The “stealth” aspects of BITE Studios (which start with its acronymic name, standing for By Independent Thinkers for Environmental Progress) pre-date Succession by a couple of years. Founded by Veronika Kant and William Lundgren in 2016, this Swedish brand delivers a kind of idyllic minimalism that truly translates into real-life work and play scenarios.
For resort the brand has upped the sartorial ante by adding stitch details to an ivory pantsuit. Known for cutting a killer pair of trousers, they’ve added to their repertoire a leg-lengthening pair with built-in movement that sits a bit high on the waist and gathers a bit above the ankle. They’re shown in the lookbook with a tucked-in blazer, the designers’ take on traditional suiting.
Kant and Lundgren continued to explore the petal shapes introduced last season; the peplum belt, which seems to be a hit at retail, is back, and is joined by a capelet along the same lines. Here, there was a shift from the suggestive to the more literal in terms of florals, with the addition of prints and other treatments. The tone-on-tone flower embroidery on a pair of cropped trousers in a wool-silk blend with a crisp hand and luster was unexpectedly delightful, more so than a well-placed bloom on a blazer.
The lookbook, which was shot on the streets of Stockholm as the sun rose, illustrates the theme the team was working with: a woman who was at a party until dawn. “That sort of vibrant, energetic feeling that you can have when you have sort of lived a little bit,” noted Kant with a laugh. A half-and-half cocktail dress in ivory and black with a petaled hem captured the transition between night and day in a way that felt more balanced and less overt than the color-blocked pieces in bright white and black jersey. This same material was used to great effect for a flowing drop-waisted dress and a long shirt-dress with a drawstring open back.
There are two types of suggestiveness in action in this collection; the sexiness of an open back or the second-skin fit, and the the more gestural and interpretive takes on the petal theme that marry the romance of a flower with practicality. For Kant and Lundgren, nuance has a role in design construction, and aesthetics, but not when it comes to materials. BITE set a personal record with resort; Kant reported that 99.5% of the materials they used are sustainable.
