Diesel Black Gold goes co-ed on the catwalk

Diesel has announced that its contemporary line Black Gold will be merging both its men's and women's shows into one starting from this June.

The first "co-ed" show will take place at Milan Men's Fashion Week and the move will "highlight Diesel Black Gold’s unique and coherent vision, which is modern in its way of conveying a cohesive message infused with a specific, signature attitude," the brand said.

Creative director Andreas Melbostad said of the decision: "With today’s culture moving towards less gender conformity and with two collections that are closely associated it is a natural progression for us to unify the runway shows of the men’s and the women’s lineups."

"This new strategy will enable us to better communicate our creative vision and to bring the collections to the market at the same time. With this in mind, we are excited to embrace this new challenge and further evolve our fashion message," he added.

The move means that instead of showing four women's collections a year, it will now show two, while the men's pre-collections will be maintained alongside the main collections.

Diesel founder Renzo Rosso and president of its parent company OTB said he had "always been a big supporter of co-ed shows." "We actually launched Diesel Black Gold in New York with a men's and women's show at the very beginning. Diesel Black Gold is now a point of reference for the contemporary market and it became crucial to communicate a strong, cohesive seasonal message," Rosso said.