Renzo Rosso presenta "Seventy" - Libreria Palazzo Roberti, 19 novembre 2025

But first I wanted to thank all of you here. We have an exceptional audience, apart from all my friends, of whom I am always very proud when they follow me. We have the Police, Prefects, Mayors, great celebrities, my friend Red, and of course my wife, my little Sydney. Well, I love you all, thank you for being here, and it is truly a pleasure to have you here. I always say, I don't have so much time to talk to the people of Bassano, even though I live here and almost never go out, as I was telling the lady earlier, and when I cross the square it pleases me that people want to shake my hand, want to ask me a lot of things, so perhaps tonight we take the opportunity that I am here, I will tell you a bit about what I do, what I have done, and how my vision, how I think, has been 70 crazy years, so I am 70, yes, I just celebrated them, they are a lot. I think I don't show them, but that doesn't matter because beyond the physical aspect, I don't feel my 70 years and I am here, mentally I really don't feel them.

I even talk to my managers who are 30-40 years old and sometimes I feel superior to them. I talk about chat GPT, I talk about artificial intelligence at a truly incredible level compared to the average management. So thanks to all the people close to me, thanks to my desire to always be curious, to want to learn, to want to do something new. I am what I am and I can manage things in a strange way, a different way. Some say crazy, for me it's not crazy, for me it's just a person who has the cultural baggage exactly of what exists, of what the world has, of what the world offers, of what modernity is in general, especially from the new generations. Who really feels the needs of young people because they want to do these new startups, they make these new companies that are jobs that don't exist because they feel the need for something that doesn't exist in society. So, thanks to contact, thanks to my life with all this type of people, then I can make more modern, more aggressive choices for certain other people compared to what is the reality of the market in general.

But first of all, I attended a technical school for clothing in Padua. It was a new school, I chose it because my father wanted someone in the family to study. My two older brothers didn't go to high school, and I chose this school because there were no teachers. It was so new that the teachers were company managers. So I chose this school, I chose this profession in the clothing industry, which I didn't really have a talent for, but I liked it very much, and so I learned a lot of things: pattern making, fabric pattern making, fabric chemistry, how fabric is composed, fiber, business management, organization, time and methods. I learned that and then put it to use, and as I continued my studies, at 15 I made my first jeans with my mother's sewing machine, and it was a real success because obviously I liked making things different from what existed from the start. So I made a crazy low-rise jeans that was problematic to wear. My friends were my first customers. It had a very narrow leg, 42 cm opening, and they liked it so much that I had to start making them for all my friends, so my story was born there. So we can say the small home tailoring shop, which was me, my mother, and my neighbor who helped me, and I made these garments for them, which allowed me to earn extra, so I didn't have to ask my father for money, I could go to the disco and maybe have a bottle instead of a small drink, so I was already living a slightly better life than what could be a normal life.

So, I started making the product I really wanted to make, that was in '85, even though it started in '78. The first 5-7 years were with my partner Adriano G Smith, a fundamental person for me because I learned a world, a way, a worldwide life, because he already lived the world. But there I was a bit of a workshop boy, I worked hard, produced a lot, earned a lot, made the company earn a lot, and he drained me. So at a certain point, in '85 I decided to go my own way, so I wanted to go alone and finally made the product I dreamed of, whereas before I was the one working behind the scenes. In '85 I made my product and I made Denim, because Denim was fundamental to me. I have worn denim every day of my life since I was 12 years old. I even wore my older brother's used pants. So the first thing I wanted to do was to have a strong, healthy, solid, cool, modern, beautiful product, and there I focused on doing something to earn the respect of customers. I wanted a person who bought a product made by us to come back and buy again, so to earn loyalty, which today is already a bit harder to earn. So once I earned this loyalty, because I think I managed to do something truly special, different, incredible. Again, it would take half an hour to talk about what was done in those 5 years, but after those 5 years I started the world of communication.

