sleek magazine

The invitation to the Patrick Mohr show featured the image of a tired hobo supporting himself with a cane, his bent body jutting out at a 90 degree angle from his waist. What could be mistaken for a cynical provocation reminiscent of fashion parodies such as Zoolander’s Derelict Collection turns out to be a matter close to the young designer’s heart. On the catwalk, professional models walked alongside homeless persons, their faces covered in green mud with a pink triangle painted on their foreheads. The triangle, which only reminded me of the sign worn by political prisoners of the Nazi regime, was just another one of the many abominable mistakes made by the young designer full with misguided good intentions.

Hili Perlson: What does the ragpicker stand for?
Patrick Mohr: I see myself as one. Life is made up of the different experiences and impressions, good and bad, that we collect throughout their lives. Faith and destiny can be cruel, and we carry them around with us like bits and pieces we find on the street.

HP: Some of the models for the show are homeless people sent by the magazine Strassenfeger. Why?
PM: Homelessness is a topic close to my heart. I donate to the Strassenfegger and want to give back what was given to me when I was hit hard by life. When you see a homeless person, you never know what brought him there, who he is, what his personal story is. I try to see beyond that, see the heart behind the façade. It makes me happy to see them wear my clothes, take part in a world usually inaccessible to them.

HP: Aren’t you concerned that people would only see it as a provocation?
PM: I want to provoke people to think. When they see the show it all comes together.

HP: Your collection is very conceptual, meaning quite unwearable.
PM: The collection is to be understood as wearable art; it won’t be reproduced or sold anywhere. The conceptual pieces are the origin and inspiration for the wearable pieces I make. Those are the ones worn by the professional models, like the denim collection, the knitwear and the new shoe line I made in collaboration with designer Lena Krampf.

As in the past, Mohr’s main inspiration and leitmotif for S/S 2010 are geometrical forms. Maintaining this symmetrical focus, his current collection features the parallelogram. But the angular cuts and three-dimensional pop-up shapes which were recognizable in all the pieces, wearable as well as conceptual, were too weak to link the weird rags together.

Another weak link was the fact that professional models showed the wearable collection and homeless persons the conceptual one. This only underlined the disturbing notion that including homeless people in the show was a provocation of the worst kind. The feeling of unease culminated in one of the homeless people mumbling to himself as he walked down the catwalk.

While Mohr’s wearable line with its smart cuts and innovative geometrical interpretations is a favorite amongst the fashion savvy, the only message the designer managed to prove with his concept was that the catwalk is the wrong place for the earnest and very poorly reflected message he was trying to make.