— “It looks like a Diesel cathedral,” said creative director Glenn Martens about the brand’s new store in Seoul. While he tuned in over Teams from Paris on Friday, flocks of fans gathered outside the flagship as the newly appointed ambassador and K-pop star Hoshi did the honors and celebrated ’s third and most expansive store in South Korea. The space adds to Diesel’s first freestanding store opened in Seoul’s Hannam neighborhood in 2022 and second outpost revealed earlier this year at the Luxury Hall West of the Galleria department store.
Officially open to the public this week, the 4,843-square-foot space marks the continuation and development of the concept Martens has envisioned for the revealed last year, hinged on billboards dominating the interior and heavy on concrete and metal elements, in addition to the brand’s signature red color. Spanning across four floors and a rooftop, the new unit stands out in Seoul’s Dosan neighborhood with its bold facade covered in a huge Diesel logo, a concept “we already tested in [South] Korea two years ago,” said Martens, referring to the Hannam outpost. “We have opened so many stores and it’s always nice to actually take things over from former concepts and rebuild them,” said the designer, referencing areas entirely lacquered in red.
By playing with contrasting primary colors, these corners are aimed at making the brand’s designs in blue stand out, spanning from its five-pocket denim to the Library line of carryovers. While an industrial vibe defines the first and second floors showcasing Diesel collections for women, men and accessories, a different atmosphere is conveyed on the third floor, where a VIP area offers customers a more private shopping experience. For the occasion, a custom pink hue has been introduced in a cave-like lounge replete with a bar, loosely following in the footsteps of the Cucina Diesel Farm hospitality format recently unveiled in the Tokyo Shibuya store.
Elsewhere at the Diesel Dosan flagship, interior finishes and handcrafted furniture designed specifically for the unit come with hammered and smashed surfaces for a worn-out feel. This matches the raw spirit channeled by the billboard concept celebrating both vintage Diesel advertisements and the latest campaigns, including the wedding-themed fall 2024 one released last week and fronted by Christine Quinn. “Diesel is definitely a brand [that] made history for its amazing advertisement.
[It was] the first to challenge the advertising world out of the classic context of beauty and fashion, and they really were more about the lifestyle and statements,” Martens said. “So linked to the whole advertising heydays, we have all over the store big billboards in different rooms. It’s Route 66 kind of style, with big metal boards as those you see on highways.
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And every few months, when the new campaign comes up, instead of taking them away, we actually build up on it, as layering is part of the history of the brand.” Martens pinpointed the as his favorite since joining the company in 2020. As reported, the ads offered a denim-clad and irreverent take on the “Where’s Waldo?” series by involving models and hundreds of the brand’s staff members — including Martens himself and founder Renzo Rosso — in the shoot, which was staged at Breganze, the town in Italy’s Veneto region where the company is headquartered.
Yet Martens looks at the brand’s ads of yore with a pinch of nostalgia. “Sometimes I’m so jealous of the past because it’s so fantastic. In the early 2000s things were a little bit easier.
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[Ads] were quite ironic and sarcastic...
but they were sensitive. That was in the days where advertising campaigns were not as much shared and there were no social media or Instagram, internet,” he said. Asked about the archival ad that had the biggest impact on him, the designer mentioned the Diesel spring 1995 campaign photographed by David LaChapelle that portrays a gay couple kissing in front of a sailboat.
“I was 11 or 12 and for me that was quite groundbreaking because obviously in the small, little provincial town of Bruges, where everything was very standard and Catholic still in the ‘90s and very closed down, suddenly seeing a gay couple...
.I think it was the first time I saw gays kissing ever in my life,” recalled Martens. “That’s what Diesel is very important for — that’s what it has always been doing and what I’ve tried to do as of today as well,” he continued.
“Even though our messages have to be a little bit softer because we know very well that our campaigns are going to be used worldwide and also in countries with political stages that are maybe a little bit less flexible than Italy or Belgium or France...
.Still, within those campaigns we are trying to bring in the messages of love and respect. That is definitely something we are pushing with every image that we bring out.
” These resonate with the South Korean market as well, where the demand for the brand has been booming. A capsule collection exclusive to the market will soon drop at the Dosan store, including both men’s and women’s ready-to-wear items in silver and inspired by the brand’s 1DR bag. “Opening up big stores like this one is a celebration — and not just for one weekend, it’s going to last for a few months.
The capsule will come soon and events will happen and I’ll personally go back because I love Seoul so much,” Martens said. “I’ve only been once in my life..
..It’s one of the most fun cities ever: people are so nice, so open-minded and friendly.
I was so happily surprised when I was there,” he continued, mentioning a trip two years ago. The market is quite recent for the company that was established by Rosso in 1978. Diesel first entered in 1999, but since 2021, when Martens’ creative direction entered in full force, the local awareness around the brand scaled up rapidly.
“When you take over a brand, it’s always more complicated to change the perception that has been installed for like 30 years because you have to mentally prepare the people,” said the designer, noting that, on the contrary, South Korea reacted particularly well exactly for being a “fresh” market. Martens additionally pointed to the local diversity in arts and culture as key factors. “[South Korea] is not as one directional as Italy or France.
There’s a lot of style and I think that’s why Diesel fits quite well in this vibe, because we are not really pushing an aesthetic, we’re talking to a lifestyle. It’s more about experimenting and enjoying life..
..It’s a very fun society and the eclecticism, the versatility and the excitement of our brand fits well in the environment.
That is why we invested in a really big store, there was huge demand,” Martens said. “It’s really nice to be able to build the store concept for a city that is really wanting you,” he continued. “Of course there are moments when we have to try to engage in certain markets by doing things to create traction.
Here’s the opposite: the attraction is already there so it’s really more the celebration of that attraction. That was really why it was much more fun to do [the store], because I didn’t have to convince them,” Martens said with a laugh. The whole K-pop phenomenon is further propelling the brand’s popularity.
The company said that images of local celebrities wearing Diesel — particularly when traveling abroad — immediately generate sales locally, especially when it comes to accessories like bags. That’s among the reasons why the brand forged ties with Hoshi, from the K-pop group Seventeen. After attending events such as the in Milan and the Diesel Shibuya store opening, Hoshi was revealed as a brand ambassador for the APAC market last week, further building Diesel’s connection with the music scene after the appointment of Måneskin’s lead vocalist as its first global male ambassador last month.
“Diesel’s collection and messages inspire me in many other ways. I was able to experience Diesel’s energy once again when I visited a Diesel Dosan store in Seoul, which embodies the brand’s bold and experimental new store concept,” Hoshi said..