Finally I was ready to show what I had done, so I wanted to communicate it, and to communicate it I couldn't do it in a normal way. So I took all the fashion magazines from around the world, the important ones: L'Uomo Vogue, Vogue, for him, for her, and those that existed at the time. I tore out the pages of fashion companies and wallpapered my entire office, a large office of almost 200 square meters. The entire wall was covered with all these advertisements, even on the floor, and I thought: how could my advertisement be? So, the first thing that emerged was that you could move a brand from one page to another, there was no difference, so I had already highlighted that my communication model had to give a meaning, give something. Then I thought, the funny thing would be to start a dialogue with the people who buy this product. I wanted to interact. And so, I started thinking about doing a campaign where I talked about social themes of life, themes like smoking 145 cigarettes a day, or if you drink urine you stay young, so somewhat crazy things that were not like Benetton. Benetton did things just to shock, to attract attention, no matter how ugly. I just wanted interaction. I wanted to do something that today, 10, 20, 35 years later, is done in the world of social media. Today you seek interaction, we did it in the '90s, and I put my personality, my personality is irony, and so I made communication pages with somewhat sarcastic, ironic themes, where sometimes I put the product or didn't, because I couldn't care less about the product. I was just looking for interaction. So someone would say: what does this mean? Why smoke 145 cigarettes a day? I said, if you smoke cigarettes you get cancer, it's cool, it could be fine. I also took on Philip Morris, if you are interested. But for me it was interesting to create interaction. So interaction meant 'How cool is this brand, let me go see what they do' and then they would go to see our stores, our product. So we created a conversation that was certainly different and became famous. Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, even says: 'There is advertising before Diesel and after Diesel.' We really changed the way of doing communication. So I think this is something that will remain in the history of the world of communication, of what Diesel has done. This is one of the things that really changed the way of speaking, of dialoguing, and so with these campaigns we certainly touched many themes, touched many people, and then it led to incredible things, such as the first men kissing, done by David LaChapelle, done by us. Today it seems normal, but done in the 90s, two men kissing was something truly disruptive. So much so, I remember Max, a very famous German magazine at the time, even made a petition with all that audience asking: 'Do you want to receive this type of advertising?' and we received 100 out of 100 that everyone wanted to see this type of communication.

I have always wanted a creative beside me. I always say, I have never designed anything, I don't want to design anything, but I know exactly what I want, so I go to the creative director and tell him what I expect him to do. Of course the creative director adds his plus, his creativity, his DNA, his culture. Working with these three men has been crazy. I still have one, actually. So Martin is, I think, absolutely the founder of Maison Margiela. And it's incredible because when I became his partner, the whole world wanted him, he made a brand that inspired the entire fashion world: Armani, Prada, everyone went to get inspiration from Margiela. So for me, becoming his partner, he wanted me because he said I was different, so it was a great honor to work with him. We spent a few years together, then at a certain point he retired, even though I was very sorry, but he told me: 'Renzo, fashion is not part of my DNA, I want to live another life,' and he said, 'I promise I will never work for anyone,' and he gave me a document, and that's how it was. So imagine, when we took over the factory, a beautiful old school, his thought was: there was a fire exit he could use to enter because he never wanted to be seen by anyone. So a very particular character, a person truly above above any. I have worked with the greatest creative directors in the world, he was exceptional. Whatever problem you had, with a calm, with a nonchalance, he answered you in real time. He was truly a unique person, unique in the world. I still have a relationship with him, even though he never shows himself.

John came from this great break he had with the LVMH group. He was, let's say, for me he is perhaps the greatest, most revolutionary creative director that has ever existed in the world, and I had the fortune to work with him. I courted him for 2 years because after this break he had to go to rehab, he had big problems, he was doing 32 collections a year, so imagine how he stayed on his feet 24 hours a day to do everything he had to do. You can only imagine. So he was a person who eventually ended up where he ended up because they had really squeezed him dry. So I followed him for 2 years, we met in secret, and then finally I brought him on board. A big risk for the fashion world. Fashion said: 'You are taking on a big responsibility.' For me, no, because I think we all can make mistakes, we all should have the opportunity to try again. So for me it was a normal thing, and with him it was a truly incredible relationship, a difficult person to manage. It lasted 10 years, let's say, we separated recently, I wanted the separation because he would have wanted to stay with me. John is a truly special person, one who sometimes makes you breakfast, sometimes not. The fashion world demands that every season you have to come out, you have to do the show, and unfortunately we didn't have that in us; we delivered winter clothes in summer, summer clothes in winter, so it was a necessary separation. But what he did for Margiela is crazy, he brought it to be the brand even now, because the product that is in stores right now is still John's, and it is flying high during a crisis. In the luxury crisis of our sector, Margiela is still flying, double digits, so he is truly an exceptional person.

