Diesel opens pop-up shop in Brooklyn

By

Dominique Muret

Published
Aug 29, 2014

Diesel has just opened a pop-up store in New York located at 101 Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The store, dubbed simply "101", will remain open until the end of December 2014. The Italian denim brand’s artistic director Nicola Formichetti chose the neighborhood himself, one of the hippest neighborhood in the Big Apple (although for how long?), “for its liveliness and its association with living life to the fullest", the brand said in a statement.

The store functions as a kind of exclusive platform intended to showcase new designs by Nicola Formichetti, with an emphasis on the brand’s new direction, somewhere between returning to its roots and looking toward the future, according to the company.

"The 101 pop up is a new type of store – personal, special, a project space. Brooklyn represents modern day culture and fits perfectly with Diesel DNA and where we are heading. The store will sell items that were presented in April during the brand’s show in Venice as well as exclusive denim and leather apparel design by me," said the multifaceted Formichetti.

101 will house a special assortment of Diesel’s fall-winter 2014 ready-to-wear and accessories for men, women and children, as well as pieces made in limited edition specifically for the pop-up.

Also available will be a limited a selection of products made by other companies, such as candles from Brooklyn Candle Studio, t-shirts by Inez & Vinoodh and nail polish by Deborah Lippman.

101 was designed in collaboration with the architect Mark Gage of Mark Foster Gage Architects. In a fairly austere space, mirrored walls reflect colorful images projected on giant screens suspended from the ceiling. "Nicola Formichetti wanted visitors to interact within a space that merges retail with media, and art with a lounge space,” said the company.

Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe was an important source of inspiration for the store’s interior - with walls covered with both orchids and vintage porn pictures.

In the coming months, the store will host special events and art installations.