Viktor&Rolf: the best of ready to wear

This morning the house of Viktor&Rolf announced via an exclusive story to WWD that it would stop creating and producing ready to wear after fall/winter 2015.
This is what WWD wrote:

“Viktor & Rolf are to halt ready-to-wear following the fall-winter 2015 season and concentrate on couture, fragrances and licensed businesses. Disclosing the development first to WWD, Dutch designers Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren said the decision was made in concert with majority shareholder OTB Group, the holding of Italian industrialist Renzo Rosso.
Rosso characterized the rtw shutdown as “a strategic decision to position the Viktor & Rolf brand in the highest luxury segment of fashion.”
It echoes last fall’s bombshell when French designer Jean Paul Gaultier said he would shutter rtw after a 38-year career to focus on high fashions and the perfume business it fuels, along with special projects.
A Viktor & Rolf spokeswoman said the designers would present and sell a final fall-winter 2015 women’s wear collection, but skip the runway during Paris Fashion Week, scheduled for March 3 to 11.
Viktor & Rolf ships its rtw collections for men and women to more than 100 specialty stores, and operates a freestanding store on Rue Saint Honoré in Paris, which is to go dark in early 2016.
“We feel a strong need to refocus on our artistic roots. We have always used fashion to communicate, it is our primary means of artistic expression,” Horsting said, lamenting that rtw — with its fast pace, deadlines and fierce competition — “started to feel creatively restricting. By letting go of it, we gain more time and freedom.”
“We are extremely excited to push the boundaries of our vision in new, unexpected territories,” Snoeren concurred.

The designers launched their brand in 1993, started showing couture in Paris in 1998, and began focusing on rtw in 2000. In 2005, they catapulted into the big league with the launch of Flowerbomb, their first women’s fragrance, in collaboration with L’Oréal.
“The decision to focus on haute couture is a strategic decision by the house of Viktor & Rolf to position the brand in the highest luxury segment of fashion,” a L’Oréal spokeswoman said on Tuesday. “We are confident that our strong collaboration with Viktor & Rolf will continue to see the launch of many successful fragrances.”
Viktor & Rolf showed five couture collections between January 1998 and July 2000, including the Atomic Bomb collection, featuring dramatic mushroom cloud-like cushioned necklines. For the Russian Doll show, the designers dressed model Maggie Rizer in 10 layers of clothes, merging fashion with performance art.
The majority of those pieces were sold to museums and institutions.
A men’s wear’s line, Viktor & Rolf Monsier, was introduced in 2003.
Despite this move into the mainstream, Viktor & Rolf maintained their reputation for unconventional catwalk presentations, many featuring live performances by actors and singers, including Tilda Swinton, Rufus Wainwright and Tori Amos.
OTB Spa invested in the brand in 2008, heralding what seemed to be a new stage in its development.

We’ve gathered the most memorable collections for you.

Viktor&Rolf Haute Couture Catwalk Show SS2015 Paris

Viktor&Rolf’s Spring/Summer 2015 Haute Couture collection is inspired by the raw energy of Vincent van Gogh’s exuberant depiction of the rural countryside. Flowerprint A-line babydoll dresses paired with straw hats and flipflops form the basis for a collection of increasingly colourful and sculptural looks.

Spring/Summer 2015 Haute Couture is a surreal exploration of print: Flower petals sprout outwards and escape the garments, transforming 2D prints to 3D, and essentially bringing the flat surface to life.

The essence of the countryside is translated into unexpected, sculptural looks that combine abstract graphic volumes with organic elements. Straw hats, put together with a spontaneous touch, form a surreal nod to countryside living. They enhance the bucolic mood of the looks, ultimately merging with the shapes of the garments, creating a new organic unity where hat and dress become one. Sandals made in matching printed fabric complete the summer look.

All fabric is manufactured through an authentic batik inspired “wax-dyeing & block printing” technique by VLISCO in the Netherlands. This ensures an unique high quality print with craquelé indigo lines and intense vibrant colours on both sides of the cloth.

The mood of the collection is set with a musical injection of femininity from the theme of ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, which starts as a lullaby and grows into an eerie and mysterious vibe during the course of the show.

