Baserange Imagines Simple Clothes With Spiritual Connotations

Photo: Dan McMahon / Courtesy of Baserange

In an era of oversaturation, nothing is more compelling than less. Designers Marie-Louise Mogensen and Blandine de Verdelhan are selling this concept of thoughtful minimalism with their Baserange collections, turning simple shorts, slips, and wrap tops into bold statements against overdoing it. By using only sustainable materials, the designers envision each garment as a connection between the body and the natural world.

Last month Mogensen and de Verdelhan staged a ceremonial presentation inspired by Zen Buddhist D.T. Suzuki that called together friends, collaborators, dancers, and models to perform as spiritual characters that ranged from an earth mother to an octopus. “We wanted people to be present in a feeling of our universe,” Mogensen said. For those who weren’t in attendance, the designers have begun posting images of the coming together on Instagram, with baguettes given as much airtime as the earth-mother performer. “It’s all mixed together, you don’t divide things like air and water, good and bad,” Mogensen said. “We work with dualities.” These messages are wrapped up—quite literally—in the styling of the spring 2020 collection, which sees garments swaddled into abstract, organic forms like Barbara Hepworth sculptures.

If this sounds more than a little New Age, Mogensen and de Verdelhan are pure pragmatists when it comes to their business. Having launched with an innerwear focus in 2010, the duo has expanded into easy ready-to-wear that’s stocked at Net-a-Porter, Need Supply Co., and LN-CC. “The difference between underwear and normal wear has become more fluid,” Mogensen said. The designers also source inspiration from the women and men who wear their garments. “That’s how the collection grows,” de Verdelhan added. “The things people like from us we develop, so the basics can grow in a versatile way.”