Nicola Formichetti reboots Diesel with debut autumn-winter collection

Italy's most rebellious fashion mogul Renzo Rosso rocks up casually to his farmhouse atop the sun-kissed hills of Bassano del Grappa, a mass of unruly salt and pepper hair, dressed in jeans and T-shirt with a heavy lock pendant on the chain around his neck. It's the day before the debut of Diesel's new direction under artistic director Nicola Formichetti, but Rosso is unfazed.

"Nicola, I have been following him for a long time, and he is like me - always doing crazy things. I finally found someone as crazy as me!" Rosso says of his choice.

The debut of Formichetti's first full collection, in Venice of all places, is not going to be your typical Italian fashion event. But Rosso has never been very typical. The signature sunglasses are in place as he chats informally over lunch and glasses of his home-made Prosecco.

"I am not young any more and Diesel is about a young attitude, so Nicola is perfect," he says. "I am just working with him and giving him the DNA of the brand so he can take it into the future."

And into the future it went, but via the past, through the brand's rich archive. The next evening the first full rebooted Diesel mainline (both men's and women's) collection by Formichetti is unveiled to 300 international VIPs in the ancient halls of the Arsenale in Venice. Nick Knight videos play as a backdrop and New York performer Brooke Candy gyrates in an electrifying performance to usher in a new era for the denim label.

The autumn-winter 2014 debut was dedicated to a new vision of the Diesel army with wearable as well as wilder pieces built around three major themes that are central to Diesel history: leather rock'n'roll, denim and military-utility. Models were mostly striking, many street cast, or covered in tattoos and piercings: a modern message about the new kind of tribe Diesel wants to lead, and very much Formichetti's style.