From the start, As Four’s Adi Gil, Ange Donhauser, Gabi Asfour, and Kai Kühne, rejected most of the conventions of the fashion system, not to mention societal norms. (Reportedly, they all slept together in a bed with their pets in their silver-painted loft). Their atypical approach to fashion presentations can be traced back to their first collection, 1999’s “Human Plant.” The pieces were photographed on a model and shown in Zink Magazine, rather than sent down the runway.
More important than the format was the way that the collection introduced themes that are still present in the work of Threeasfour (Kühne left the collective in 2005) 20 years later, most especially the designers’ use of organic shapes and curvilinear lines. Gender fluidity has been a constant for this team from the start, as well. “We also wanted to have this androgyny,” Asfour explained in a 2019 interview. “We felt attracted to that idea because I felt like this myself, I didn’t really associate with boy or girl, and we all kind of always made clothing that was in that direction. There was no gender.”
