The MBFW Spring/Summer 2019 officially opened fashion week at ewerk today at 10.00 am with a show by emerging Dutch label BOTTER and the first public screenings on the façade of the event location. The designer duo Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh were showing their new collection "Al Fombra" for the first time, mixed with looks from their current, multi-award-winning collection "Fish or Fight". The show at MBFW was made possible by Mercedes-Benz as part of its own International Designer Program, an initiative for supporting and developing young talents; it was complemented by an exhibition of one look per designer from all ten shortlisted finalists from the fashion category at the 33rd International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Fashion Accessories in Hyères in April of this year - BOTTER won the grand prix of the jury Premiere Vision.
In their new "Al Fombra" collection, seen for the first time on a catwalk at the Berlin show, the designers Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh have combined simple and luxurious materials to create surprising, eye-catching ensembles. The cuts create an oversize and boxy look; striking prints are used on T-shirts and loose-fitting shirts; the trousers feature a shorter length, whilst jackets have a wider fit - all of which combines to create an unusual silhouette. Even though BOTTER presents itself as a purely menswear label, the looks can be interpreted as unisex.
As with earlier designs, the inspiration for the new "Al Fombra" collection stems from the Caribbean roots of Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh. "We were affected by the lottery shops that you can find on every street corner in the Dominican Republic and Curaçao. I can still see my grandmother going into one of these shops and spending the last of her money in the hope she might win. But the reality is that most of these firms never pay out any prize-money. They play on the hopes of the poor for their own benefit. We want to get this aspect across in our clothing; and so we have played with the tension in the materials and the way the fabrics hang. And we have translated this idea even more literally into our prints. We thought it was wonderful how people who have so little can be so creative. They have to survive, and they simply don't have access to all the materials that we can source in Europe," explained the designer duo.
Alongside their new collection, BOTTER was also showing highlights from "Fish or Fight", with which they won the Grand Prix du Jury Première Vision at the Hyères Festival and were amongst the ten finalists of the LVMH Prize 2018.
Complementing the main show, the exhibition "Mercedes-Benz presents the Hyères Festival 2018 Fashion Shortlists" - staged in collaboration with the Festival organiser villa Noailles - showed one ensemble from each of the ten fashion finalists selected for the Hyères Festival by its jury, which included Haider Ackermann, Tilda Swinton and Jefferson Hack: Sarah Bruylant (Belgium), Ela Fidalgo (Spain), Anna Isoniemi (Finland), Linda Kokkonen (Finland), Marie-Eve Lecavalier (Canada), Ester Manas (France), Jef Montes (Netherlands), Regina Weber (Germany), Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh (Netherlands), Antonia Sedakova (Russia).
By inviting BOTTER to Berlin as part of the Mercedes-Benz programme for supporting and developing young talents and by collaborating again with villa Noailles, the initiator of the Hyères Festival, Mercedes-Benz is again demonstrating the importance it attaches to nurturing and promoting young talent in its fashion-related activities.
Parallel to the first MBFW shows, the public programme - entitled "FOLLOW MBFW – LIBERATE FASHION" - was launched on the facade of the ewerk. The presentations on the catwalk are being live-streamed across a LED screen on the façade of the ewerk and also feature interviews, backstage impressions and fashion films to offer, along with the food market "The Good Local", offering anyone with an interest in fashion a varied and full all-day programme.
