Never has the LVMH Prize shone a light on undeniable talents designers capable of bringing a singular vision to the fashion industry. Today, it seems that this award has become nothing more than a marketing springboard for self-proclaimed creators, where craftsmanship takes a backseat and concept prevails over couture. The selection of the Berlin-based duo Ottolinger is a case in point a brand determined to prove that banality can be labeled as “avant-garde,” as long as it is wrapped in a pretentious rhetoric not of Ariadne’s thread, but of Buzz.
During the last Fashion Week, Ottolinger presented a collection so lackluster that it went unnoticed. A biker jacket in felted wool bonded with scuba fabric a concept that aims to be hybrid but never moves beyond workshop experimentation. Mesh-printed deconstructed dresses soulless variations of a trend exhausted to the core. Overdyed jeans with flipped pockets revealing the original denim a cutout game as revolutionary as a poorly stitched hem. None of this makes a couturier.
The real tragedy is that behind these lukewarm experiments lie the true artisans of fashion: the skilled seamstresses who will never leave the great houses, those who, in the shadows, uphold a craftsmanship that designers like Ottolinger reduce to a mere communication tool. Craftsmanship, tailoring, the precision of a perfect drape these are no longer priorities, replaced by hazy concepts that mask a technical void.