Art collector Han Nefkens, a longstanding collaborator of Viktor&Rolf acquired three pieces of the collection after the show debuted on January 28th on the catwalks of Paris Fashion Week. These three works will be donated to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Their longstanding collaboration has led to the purchase or commissioning of pieces that are donated or given as a long term loan to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen as part of the Han Nefkens Fashion on the Edge project.

Viktor&Rolf Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear SS2015

Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren choose activewear as their inspiration, though worked it with their own irreverent touch. Several remakes of Olivia Newton-John’s ‘Physical’ were on the soundtrack and punctuated their theme.

The duo played on the idea with biker shorts and slouchy pants. Theye were paired with mesh tops in upbeat floral prints. These looks riffed on traditional shirting, but were ruched, tweaked and cut together in an asymmetric way.
Playful touches were subtle, as in the way Horsting and Snoeren reworked tank tops, including one with an additional cross strap that added a graphic touch and cutout to the casual staple.

Viktor & Rolf Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2014

Viktor & Rolf dedicated their FW14-collection to the gray mélange knit V-neck sweater. Yet as normal as a gray V-neck might be, the Dutch duo turned out some peppy interpretations, from the blanket-like smock and tank dresses that opened the show to the bedazzled sweaters with asymmetric peplums similar to ones they showed in latex during couture.

Abstractions on the sweater were often striking, particularly V-necks as trompe l’oeil prints on velvet tops. Free-floating panels of gray felt on georgette were arranged to mimic twinsets — a nifty effect. There were flashes of sky blue and orange, plus a groovy white mesh minidress fronted with knit panels and a strip of crystal embroidery. A longer version of the latter style also came in gray.

Backstage at Viktor & Rolf Haute Couture SS2014

Backstage at the Viktor & Rolf haute coutureshow, where dancers of the Dutch National Ballet were preparing for their Viktor & Rolf haute couture SS2014-show.

 

Viktor & Rolf Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear SS2014

Viktor & Rolf worked a rebel schoolgirl theme with playful charm yesterday. The designers took the classic school uniform — navy blazer, crisp white shirt and pleated skirt — and deconstructed it in many ways. Some were more tame others, more experimental. Skirts with bold geometric pleats flirted with the designers’ more eccentric leanings. orlistat online There was even a more punkish vibe wit silver studds and pins.

Viktor & Rolf Monsieur Fashion Paris Menswear SS2014

School-uniforms and a bad school-boy where the theme behind the Monsieur-collection of Viktor & Rolf. The result was a streamlined and boyish collection with a new suit shape, pairing a cropped jacket with skinny trousers or shorts. The school-boy theme was also visible in the patches on black jeans, the jersey blazer with blue nylon stripes inspired by college scarves and the bomber-jacket.

Viktor & Rolf Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2013

No firework at Viktor & Rolf, but a strong collection full with clothes that were accessible for a lot of women. With beautiful legs, that is. Since the biggest part of the fall collection was leaning on short skirts and dresses. It looked young and fresh, almost as if a young girl tried to modify her clothes herself by cutting and ripping it and putting it together again with lace inserts and embroideries. It was a mix of bouncy sportswear, serious power-dressing and modern sculptured silhouettes. The designers sticked to a black-and-white palette and occasionally injected a subtle Sixties London vibe.  Fanciful touches came via overstated bows, from a giant one on the neckline of a white shirt to another on the shoulder of a gown.

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Viktor & Rolf Monsieur Catwalk Fashion Show Paris FW2013

Sporting the designer’s iconic strong glasses the Viktor & Rolf appeared from yet another Piet Paris designed backdrop. Inspired by one of Jules Verne’s stories they wore skinny suits and heavy outerwear. The fall winter color palette (of greys & blacks) might have been a little somber; the playful prints definitely made up for that. Large letters, large glasses, large shoes and the graphic guy from the backdrop popped up on sweaters, jackets, pants and even one of the bags. Whether the V&R guy is opting for sporty or chic; he’ll have lots of wearable designs to choose from come fall.

Backstage at Viktor & Rolf Monsieur SS2013

Take a look backstage at Viktor & Rolf Monsieur ss2013, where models are being prepared for the show, last minute alterations are being made to the clothes and dressers get ready. See the show here

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