And now this new kid has arrived, who has already been working with me for many years, he did Diesel, Glenn Martens, also crazy, really, because everything he does is not normal. He is not easier to manage on a daily basis, even though he is much younger, and all these creative directors are truly very strange people, different from us, very creative, they see things in a different way from us and see things before us. So I chose him because I think he is the right person to carry on after John, after Martin. The beautiful thing is that for this maison we have three couturiers, so they are not designers, they are couturiers. Couturier, so you understand what a designer is: a designer is someone who draws, makes a fashion drawing, like many do today, even with ChatGPT they make less effort. The couturier instead is that designer who truly creates the dress, thinking about the story behind that dress. So that means he imagines his muse getting out of bed, the hair, the makeup, the music, the climate, the colors. So there is a story behind every dress made by a couturier, and so the beauty that Margiela has never had a designer but has had three couturiers, I would say, is something truly unique. It is very rare, it has never happened in history. I am honored that it is part of my group, and now with Glenn we are developing the after-John, which will certainly be different. We just did the first couture show. Imagine, at the couture show the clothes were truly out of this world. I went to see the clothes during the creative process and told him: 'You have to cut, you have to cut, it's too much, it's too much.' And he said: 'No, no, Renzo, let's go ahead.' He said: 'But there are too many. If you want, I can make another 10?' It's crazy, so they are truly incredible men, and we will see how it continues. So it's beautiful for me to work with this type of people because it gives you a vision, a way of thinking that is not ours, it's a different way, and then you can, thanks to these inputs, these spirits, these visions, form your own vision.

So, especially at this moment when the industry is not doing so well, there are truly many brands on the market and many knock on our door. Obviously, to be part of the OTB group, one must have foundations, one must have visions, and above all one must have a DNA. For me, DNA is important, so having something that is truly different, truly creative, and that there is modernity in making these products, that these products are not similar to others. Look at the fashion shows. There are fashion weeks, these big brands, the biggest ones, all those you know, the most important ones. Look at all these brands. In the end, if there isn't the presenter telling you that this is from one brand and that from another, they are all the same. Look at this, it's crazy. What I recognize in the brands that are part of the OTB group is that they incredibly have DNA. There is a story, a red thread from when they were born to now. They have something that makes you see that that brand exists and is recognizable. Today, these big brands work much more on entertainment, they work much more on products. I spoke with a great designer who was in Paris, now moved to Italy, one of the greatest, and she told me: 'Renzo, I can't take it anymore, the stores are big, I have to make products, products, products.' So products can no longer be together because to make only products, because there is a need to make sales, you also have to do things that the market asks: 'Oh, that guy sells this, so I also have to do this,' and that's not how you build a fashion brand.

For me, fashion brands must have a DNA, must have a thread from beginning to end and must carry it forward. That is my philosophy, and that is why the OTB group is gaining great respect in the world. Even Anna Wintour, that crazy woman, the greatest woman in our world of Vogue communication, she says: 'Renzo, you are cool because your brands are truly unique.' We base ourselves on creativity, and basing ourselves on creativity is not easy because when you do creativity, you must first consider that your consumer, the person who buys from you, is intelligent. Measure this word: your consumer is intelligent. So we believe that our consumer has all the knowledge that today's world gives them to understand that that product is beautiful, is cool, and they want to buy it. So I consider them intelligent with my brands. The big brands today do a lot of entertainment, so they take big celebrities, like Pharrell, and with entertainment you buy a product thanks to a star, thanks to a celebrity. So you consider the consumer no longer intelligent, the consumer is a pawn that moves like an automaton guided by communication and buys that product. That is why, potentially, with this vision that we have of considering our consumer intelligent, with our pillars, with our creativity, and above all thinking about a modern world, thinking about Gen Z, Gen Z really has the knowledge, they know the subject, so the young audience is very prepared. And for this reason we think that potentially we could have, we hope to have, a good future.