Diesel's Creative Director on Fashion's Aversion to Digital

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Nicola Formichetti is one of fashion's outliers: as the creative director of Diesel, he has tried to keep the company constantly pushing forward into a digital future. In an interview with Adweek, Formichetti explained how important it was for him to be in the first wave of adoption on everything from livestreaming on Periscope to creating fashion shows in virtual reality.

"I want to be the first one to do all that stuff," Formichetti told Adweek's Emma Bazilian. "I feel like, in fashion in general, we are so behind. People have an Instagram account and they think they're digital."

While Formichetti believes it pays off to be ahead of the digital curve, he acknowledged that many of his peers don't feel the same way. "We have an establishment," Formichetti says. "Both the marketing side and design side are behind, I think. As far as marketing, I feel like magazines are still one of the only ways to communicate fashion, and I think that needs to change. I'm not saying magazines are dying, because they're not—you cannot go wrong with an incredible fashion story on paper. But we also should think of other ways [to communicate]."