Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh are feeling this moment keenly, as designers and as citizens of the world. Business-wise, they have coped by focusing on their most familiar pieces, reworking them in limited editions from available stock. They made a baker’s dozen of their oversized blue and white striped polo with trailing threads, for example, and hand-printed a “grandpa shirt” with an orange floral (lay it flat, fold the sleeves forward, and it all aligns).
Botter noted that the brand would keep making art pieces with a personalized and seasonless sensibility. “Maybe people will find it naïve, but our mindset was that it’s more interesting to create collectible pieces because it reflects what we feel in this period,” he offered. “It won’t be the most profitable period, but we feel good about it.”
Strong sellers reprised this season include the “Sharchitect” blazer, polos, and pieced-together striped shirts, one of which had a scarf detail in back that nodded to last year’s drawstring tops. A light horsehair and cotton blend typically used inside men’s tailoring was transposed as relaxed shirts and suiting. For prints, they tried to sidestep conventional ideas. “When people think of the Caribbean, they think of the more touristic side. We wanted to do the opposite,” they said of a pale trench with a white print inspired by coral. Elsewhere, a “Rush” motif neatly referred to Botter’s nickname as well as being social commentary.
The gut-punch came in a re-edition of last year’s message sweatshirt that asks, “Do you see us now?” That one was originally produced when they first arrived in Paris, straight out of student life, to speak for their muses and in hopes of catching the fashion world’s attention, the designers explained. “It’s a message that’s close to our hearts,” offered Herrebrugh. “A collection is like a diary, and to say nothing would be a betrayal.”
Between Botter and their job at Nina Ricci, the designers feel at home in Paris now, but they’re clear-eyed that there is no comfort zone. “When the normal strings of security fall away, it’s scary but it’s positive too because problem-solving and being creative is what drives us,” said Botter. “Doing ‘safe’ isn’t interesting to us.”
