The Cottweiler duo, Matthew Dainty and Ben Cottrell, always manage to walk a fine line between icy minimalism and an oddly familiar, low-brow pop. The cool, chilly modernity is delivered in their shapes and fabrics - the nude tones, the sheer spacey uniforms, the Aluminium fibres and wipe-clean surfaces. The twist often comes in the theme or the details. The pair have an interest in the fine line between what is fetishistic and what is ordinary - the interplay between the queer and alternative and the common and expected.
In the past they’ve looked to camping for inspiration, yet somehow their take on it is sensual, bristling with something unsaid and twisted. Here, the pair looked to desert communities. That explains the giant motorhomes parked in the centre of the set. Indeed, the synthetic interiors of these had sparked ideas for fabrics. A continued collaboration with Rebook, debuted last season at Pitti in Florence, has given the pair access to new opportunities for fabrication development and production - here, they’d experimented with UV protective layers and packable garments. Across the garments crept glittering Swarovski crystal lizards. One thought of lizards in the wild, but also of the typical lizard tattoos favoured by clubbers, travellers and revellers of years gone by. One thought of glittering body jewellery, of cheap souvenir shops, of creeping out and dancing, sweaty, thirsty and warm. The Cottweiler aesthetic is layered. Behind that sharp modernity there’s a riot of oddness. They whisper with their warpedness, and that makes it all the more intriguing.
