Launch i-D magazine x Diesel

High Flyers

It’s Thursday evening about half past nine when I bike towards the Rokin in Amsterdam, looking upwards. Because I’m looking for the penthouse where the launch party will take place of i-D Benelux in combination with the SS14 Diesel campaign presentation. You must know it, i-D magazine. Even if you haven’t ever read it, you must have come across the iconic magazine. Founded in London in 1980, the time of punk, i-D quickly became a leading, original, creative, groundbreaking magazine which knows how to seduce the biggest names in the industry. Kate Moss, Madonna, Cara Delevingne, Tom Ford, Grace Coddington – they all winked at i-D. Because that’s how the cover’s constructed, a portrait of a model that winks or has one eye covered. It’s a representation of the name i-D because when you read the name and cock your head sideways, you’ll see, that’s right, a wink.

But back to the penthouse on the Rokin. After we hung our coats, we start the descend upstairs. There isn’t a lift, I repeat, no lift. It feels as though we’ve walked a thousand stairs, but thankfully, we got a shot of vodka halfway ‘to keep us going’. The ambience is set. The higher we go, the more extraordinary the people we bump into. i-D and Diesel know how to attract a special audience. Which is also the theme of the Diesel campaign “We are Connected.” Diesel wants to bring together artists and creatives to celebrate creativity and have them inspire each other. People from different subcultures come together and a campaign idea like this is always fun, but the funny thing was that the launch party really was bringing people together. I bumped into people that I knew from uni, people with who I worked at ELLE, a girl I once met at a festival, and I also saw types like Arie Boomsma and Valentijn de Hingh. A very mixed crowd so I think that’s what made it so much fun. A view of Amsterdam, an open bar, DJ + dance floor and a million people I all wanted to get to know, it was a party that instantly lifts one’s spirits. A dutch version of i-D is always good news, more visual splendour from Diesel too, so it was one heck of a party. i-D, welcome to town.