Chris Lee [Photo provided to China Daily]

"They don't believe advertisements, they believe the idols. They follow their idols, see what they do, what they eat, what they wear," says Rosso and that's why Diesel chose Lee this year after Hong Kong pop star William Chen last year.

Rosso, 62, referred to as "jeans genius", got his first pair of new pants at 12, because he was born in a poor family and always wore clothes taken from his elder brother.

"It was jeans. So you can imagine how excited I was with them," he says.

Then at 15 he made his first pair of jeans. It was the start of his career. Later, he went to fashion school in Italy and then in the United States.

He remembers his first trip to Shanghai in the late 1980s. "There was no jeans then. So, it's great, I think, I can sell jeans in the city."

Some 15 years ago, Diesel entered China from Hong Kong and 10 years ago it opened an office on the mainland. Now, it has 35 stores in some 20 cities in China.

chenjie@chinadaily.com.cn