Renzo Rosso
[2][better source needed] Following the new partnership, Rosso became a shareholder of the Genius Group, which gathered brands such as Replay, King Jeans, Viavai, and Goldie.
Furthermore, since the word was an international term pronounced equally all over the world, it appealed to Rosso's view that the global fashion market was not segmented by national borders, but by people's lifestyles.
[6] Following the launch of Diesel Kid the year prior, at the time called Dieselito,[7] sales of the Diesel-branded clothing had by that point reached about $5 million annually.
The growth of OTB led to media often comparing Rosso to French businessmen Bernard Arnault and François Pinault, the chairmen of the LVMH and Kering conglomerates respectively, who own several of the world's leading luxury brands.
[citation needed] In an interview with the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera in April 2011, Rosso stated that he never intended to follow their route, but that he instead wanted to build a conglomerate that is "democratic" and alternative.
[10] Currently, the group has shares of the Diesel, Maison Margiela, Marni, Viktor & Rolf, Jil Sander, Amiri brands, and controls Staff International and Brave Kid, manufacturers and distributors of several licensed fashion labels.
Staff International had gained a reputation in the prêt-a-porter arena, enabling it to work for designers and brands such as Karl Lagerfeld, Emanuel Ungaro, Valentino, Costume National, Clements Ribeiro and Missoni, among others.
[13] In an interview with Women's Wear Daily in 2004, Rosso explained his admiration for Maison Margiela: "It's about being unique, and it appeals to people with strong personalities who don't want to follow the crowd.
Following the bankruptcy of the historically renowned Vicenza Calcio soccer team, Renzo Rosso took over the business unit through its liquidation auction and formalized its purchase on June 18, 2018.
At the time of the purchase, the farm and its land were at risk of getting divided into separate lots for multiple buyers, but Rosso was able to prevent this by taking charge of the whole estate.
Rosso's first investment through Red Circle was made in March 2009, when he purchased 4.9% of the stocks in Yoox[20] an online mail-order retailer of multi-brand clothing and accessories, now known as Yoox-Net-A-Porter.
In 2013, Renzo became a partner of Andre Balazs (Chateau Marmont, The Mercer) and of Eric Schmidt (then CEO of Google) in the Chiltern Firehouse hotel in London.
Following the conference, Italian newspaper La Stampa wrote "Take a visionary like Renzo Rosso and an insightful, realistic economist like Jeffrey Sachs, and it turns out extreme poverty really can disappear from Africa".
[citation needed] On July 26, 2012, Rosso created the Brave Circle Fund to help people hit by the 2012 earthquakes in Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
[24] A personal endowment of 5 million euros was dedicated to setting up a micro-credit program for local people and small and medium enterprises who need help in reconstructing homes and businesses, but who normally would not have access to the traditional banking system because of their lack of guarantees.
Published for Rosso's 40th and 50th birthdays respectively, 'Forty' and 'Fifty' look at the key moments in Diesel's history, from its "jeans & workwear" beginnings followed by years of groundbreaking advertising, to its current premium positioning.
The latter publication includes contributions from the Dalai Lama, Vivienne Westwood, Paul Smith, Alexander McQueen, Maison Margiela, Bono, Vincent Gallo, Naomi Campbell, Terry Jones, Kevin Roberts, Peter Saville, Dazed & Confused, Numéro and Vogue.
[citation needed] Published on Renzo Rosso's 60th birthday, "Radical Renaissance 55+5" traces the evolution of his forward-thinking group of companies and features the provocative photography of eye-catching campaigns, groundbreaking runway shows, and previously unreleased behind-the-scenes images.
The volume explores the worlds of design visionaries including Martin Margiela, Nicola Formichetti, John Galliano, Consuelo Castiglioni, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren.
