Diesel Award Winner Experience!
May 07, 2010
Final evening of ITS#EIGHT. Renzo Rosso steps on stage. He kindly asks the MC of the evening, Victoria Cabello, to step aside for a moment, as he asks everyone – partners, the local government and the local institutions - to support ITS and keep it alive in these hard times. Then he calls Victoria back on stage, and reveals the winner of the Diesel Award: "...And the winner is....ALICE KNACKFUSS!"
The spotlight points towards the area where the finalists (and their teachers) are sitting. Alice stands with her jaw dropped, her eyes (and ears) do not believe what is happening and a weird feeling inside...A crazily happy Akademie Mode Design Munich teacher stands up behind her with his fists to the air as if he won the World Cup yelling "YESSS!!!"
Come on stage, Alice....
Now, many months have passed since that magical evening and Alice is now about to leave the Diesel headquarters. At the end of April, her 6 month internship will be over, just in time for her to see the headquarters move from the old setting in Molvena to the new, incredible building in Breganze (a few km from the old one). After winning the award Alice was completely shocked, surprised and obviously happy. It took a while for her to realize what had happened. Preparing to move to Italy for 6 months to start working for Diesel and experience for herself what it means to work in such a big company filled her with excitement.
Alice arrived at Diesel in November 2009, during the peak of the research process for the following season, when the atmosphere is buzzing with excitement and creativity, and got introduced to the menswear casual department team. The first step in developing a collection for Diesel is putting together tastes originating from different research approaches, to prepare a presentation for Renzo Rosso. This was also the time when Alice met with the rest of the ITS bunch working for Diesel: Teppei Sugaya from ITS#TWO, Maria Giulia Giorgiani from ITS#SIX, Heikki Salonen from ITS#SEVEN (Heikki and Teppei both started working for Diesel after winning the Diesel Award) and Liam Evans who participated in ITS#EIGHT just like Alice.
The presentation to Mr Rosso went really well, so after that what came next was starting to develop the first designs for the collection. Design sketches and ideas are then selected by the heads of the team according to the collection concept. Ideas, details and silhouettes are then constantly developed to reach a point where the Diesel DNA is clearly visible. This particular working process gave Alice a whole new perspective on the way, as well as on the process, of working.
Alice shared an office with Teppei (as well as several lunches together with Liam also) who works in the menswear denim department. She spent a long time developing and colouring prints and designs as well as updating technical drawings, both very important steps to create a strong collection.
The Diesel headquarters - both the old and the new ones - are in the countryside. This makes it so different from being in a big city. The air is clean, the environment around is beautiful...the overall quality of life is better. Alice not only enjoyed the setting, she had the chance to build strong friendships with the other ITS finalists we mentioned before. She had the chance to spend time with Liam, with Heikki, Teppei and Giulia and get to know them better.
Diesel as you know is also famous for parties, and the costume parties organised by the Diesel staff are quite renowned (we've seen some crazy pictures throughout the years...). Alice confirms the quality and fun, with Heikki Salonen deejaying and Teppei and Giulia dressed up as Michael Jackson and Charlie Chaplin (we do not have the rights to show you the pictures here, sorry...).
Now everyone is packing up things to move to the new Breganze setting as we said...It makes it sadder for Alice to move at this particular moment in time, when everyone is so thrilled and excited about the new spot. But it was really special for her to meet with all of these creative young people who believe in what they do, apart from being able to learn a lot about doing collections for the big market...
With a bag that also carries lots of extra experience, she now heads back to Munich...
