The fall fashion season is entering its final European leg as Paris Fashion Week gets set to begin. And along with the established names are a slew of newcomers worth checking out.
Ottolinger
After showing as part of VFiles’ emerging designer talent program during New York Fashion Week for the past two seasons, rising Berlin-based label Ottolinger counts among this season’s on-calendar presentation newcomers.
Known for their subversive, handcrafted, punk-tinged creations hooked on ugly/pretty mash-ups, deconstructed streetwear and cut-up, gender-ambiguous denim, cofounders Christa Bösch and Cosima Gadient like to challenge traditional notions of sexiness. Experimenting with collage constructions and fabric manipulation, the playful Swiss design duo is into things that look a bit “off.” “Sexy doesn’t have to be beautiful. We try to do stuff we don’t understand,” said Gadient.
The designers’ studio in Moabit, in Berlin’s Mitte district, is a bit of a creative laboratory, with the pair constantly “collecting, researching and analyzing stuff, always gathering and kicking things out again.” They take inspiration from “things that surround us,” said Gadient, and find beauty in the mundane. Case in point — the sling on a friend’s broken arm, which sparked a series of bandage pieces in the new collection.
For fall, they’ve also experimented with traditional
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