heading back to Italy from my hometown where I just rested for a couple of days.
Arriving in Vicenza, some people from Diesel picked me up and brought me to a beautiful, tiny, little town called Bassano di Grappa (first I wanted to get there via train, but I got told that this is almost impossible...). It is one of the bigger "towns" (10.000 people) next to the Diesel headquarters.
Having delicious dinner, I got introduced to Wilbert Das (Creative Director), Francesco Brusaporco (Style Office) and Vladimiro Baldini (Production Office), beside Michela, a very kind and helpful person From the Diesel Marketing Office who was responsible for the entire organisation within the project over the next few months.
After a presentation about the body of work I had done so far outlining my vision and approach towards fashion, we discussed the options of how to manage the upcoming project towards everybody's greatest expectations.
From the beginning it was very clearly defined that Diesel wanted me to give as much creative freedom as possible, but also asked me to consider that the more complicated and experimental my designs would get the more difficulties Diesel would have with the production and marketing, which - of course - in the end also could affect the quantity and price of the produced pieces.
It was completely up to me how to handle these issues and how and what I wanted to design, but the time gave me some limitations already.
The Diesel Design department really liked my collection that I showed at ITS#FOUR, therefore I decided to keep my inspiration and the look in order to save time to develop new designs (You might be able to tell that in a way the new silhouettes relate very much to my former collection)
But still it somehow was extremely challenging as in the end the new pieces would not get presented with my old collection and therefore they needed to be different and be able to stand there as an individual piece of its own.
The major issue was to show a maximum of creativity still with a real market in the back of my mind.
In the end it was mainly about finding the right balance between a maximum exposure of creativity and the creation of one (somehow wearable) total "Look" within the limited amount of pieces.
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End of August problems were solved and I was heading back to Italy with my sketches, technical drawings, paper-patterns and a suitcase full of sample pieces (although it was not necessary to produce the samples, I thought that it would be very helpful to explain the designs, one garments had up to 50 pattern-pieces, to the production-team in order to avoid misunderstandings and delays caused by this).
I was very excited when I met Wilbert and his team, waiting for comments on the work I did in the last month. I really hoped that they would like it and luckily they did!
They actually topped my expectations as they decided to produce even more than it was initially said in the description of the award. Finally the t-shirt got ordered in two different colours and also some additional jewellery got added to the order.
Mid of September I finally got some rest on the lonely beaches of Portugal while things were moving on in the headquarters of Diesel. Vladimiro of the Production Office was doing as much research as possible to find suitable fabrics for the collection and matching them up with samples that I had given him beforehand. Within some meetings with some fabric suppliers, we finally found what we were looking for?. so the production of the first samples started.
4 weeks later I was back in Italy, very curious about the result but still with some fear that the designs did not get produced properly. When I saw the rag, I was amazed how good the pieces already were looking. Seeing the garments on the model eliminated any last doubts. Ok, some alterations on seams and details still needed to get discussed as well as the definite placement and colours of the prints, but beside that almost everything was fine.
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By the beginning of November I felt that I had succeeded in the realisation of my vision, which I had put down on paper in August.
The next 2 months we were only communicating via courier and email, finally all samples needed to get confirmed, as well as finishings for the buttons and the final washings.
No longer worrying about the production, the concepts for the visualisation and marketing of the collection needed to get considered. Within that, a concept for a photo-shoot as well as some proposals for instore-installations needed to get defined.
Emphasizing the pureness of my collection I wanted to eliminate everything distracting on the photos. Therefore I was choosing for a white studio shot which we finally realized in Milan with my favourite Antwerp (twin) models Victor and Benoit.
My concept for the photo shoot was about showing a dynamic throughout an irritating perspective, as well as creating a movement in the image caused by a wind machine.
Doing the first fitting with my samples we realised very quickly that my patterns could be some kind of guidance, but considering that the average male person is not as skinny as my models were, we decided to upgrade the collection to make it more suitable to a wider public.
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Finding the right concept for the stores was much more difficult than expected
The idea of working out an installation to get the maximum exposure within a tiny, little budget still capable for the facilities of all different kind of Diesel-stores (Diesel extended the amount to 12 Stores, which was very, very nice!!) seemed to ask a lot of cooperation.
Getting introduced to the people of the marketing and sales department showed me how complicated the cooperation of a multibrand is. Communication with all the different stores, using the different infrastructures, facilities and instore-creatives demanded a very clear and detailed vision on paper with a lot of different variations. Throughout this the local staff is able to choose the most suitable option matching with their individual shop.
In the end, I decided on a kind of a mobilé using a lot of wire-laundry hangers hanging from the ceiling on which cutout cardboard-images of the photo shoot in between the garments of my collection could get attached.
Next week I will join the first launches meeting some selected people from the press, having the chance to present not just my latest collection, but as well as outlining my vision, to create innovative designs for a younger public, an aim in which I found great support by Diesel.
For this fantastic experience I would like to say 'thank you' (thanks so much, Wilbert, Francesco, Vladimiro, Michela, Carina, Lucia, Chiara...and all the unmentioned helpers involved in the project!!) for all their time, patience, support and understanding as well as all the lovely people from EVE for their ongoing interests in my work and the great experience, which I had throughout this outstanding award.
And of course I am so curious, how things will finally look like in the shops...even nicer, when they will be out on the streets?
# to be continued
Christoph
x
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