Andrea Rosso: Fifteen Fucking Years of 55DSL
By Carter Higgins
I actually remember the first time I saw the 55DSL shield. It was tucked away in the corner of the Diesel flagship store on Lexington Avenue in New York City back in 1997. That corner of the store was almost like sovereign soil; something or someone else governed this little island of the Diesel brand but at the time I wasn’t quite sure what or who it was. This brand was not talking to most of the people coming through the doors looking for designer jeans. 55DSL was a snowboarder among skiers, a skater among golfers, a punk rock girl among the cheerleaders…you need more, make up some yourself!
After taking a closer look, it was obvious that the influence was coming from action sports, from skating to surfing. It was a designer brand approach to a culture, which at the time was really just about logos, big jeans and hoodies. 55DSL was bringing something new to the game: really cool design and full collections, from outerwear to sweaters, board shorts to button-ups. After all, this brand was created by Diesel and was, in fact, named after Diesel founder Renzo Rosso’s favorite number.
Shortly after the 55 brand was formed, Andrea Rosso, Renzo’s eldest son, became the creative director and started to steer things even more towards action sports, eventually sponsoring major athletes and creating a small team in surf, skate and snow. As an accomplished skater and snowboarder himself, it was a natural fit and led to 55DSL breaking away from HQ in Italy to Switzerland for several years to be closer to the European snowboarding mecca.
Fast forward to 2009, the brand’s 15-year anniversary, and quite a few things have changed since the humble beginnings in 1994. The brand is much larger with global offices/retail stores and is now situated happily between the worlds of action sports and streetwear. 55DSL remains unique and is still a defiant voice in the saturated world of street/casual fashion. We caught up with Andrea Rosso and his father Renzo for a quick chat about the brand. Enjoy.
