For the launch of the FW19 collection, Diesel embraced wardrobing as something normal, and turned their return policy into the global campaign. From organizing exclusive fashion week parties where you could go in only if you had your tag out (all brands welcome) and all the way to turning people’s photos of wearing the clothes they want to return as valid “receipts” for when (and if) they want to return something they bought.

Wardrobing is the act of buying clothes, wearing them for the occasion and returning them within 14 days for a full refund. Wardrobing costs the fashion industry $15 billions/year. How can a brand fight it? Some fashion retailers go as far as blacklisting customers who usually return items.

If nothing can make people stop wardrobing, then why try to stop them at all? For the launch of the FW19 collection, Diesel embraced wardrobing and encouraged people to ENJOY BEFORE RETURNING.

Some fashion retailers even go as far as blacklisting customers who usually return items. Does that work? No. People still return clothes. It’s a behaviour so deeply embedded into this generation DNA that maybe the best way to fight it is to not fight it at all.

Diesel’s return policy became the central part of the global communication, whether it was turned into a song for the launch film or slapped all over fashion visuals, while portraying consumers planning on returning and wearing the tag out unapologetically. The campaign was timed to the global Fashion Week events, when wardrobing spikes, and Diesel’s parties were accessible only to those who kept the labels out, no matter the brand. People’s photos with themselves wearing DIESEL item’s with the tag out counted as VALID discount coupons for their next purchase on ecommerce.

People called us crazy. Competition called us crazy. Well, besides becoming the talk of town, the approach helped to actually REDUCE the Diesel returns by 9% globally and the sales went up with 24% GLOBALLY, where more than half came from new customers – people in the younger age groups who never considered DIESEL before.