Heikki is a Diesel Creative Employee
March 25, 2009
We first met Heikki Salonen in March 2008 at Royal College of Art. He stepped into the room and he didn't make an impression on us. He opened up his portfolio, we saw his drawings and were impressed. So impressed we were speechless.
Heikki won the Diesel Award at ITS#SEVEN proving that he's not only amazing at drawing, he's also incredible at conceiving and producing a fashion collection. Two qualities that struck Diesel founder Renzo Rosso and creative director Wilbert Das, who had no doubt about the winner when asked about their choice on Saturday 19 July 2008. And when the master of ceremonies announced his name, Heikki went blacked out. It took him a while to realise what had happened...
Shortly after, Heikki moved to Molvena, Italy, where Diesel has its Headquarters. He was introduced to the Diesel Creative team by Teppei Sugaya, ITS#TWO winner of the Diesel Award who has been working there for quite a while now (there are several former ITS finalists working for Diesel...click here).
At first Heikki joined the womenswear line team, learning the basic frame of how collections come to life at Diesel and realising the great amount of work that lies behind such an international company. He was assigned several tasks: he worked on themes and moods for new womens collections, designed and illustrated looks, drew flats...then started all over again because it needed changes! As other ITS finalists reported in the past, one of the first things you learn when you work for a renowned brand like Diesel, is that your designs need to be approved by a number of offices, mainly the production office.
The head of production tells you what you can do and what you can't. For instance, you want to include red and yellow beads in a shirt? Production says no because beads cost too much at the moment and it's too expensive to include them if they expect to produce 10,000 pieces. So the designer has to gather his designs and change them accordingly...
Not only has Heikki been doing (and re-doing) all of the above, but he also had to find the time to work on his own new collection, so he even flew back to London for 4 days to put the finishing touches on his outfits! He then flew back to Molvena and went back to work: embroidering pearls from 7.30am to midnight, cutting fabrics and working with seamstresses, embroidering pearls again from 7.45am to 00.15am while listening to all Massive Attack albums, drawing until his hand was numb and then continuing to draw new styles with his numb hand...Then he found the time to prepare the shipment of his new collection to Paris, flew to Paris and then back to Italy to prepare illustrations for Diesel collections and work for the Diesel fashion show...a hectic work lifestyle, don't you think?
