Private moments—lounging around at home, dancing in your underwear—may have been the starting point for the fall collection at Ottolinger, but underneath it all was another message.
The first look offered a teaser of the Berlin brand’s new relationship with the buzziest shapewear brand out there right now. Though Cosima Gadient and Christa Bösch were sketchy on specifics, the clothes quite literally said it for them, in white lettering on nude: Ottolinger is leveling up its situationship with Skims.
Though the fruit of that union is still a ways off, deconstructed shapewear—inexplicably styled for the runway with faux love handles on some models—was the baseline for a collection that explored how we choose to build an image through clothes. It started with a state of undress, segued into throw-ons for the rush out the door and, fortunately, expanded to include some more polished options.
Amplifying the tension between what we feel and how we present, the soundtrack offered an imaginary inner dialogue a model might be having as she walks—“right, left, inhale, walk, I should do a meditation app, I am a horse and the clothes are the lasso"—written by artist Calla Henkel, a friend of Ottolinger s designers.
If the sense of disarray was intentional, it was controlled chaos—all artfully ripped and sliced shapewear and knits, with pileups of color and print, texture and volume. Gilded jeans were slung low and mounted back-to-front, a sleeveless navy wool top was seemingly held together Frankenstein-style, with staples. “Sometimes we get tired of sewing,” Bösch quipped, as Gadient jumped in with “it’s not falling apart, exactly: it’s freer.”
Among the more covered-up looks, the duo sent out tailored pieces like a padded beige blazer that mimicked the color of classic lingerie while also tapping into next season’s trend for thick, enveloping materials and fabrications. Elsewhere, an overcoat offered an improbable marriage of felted wool with a scuba lining; a shiny black trench seemed to nod to Helmut Newton. For accessories, there were manga clutches to match body-con numbers and giant hoods designed to slip over the shoulders like a backpack (Gadient sported one of those as proof of concept).
Getting dressed means different things to different people. But if it is ultimately an act of defiance, then come fall Ottolinger fans will have plenty to choose from.
