It’s been four years since this reviewer last covered an Ottolinger show, though people choose to gloss over much of that time for obvious reasons. Christa Bösch and Cosima Gadient seem completely unchanged as co-designers; and to some extent the same could be said of their Berlin-based label. It remains a body-positive expression of subversive femininity, enriched with energetic colors and craftsmanship. They have the kind of versatile clothing that combines ’90s music videos, sci-fi source material, and today’s gaming universe.
Yet they have also grown on different levels. Ottolinger’s continued partnership with Puma has been great for visibility. Yesterday, a silver truck dressed in a giant red bow was parked in the Marais as a pop-up selling the brand’s silver and gold sneaker boots. And watching a diverse crowd of girls come to the show in printed bodysuits or carrying irregularly shaped bags suggested that what Bösch and Gadient are creating is in fact wearable for those who dare.
And with this collection they proved that their fierce self-expression and nightlife-oriented fashion can also appear elevated. “We adjusted it,” Bösch said after a show full of jungle beats from an artist named Christellemeth.
First, there were linen knit looks: pleated, form-fitting tops with cutouts and pants seductively rolled down at the waistband. The gauze dress with single sleeves in a soft sand shade was especially attractive. Next was denim, an Ottolinger standby; only this time it came with a high-contrast flocked pattern that creeps up the legs. There was worn and deconstructed tailoring that seemingly gave the finger to corporate clothing. And there were printed bodysuits, some with trompe l’oeil men’s suits, others with cyborg anatomy (add a single silver lens to the eyes, paint the forehead white and the transformation is complete).
But the designers really showed their ingenuity with the five final bridal style looks: romantic and subtly embellished creations that strayed from traditional. The silhouettes were pulled apart, cool and casual, and offset by black bandeau bras and boy shorts. “We go to weddings and always feel like they need an edge,” says Bösch.
Today’s location was an old bank branch on a corner between the large magazines and the Paris Opéra, which was adapted by having the windows spray-painted and graffitied, as if bringing a piece of Kreuzberg to the Boulevard Haussmann. At some point, someone from outside started scratching the paint just enough to see what Gadient called “the Ottolinger world, our own world.” It is an asymmetrical place with fragmented surfaces and messy layering that somehow achieves equilibrium. Certainly, it’s a world you can’t look away from.
