“Godfather of denim” Adriano Goldschmied dies at 82

Italian designer Adriano Goldschmied has passed away at the age of 82 after a battle with cancer, according to WWD and Sky TG24.

“Goodbye, my first boss… my mentor…,” wrote Renzo Rosso, co-founder of Diesel, in an Instagram post.

Widely known as the “Godfather of denim,” Goldschmied spent more than half a century transforming jeans from utilitarian workwear into a distinct language of fashion. He was also among the first to advocate for a shift in the industry’s direction.

Without formal training in design, Goldschmied entered the fashion world almost by chance in the early 1970s, selling imported jeans outside a nightclub. He later opened the King’s Shop in Cortina d’Ampezzo, quickly shaping his vision of denim as a higher-end product.

In 1974, he launched the Daily Blue label, focusing on new silhouettes, colour, and a more premium price segment—an approach he described as the birth of “denim fashion.” In a 2023 interview, he noted that although he lacked technical design skills, he sourced high-quality fabrics from a tailor and “by accident” arrived at the concept of luxury denim.

In 1981, Goldschmied founded the Genious Group creative platform, which became a launchpad for several well-known brands. Within this environment, premium casual labels such as Diesel and Replay took shape, while Rosso developed professionally under Goldschmied’s mentorship.

Colleagues and protégés remembered him not only as an entrepreneur but also as a mentor. According to Sky TG24, he actively engaged with young designers and consistently promoted the idea of constant “reinvention”—believing that after success, one must start again from scratch.

Until the final months of his life, Goldschmied remained active in industry exhibitions and continued collaborating with denim manufacturers, supporting new technologies. He defined his philosophy through the human impact of fashion rather than sales figures.

“Our goal is to make the people happy. That’s what I think. For example, when I design something, I like to imagine my consumer smiling in front of a mirror,” he once said.

By Vugar Khalilov