DIESEL CELEBRATES PRIDE WITH NEW COLLECTION, SHORT FILM
Diesel has launched a new Pride collection and short film.
In this, the Italian denim brand’s second-ever Pride collection, Diesel has released a 49-piece line consisting primarily of underwear, beachwear, and accessories. Notable items include boxer briefs, bikinis, jockstraps, socks, baseball hats, tank tops, bodysuits, T-shirts, shorts, sweatshirts, sunglasses, and watches.
Two adaptations of Diesel logos appear throughout; the first, a circle rainbow icon with the phrase “Diesel Only The Brave,” and the second, a block text showing the iconic cookie logo reworded in an ombré rainbow fade with “Diesel For Successful Loving.” Further, Diesel has etched along a pair of sunglasses’ arms the phrase “Get Wet,” which also becomes visible on the lenses when they get steamed up.
To generate content around the capsule, Diesel followed social distancing and health and safety guidelines. As a result, all assets depicting the capsule have been created by LGBTQIA+ individuals around the world: Harlow Monroe; Sofia Malamute; Stella Lucia; Kai Isiah Jamal; Saro, and Ian Isiah. Each created imagery through their lenses and in their own homes and places of shelter.
Diesel’s Pride collection is available worldwide through retail, wholesale, and trade channels, and the full line may be purchased through diesel.com. Diesel and OTB Foundation will support two international projects dealing with gender identity and integration in the workplace: the SF LGBT Center (San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center) and the TGEU (Transgender Europe).
The denim brand has also launched a new short film, titled “Francesca,” just in time for Pride month. Directed by Francois Rousselet and realized with the advice of Diversity, an Italian association committed to promoting social inclusion, the short video features a young woman who is assigned male at birth. The film sees her transitioning through life, in feats both big and small, as she achieves her dreams.
In the short, Francesca is played by Monroe. Rousselet tracks Francesca’s transition over time, and the viewer sees our heroine embracing herself as she comes into her true identity. Throughout the vignette, a Christian cross motif appears, including from the very first scene, as a pendant. She does not hide her transition; Francesca is seen recognizing herself as female on an application. The final scenes show another ultimate desire: Francesca enters a nunnery, swapping her Diesel denim for a habit, fulfilling both her own intentions and the pursuit of her faith.
“I am very proud of ‘Francesca,’ and of the Diesel values that inspired this story,” said Diesel founder Renzo Rosso. “When we created ‘For Successful Living’ many years ago, our thought was the same then as it is today. Individuality, pride, and the power to live as one wants is the ultimate success in life.”
“I truly responded to the story of ‘Francesca,’ because, like me, she has always been a believer,” added Monroe. “I’ve always known my true identity, and I’ve never stopped believing in my ability to live the life I wanted. It takes personal bravery and family support, but we both made our truths a reality, and now we can tell the world our story and how we reached our version of successful living.”
