Imagine for a moment what might happen if Cher hooked up with Kurt Cobain. No, nevermind. Josef Lazo and Andreas Schmidl have already done the legwork for you.
Partners in business and in life, the duo behind the German-Swedish label is rocking out in their own world. Andreas writes, Josef draws and interprets the studio, and their offerings are now reaching a broad swath from clubbers in Berlin to fabulous fifty-somethings in LA.
During a pre-show interview, Schmidl explained that over the years he had dabbled in song lyrics, which naturally led to the idea of an imaginary glam-rock band. “Mister Sister” is on the brink of an album release, and presumably fame, though the show’s actual soundtrack was left to the likes of Queen, ABBA, and Christopher Cross. Pajamas for lounging in the hotel room—or sailing into the recording studio—mixed it up with fictional tour merch and stage-worthy getups. “Sort of like a recording camp,” they offered (emphasis on camp).
There was, for example, a pair of lace-up leather jeans with cheeky crescent cutouts just above the back pockets (“for direct access”). Elsewhere, they returned to a favorite mesh tank, this time embroidering it with pink and red beading. Sequins printed digitally for a marble effect were worked onto a caftan or a pair of jeans (the brand sells equally to men and women). There were harlequin patchworks, a scarf/poncho hybrid they called a “sconcho,” and a horse drawing Josef mined from his childhood archives. A gray tunic came embroidered with coins which were stamped with the brand’s logo is backside and, on the other face, two interlinked hearts, a motif reprised alluringly on jewelry by Saskia Diez.
Taken as a whole, Lazoschmidl’s runway can be a lot to process. Taken individually, their pieces are finding an audience. Tom of Finland has come calling: The duo recently reproduced seven looks in doll size and said the results are going up for auction at Paddle 8. But first, they staged a photo shoot. “It looks almost real,” they noted.