After taking charge of Diesel in 1985, Rosso strived to build a team of international, like-minded designers. Thereafter, and ever since Diesel established itself on the international market, Rosso has consistently credited the company’s success to his hard-working staff. When Diesel was awarded “Advertiser of the Year” at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in 1998, Rosso wanted to play a prank on the organizers. When he was asked to come onstage, he surprised the 3,000 guests by bringing his whole Creative Team on stage; all dressed the same way and wearing identical wigs that mimicked his curly hair. Before accepting the award, he introduced everyone in his team one-by-one to the audience, and explained that the prize in fact belonged to his hard-working team, not just himself.

Rosso’s deep passion for vintage items has been evident in every Diesel collection since he took charge of the company in 1985. In the first Diesel collections that came in the years that followed, Rosso would mix Americana and vintage clothes with everything from science fiction to the Wild West, using props that ranged from old detergent packages to objects found in junk shops. The style created an atmosphere that enhanced the collections, store décors and advertising campaigns. In a famous interview with Women’s Wear Daily, Rosso once said “I don’t believe in the concept of new. An older object has more charm than a new one, so do the stores, even when they are new they must not look so.” It was also this passion for vintage that became the common ground on which Rosso’s background from Diesel met with the aesthetics of Maison Margiela, who has used authentic vintage garments in all of his collections since 1989.

In 1985 Rosso wanted to achieve creative freedom over the brand’s direction and took complete control of the company, by trading his shares in the Genius Group, at the time Diesel’s parent company, for Goldschmied’s remaining shares in Diesel. Following the launch of Diesel Kid the year prior, at the time called Dieselito, sales of the Diesel-branded clothing had by that point reached about $5 million annually. Wanting to focus on denim, Rosso began experimenting with different ways of treating the fabric with stones and washes. Then, after handpicking team of likeminded designers in the late 1980s, the company began a period of remarkable growth and expansion.