Goldschmied was instrumental in the founding of well-known premium jeans labels and took a keen interest in the environmental impact of denim production
YORK – Adriano Goldschmied a visionary designer and denim product developer who passed on 5th April and was the co-founder of Diesel and Replay was also an advocate for environmental issues in the global denim sector.
The ‘Godfather of Denim’ as he became known in industry circles, once told Ecotextile News in an interview with John Mowbray that, “Our generation invented the finish on the garment that is a killer, I’m sorry,” he said, during his first interview with Ecotextile News at a denim show in Paris back in 2011.
“There were finishes that were not healthy to the people working on them. And we also created a strong impact to the ecosystem. I feel like our generation made the mistakes, and now we have to fix them. In a way, it’s the last thing we have to do. It’s not our job to create a new jean but to leave to the new generation a new business that is clean and more successful.”
Goldschmied became committed to making the denim industry better – for the planet and for the community, including the brands and suppliers and the consumers who shared his passion for jeans.
In a bid to honour his legacy, and how Adriano impacted the denim industry, the leading denim show Kingpins is now collecting stories, memories, and reflections about how Adriano shaped the denim industry for the better.
These stories will be shared at the upcoming Kingpins Show in Amsterdam. For readers sharing memories, please follow this link, where you can submit a photo, a written note, a video, or a voice recording. Kingpins kindly asks that any responses are received by Thursday, April 9, 2026.
Goldschmied was instrumental in the founding of various well-known premium jeans labels. He established the Genius Group in 1978 with several partners, including Renzo Rosso, who eventually took control of Diesel. Other brands that came out of the group included Goldie and Rivet. He was involved in the early days of Replay and the eponymous AG Adriano Goldschmied brand (now AG Jeans), as well as being a partner and executive vice president of product development at Citizens of Humanity and its sibling label, GoldSign.
Diesel started as a brand aimed at selling jeans made from leftover fabric, Goldschmied told Ecotextile News. “If I have to tell you how we started the brand and the name, it’s kind of ridiculous. Diesel at that time was something smelling really bad and like a car going very slowly. We said, ‘Let’s find a brand that never will be successful.’ You see how fashion is’,” he told us at the time.
Adriano Goldschmied was born in 1944 in Trieste to an Ashkenazi Jewish family, whose assets were appropriated in 1942. Later, some of these assets were returned to his family. He opened his first store in Cortina d’Ampezzo in 1970, which eventually became the springboard for his own company and influential career in the denim fashion sector.
He died on 5th April 2026, at the age of 82.
