The Legendary Old Glory By Diesel Collection
Old Glory was the premium collection made by the Italian denim brand Diesel back in the early nineties. With this collection, they paid a sort of homage to the ‘Big 3‘ American denim brands, Levi’s, Lee, and Wrangler as the collection was mostly inspired by these brands.
Top-Notch Collection With Premium Approach
When I first saw this collection as a fifteen-year-old kid, I was hooked from the very first moment. Before that time I was only wearing 501s from Levi’s, but Diesel changed the industry with their groundbreaking marketing strategies and collections. They set a totally new standard and came up with something totally new.
The Old Glory collection was top-notch, truly one-of-a-kind, and a step ahead of many others with its premium approach. They came with all these cool embroidered and patched (denim) jackets, selvedge jeans, workwear styles and authentic tops collections. When I started to work at Diesel in the early nineties (used to work at Diesel for 6 years) these items were finally sort of affordable to me, as I was able to buy them with some discount : ) I totally rocked the jeans and jackets and was a proud owner of these styles.
Learning More About Denim
It were these Old Glory styles that got me aware of what selvedge is, chain stitching, patched jackets, destroyed jeans, and premium denim. Soon I learned more about the originals and slowly I became curious to know and learn more about authentic denim styles in general. In the years that followed (way before the internet was booming), I learned a bit more about vintage denim and its history. But, it was eBay and just a very small amount of denim books that gave me a sort of ‘denim school‘. Especially the than hard to get Japanese magazines were a huge inspiration for me, although I couldn’t read the text.
How I Got Enthusiastic About Denim
Now, after all those years, around 30+ years, I still have a weakness for these Old Glory by Diesel styles. Next to that, I still like these styles, they remind me of how I really got enthusiastic about denim, vintage denim, the history, and the denim industry in general. Most of the denim knowledge I have I learned myself, just by diving into the history, talking to other denim people, being curious and reading a lot on the internet and books, traveling, buying vintage denim, and doing research in general, but the kick-off for me was the Diesel brand and in particular their Old Glory collection. They were the starting point for me for what I’m doing today, so big bravo to the founder of the Diesel brand, Renzo Rosso, and its team for creating these masterpieces!
24 Jackets And Counting
During all the years I collected quite a big archive with these rare Old Glory styles, and as it was only produced for a very few years, there aren’t that many pieces made. In my denim archive, there are 24 different jackets now (next to many jeans, t-shirts, sweats, and other styles), and 1 new denim jacket for the archive is on its way at the moment. Hopefully, it will inspire others too, or bring back memories of these golden days of the early nineties when Diesel broke all the rules and created these beautiful jackets under the brand’s famous slogan ‘Only the Brave’!
Ps, If you have a jacket that isn’t included in my denim archive yet, and you’re willing to sell it, let me know: wouter@long-john.nl
