There’s a photograph that Adriano Goldschmied often liked to show. It is from the ’80s and captures nearly 90 people sitting together like a class photo. In the bottom righthand corner there’s a bold graphic reading “Genius Troupe.” Scattered in the photo are 15 people holding a sign, each one bearing a different brand name. Adriano sits in the center—like a coach with his huge team—many of whom would soon come together to form what became known as the “Genius Group.”
That group photograph, taken inside an Asolo theater in the Veneto, a region near Venice where they were based, was a lively organism that existed between 1981 and 1985. The dynamic collective functioned as a training ground not only for its maestro, but for an era of creatives that would leave a lasting impression on the market.
Adriano Goldschmied Archive
Goldschmied, who died in April at the age of 82, once compared the ’80s and the experience of his collective hub to an enormous Big Bang. “Those years were an explosion of everything—creativity, design, imagination but also of the emerging of new structures and ideas about the business. And, not less important was how much passion and fun we had,” he said, reflecting on the relatively short yet intensely fruitful period.
After Goldschmied launched Daily Blue—the first fashion-minded woman’s jeans—in 1974, he set out to replicate the creative and innovative experience on a much larger scale. He brought together top international creatives, experts, pattern makers and product technicians as well as artists, illustrators and photographers to set up the Genius Group, a 360-degree fully operational apparel production and marketing machine. It was an uncommon project for those years in Italy and offered the talent a rare opportunity to express their creativity many otherwise could not have afforded.
With this group, Goldschmied created and supervised about 15 groundbreaking brands including Goldie, Diesel, Replay, Ten Big Boys, BoBo Kaminsky, Hot Products, Soup, Via Vai, Retour, Muscle—each one for a different product category. They explored new projects and ways to communicate and brought innovation to the market. That laboratory forged a generation of key industry people, including Renzo Rosso, Claudio Buziol, Enzo Fusco, Katahrine Hamnett, Betsey Johnson and many others.
That unique fashion factory, akin to what Andy Warhol did for New York City’s art world in the ’60s, became the cradle for many brands, but also a special R&D laboratory that would continue to influence the market. There, they advanced women’s jeans, explore the possibilities vintage denim, invested stone washing and introduced stretch jeans. They also developed new fashion segments like fashion-driven underwear, children’s wear and activewear, to name a few.
The innovation hub laid the foundation for what would become a true “denim valley” in Asolo and the Veneto region became an epicenter for jeans manufacturing, laboratories and laundries from the mid-’80s and the end of the ’90s. Goldschmied considered it the “golden era” for that region and for Italy, in general, encouraging creativity and industrial spirit to meet and collaborate. It caught the attention of many international designers, including French designers Marithé and François Girbaud.
“Adriano’s Genius Group was at the forefront of a movement that we, on the other side of the Alps, had not known how to pursue,” they said, adding that it was instrumental in bringing to the heart of Veneto many of the key players who would shape the history of Italian jeans and the broader European market. “Meanwhile in France, the textile industry was on its last legs.”
The Genius Group was Goldschmied’s dream coming true, combining his deep human personality and sympathetic spirit to share ideas and projects all while supporting the young and emerging talent.
“He always drew you in—always a dreamer, always ahead of his time. I worked half the day in my studio and spent the afternoon at Genius Group. I knew when I started, but not when I [would finish], which was often 2 a.m. or 3 a.m.,” said Venucia De Russi, an expert pattern maker and one of Goldschmied’s long-time collaborators.
“We all worked inside a huge industrial shed, in a room with booths hosting single brands. It was all very free and fun as everyone could express one’s own creativity,” said Valter Celato, owner of My Moody graphic studio, and one of Goldschmied’s most faithful collaborators until the last days. “I took care of all the graphics—logos, image, labels but also displays and booth furniture and POP material. Everyone had their own task and worked for their own brand, but we also shared a lot of ideas all the time.”
“There were about 40-50 people coming and going every day, working at crazy rhythms and every hour. If a person had a strike of inspiration at 10 P.M., he might have worked all night and the morning after you might see him still sleeping on the couch.”
Goldschmied was the leader and creative guide. He likely financed the enterprise with the proceeds of his first collections, but also through his connections.
“There was no competition among us as each one had his own particular style and followed only one client,” said Enzo Fusco, another self-described “kid on the block” in Goldschmied’s creative stable and current president of FGF Industry, an Italian fashion holding company that manages Blauer USA, Ten C and other brands.
“It was great—it felt like home, where everyone did what they wanted. What mattered was the result, and the result was there. But also great was that you met all sorts of people,” he said. In addition to designers and entrepreneurs, many artists were around of the like of Malcolm McLaren, the founder of the Sex Pistols.
“But above all, Adriano was a catalyst and a visionary. He was the one who reinvented jeans and sensed things before others did. A booth, a catwalk show, a marketing campaign…everything he did had a different take. Having worked with him was a source of pride for me,” Fusco said.
Goldschmied brought innovation at every level. His muse, mentor and friend, Franca Sozzani, a former editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia, inspired him to think out of the box and go against the mainstream.
Genius Group brands also participated in MilanoVendeModa, a leading trade show at that time. Goldschmied spearheaded forward-thinking communication and advertising campaigns that often involved artists and photographers like Tony Viramontes and Bruce Weber.
That unchecked creative freedom is ultimately what led to the Genius Group’s downfall.
By 1985, the creative haven reached a breaking point. Despite successfully developing interesting products and building a global distribution network across Europe, Japan and the United States, the group struggled to channel its talent into fully realized collections—and ultimately failed to sustain the production side of the business.
“It was like a gigantic fire, but we could not bring enough wood on the fire and control it,” Goldschmied had said. Soon members of the Genius Group began to splinter off. Rossa purchased of Diesel’s quotas and left; Buziol did the same with Replay.
What remains of Genius Group is a prolific legacy that revolutionized the way the industry approaches denim design. Others have tried to recreate their same ambience and spirit but haven’t succeed. The missing ingredient? Goldschmied’s unique vision.
