Daniel's diary
March 19, 2007
| What happens after the winner of the Diesel Award has walked the catwalk of ITS holding the magenta heart prize in his hands and feeling his own heart on the point of exploding? Read Daniel Ivarsson's personal diary on the experience and you'll know... DANIEL'S DIARY First of all, hats of for the entire Eve organisation with its contributors, guests and finalists for creating a fantastic atmosphere and experience. I salute you. 14 July 2006: I was pondering different breathing techniques for getting the heart rate down to a somewhat normal level when I distantly heard the announcement of the Diesel Award: "This time the Diesel Award goes to a guy from Sweden?" I was suddenly very much awake. My mind was searching for info in my head about another Swedish guy in the ITS#FIVE finals. There was none... I managed to make my way to the catwalk, shook Renzo Rosso's hand, took the stroll down the stage and found my way back to the seat. What had just happened was still hard to grasp. But in my hands I had a plastic fantastic heart and an envelope which I was to discover contained the specifics and timetable of the collaboration with Diesel. After the show it was time to quickly pack up the collection. Then it was time for interviews and photos, fireworks and partying to be enjoyed with an amazing bunch of people. I then opened the prize envelope and read the details of the collaboration: 28 July 2006 - Diesel HQ in Molvena (Vicenza), Italy: - Briefing with Wilbert Das and the Diesel Style Office representatives - Fabric & material discussion and selection End of August: -Delivery of final sketches Mid September: - Prototypes - Fabric research Mid November: - prototypes delivery - Fitting End November: - Presentation of the 5 selected items From March 2007: - Mini-collection delivered to the stores Collection will be distributed through Diesels flagship stores in: USA Diesel denim gallery, New York Japan Diesel denim gallery, Tokyo UK Diesel flagship store, kings road Italy Diesel concept store Berlin Mitte France Diesel concept store Marais Belgium Diesel store Antwerp ...but it was not the moment to think about these things...the party was waiting for me so I stick the envelope with my near future inside on the front of my head and...had a blast!!! |
 Early August: After a couple of great weeks with my girlfriend in a boiling hot Paris I headed back to Italy, this time to Venice and from there to the Diesel headquarters which are in Molvena, next to a stunning little town called Bassano del Grappa. I brought with me a bit of stress, nervousness, a chunk of excitement and my initial ideas. At Diesel I met with Wilbert Das (the Diesel Creative Director) and Michela Dalla Corte (Marketing Office), a really nice person that was to administrate and organise the coming period. Then (driving in a quality Swedish designed Saab cabriolet...) we went off to a tasty Italian restaurant for dinner were I also got introduced to Francesco Brusaporco (Style Office), Vladimiro Baldini (Production Office) and Luca Zanatta (Product Development Manager Woven). After dinner we had a meeting at the Diesel Style Office and a first talk about my initial ideas: the direction I wanted to take for the collection and the specifics and different possibilities for the project. It was clear from Diesel's point of view that they wanted me to freely express my creativity, but they also reminded me that the amount of detailing, the materials and the complicacy would have affected the amount of pieces produced and the final price. Early September: I'm heading back to Molvena with my final designs, patterns, samplings, etc. in my bag. I'll meet Francesco, Vladimiro and Luca and I hope they will like my designs (I keep my fingers crossed!). They did in the end, so everything went well! It was then time for fabric selection, finishing specifications and trimmings. I did some meetings with fabric suppliers in Paris, and a couple of days later these things were all sorted out. For the first time, my work is about to be produced in factories... in a number of pieces that for me equals to A LOT of pieces... The mere thought of it makes me feel ecstatic!! End of September: I'm back in Molvena and am excited by the scheduled meetings with the modellist and the various factories for the development of my collection. With some help on Italian (a language I have yet to master) all is going smoothly. After that I also had a great walk around Bassano del Grappa discovering its beauties: the architecture, a stunning old roof-covered bridge, the rapid river coming down from the mountains... |
October: I'm back in Molvena since I'm eager to see the first samples of the pieces as well as the metal and leather finishings. While I was doing the fitting I realised there were some changes and adjustments needed, but it started to look great! November: For the delivery of the collection, I had been working on different merchandise and photo shoot concepts which were to be discussed with the Diesels Visual Team. And because of the budget and the different kinds of spaces from shop to shop it needed to be a concept which could easily be adjusted and reinterpreted to fit each single shop. My idea was to display the different pieces as individual 3 dimensional art objects. A top would be displayed on a half body manikin structure suspended from the scaffoldings, with a hollow frame around it. This would draw a focus on each individual garment and challenge the viewer with the choice of the point of view. The samples were now at a final stage: when I saw the collection on the model I really felt everything was coming out right. The final decisions were taken. I also heard that the shops had requested more pieces of my collection than what was initially planned. This of course put a big and lasting smile on my face! February: I arrived in Bassano del Grappa on a late afternoon, to check out the location for the following day's photo shoot. It was a beautiful big house set at the foot of the mountains and it had three floors filled with beautiful antique furniture. It felt like Christmas Eve walking around! Next morning after a great breakfast I was introduced to photographers Nena and Tomy and the shoot was arranged. |
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End February: I received the photos a couple of weeks ago and printed them out. I've pinned them on my studio wall and I truly feel that the mission of putting the essence of my ITS#FIVE collection in the Diesel Award collection is achieved. Winning the Diesel Award meant a lot to me. It has been an invaluable opportunity to get an insight of how a major fashion company works and on top of this, I got the opportunity to reach the international press and show my designs to a massive customer base. Working with Diesel and getting a capsule collection produced with my own name on the label, distributed all around the world is a dream. Within a couple of weeks my collection will be in the shops. That's surreal. A big thank you and lots of hugs to every one in Eve and Diesel for giving me this fantastic opportunity and experience. thank you. X Daniel |
