Andreas Melbostad is new artistic director at Diesel Black Gold

By

Dominique Muret

Published
Oct 25, 2012

The Renzo Rosso group officially announced on Tuesday that Norwegian Andreas Melbostad has been appointed artistic director at Diesel Black Gold. He will take over from Sophia Kokosalaki, a greek designer, who held the position for three years. Kokosalaki left the brand in September to create her own line.

Andreas Melbostad will debut his first Diesel Black Gold collection at New York Fashion Week this February. The designer will be attempting to marry his “sophisticated urban style with the rock-chic attitude of the contemporary brand,” said the Italian label in their press release.

“The designer’s appointment marks another important step in Diesel Black Gold’s development strategy, after it opened first own mono-brand boutique in New York (Soho) this past February,” continued the brand. Further store openings are on the agenda in 2013.

Trained at the Royal Academy in London, the young designer started his career at Nicole Farhi. In 1996 he was spotted by Alber Elbaz, who was at the time the designer at Guy Laroche. He worked with Elbaz at Yves Saint-Laurent before going on to work at Nina Ricci, Donna Karan and Calvin Klein. The Norwegian then worked for Phi in New York where he stayed until 2009 when the company went out of business during the recession. Since then; Andreas Melbostad created a consultancy firm, working with labels such as Vera Wang and Roberto Cavalli.