In our Post-Everything era, you have to get suited up for uncertainty and arrive in what you need to survive.Cue designer duo Cottweiler, who make lifeproof uniforms for the last men standing.
For their AW15 London Collection show, they commandeered the Alison Jacques Gallery, marching in boxfresh boysoldiers for a war against austerity, a battle royale between Peace Corps and Normcore.
Pared down and layered up, Cottweiler’s collection offered distinctive outfits for dystopian bandits and all the presence that comes with prescience. In one room, models mounted filing cabinets that reared up from a shingle smog. Were these the tips of corporate skyscrapers, crowned by a pack of posthumans? Or podiums for a no-holds-barred Office Hunger Games? Everything is possible in the electric void between what is and what could be, and these brutalist monoliths are the first and last outposts, reaching up all the way from Before to After. The way out of the grey is clear: Gear up, rear up and make a stand against today’s tomorrow. In the next room, models emerged from liquid-filled trays like developing photos or GM carrot tips that have sprouted into soldiers, their faces surly and silver-dusted as if they’ve been scrapping on the moon. Cottweiler AW15 message is strong: Recreation is the new reality.
This sharp, contemporary collection gives us speculative sportswear in utopian hues, the whites and blues of forever, quilted for comfort and impenetrable from the outside world. Combining natural cotton and with techno Teflon, Cottweiler clothes offer both cyborg surfaces and creature comfort. Forget shellsuits, these are shells-as-suits, carapaces for the coming era. Time is a flat circle and this is the New Nostalgia: Function meets familiarity in a collection that looks and feels like the future you always hoped would happen.
Cottweiler AW15 report by Vienna Famous
