17 May 2024 |
Ecco’s innovative leather-focused project, Ecco.Kollektive – formerly At.Kollektive – is back for its fifth season. Focusing on designs for spring/summer 2025, the initiative, which invites a revolving roster of guest designers to create boundary-pushing collections using Ecco’s leather manufacturers each season, has just announced Craig Green, Louis-Gabriel Nouchi and Ottolinger as next up for the job.
Launching in 2022, the project aims to challenge the traditional relationships between designers, manufacturers and buyers and the process kicks off with a visit for the designers to the Danish brand’s tanneries, before they then go away and create a collection of shoes, accessories and ready-to-wear pieces that recontextualise the way the material is conventionally used.
Each of this season’s designers brings something completely unique to the table. Three times a winner of the British Menswear Designer at the Fashion Awards, Craig Green is a London-based designer known for his creative integrity and ability to utilise the unexpected, leading to his garments being featured in the permanent collections of The Met and V&A. Louis-Gabriel Nouchi is best known for his carefully structured pieces that challenge gender norms, which he releases under his Paris-based brand LGN. On the other hand, Ottolinger – by the Berlin-based, Swiss duo Christa Bösch and Cosima Gradient – draws inspiration from technology, surrealism and Dadaism, using clothes to defy norms whilst seamlessly blending fashion and art.
Explaining the impetus behind the project and the reason for selecting this new cohort of designers, Ecco’s CEO Panos Mytaros says, “Innovation, collaboration, and material excellence are always at the heart of everything we do at Ecco. As Ecco.Kollektive continues to grow and evolve, we are excited to welcome the incredibly talented Craig Green, Louis-Gabriel Nouchi and Ottolinger into our family of collaborators to create a collection which blends our shared vision and expertise.” Keep your eyes peeled for the reveal.
Photography courtesy of Ecco.
