In a world of “self-care,” we layer it on in an effort to stay supple and suspend time.
So “Moisturizer” is certainly an unusual name for a collection, but for Ottolinger duo Christa Bösch and Cosima Gadient, the idea began in the bathroom with those private minutes spent applying potions and creams before deciding who you are going to be that day.
That intimacy translated into a collection that retains Ottolinger’s subversive energy while embracing a softer, more sensual sensibility. The duo still knows how to provoke, but there is less need to prove quite how edgy they can be. It resulted in not only a softer Ottolinger, but a more assured one.
Slinky black and white jersey yielded to soft pinks, with fine knit dresses clinging to the body. There were low-slung trousers with paper-bag waists exposing underwear bands, hoodies worn beneath blazers, and fluffy faux furs.
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The collection retains the Berlin-based brand’s instinct for deconstruction, but here it was more about sheerness, fit and cut than breaking things down.
Bösch and Gadient chalked up some of the collection’s restraint to circumstance. The label has moved from four wholesale seasons to two, and working within a tighter timeframe required them to become more streamlined. It turned out to be a creative boon, giving the duo more time to develop pieces rather than rushing through them. “We were really able to focus and get deeper into some ideas,” said Gadient.
That focus is particularly evident in the treatment of fabric. Fine silk-viscose jersey flowed against the body “like cream on skin,” while padded tubes held draped dresses in place.
Traditionally heavier pieces were made to appear weightless, such as trousers that floated away from mesh underpinnings, denim seemed suspended from the waist, and cutaway jeans that dissolved into transparent panels that snaked up the side of the body.
The runway itself supplied its share of Ottolinger irreverence, from a model filming the show on a distinctly ’90s camcorder to Offset, who reached out to the brand because he is a fan, stopping mid-walk for a puff and leaving behind a big cloud of smoke. Heidi Klum closed the show.
