“Arte povera in a positive vibe”: That was how Rushemy Botter summed up his latest collection with Lisi Herrebrugh. For their first Botter runway show, they collaborated with Tirzo Martha, an artist based in Curaçao who strung (spotless) toilets, tires, and tarps to scaffold towers, and crudely animated them with neon lights and electrical fans. But if many of arte povera’s instigators embraced a certain ugliness in their work, Botter’s showed that humble materials could assume an elegant veneer. “When you have something ugly, you make it beautiful,” said Botter. Look no further than the fishing net strung with pearls.
From their first streamlined look, featuring what appeared to be a Happy Earthday foil balloon, to the final tailored jacket studded with plastic price-tag fasteners, the collection came alive with relevance, resourcefulness, and a reasonable amount of whimsy. The plastic tags in place of fancier embellishment were especially neat; suddenly you’re no longer cutting them off and throwing them away but recontextualizing them as decoration. And from afar they could almost be mistaken for feathers. In a somewhat similar manner, a parka in Prince of Wales wool boasted cottony white flowers that had been formed from stuffing. For the balloon-style bags, they worked with Adam Parker Smith, who came up with the molded forms and graphics. Like their expressions of love, displayed as large as their logo and more frequently, what looked kitsch read sincere.
But all these overt statements were only part of the story. Their homemade-couture mind-set and commitment to upcycled fabrics led to subtler treatments, including suits that featured an attractive crinkle where the sleeve meets the shoulder and new versions of their signature polo shirts, the prettiest with stripes in wispy silk or ruching.
As the cofounders of a steadily rising label as well as the artistic directors of Nina Ricci since mid-2018, the duo has managed to maintain two distinct aesthetic realms, yet you can also detect how their immersion in couture workmanship has benefited Botter—whether or not guys will warm to peplums. “It’s an ongoing conversation,” said Herrebrugh. “We learn a lot and we bring a lot as well.” Their softer treatment of sportswear and suiting should be positively received.
