![\"Eckhaus](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/eckhausweb1.jpeg\")
Eckhaus Latta, photo by Franziska Sinn<\/p>\n Eckhaus Latta, photo by Franziska Sinn<\/p>\n
A new type of fashion brand is emerging. It creates new, exciting projects that are as innovative visually as they are conceptually. It doesn\u2019t depend on tired distinctions between different disciplines, and instead that takes its lead from the studio-based practices of the art world. Moving away from the market-focused strategies of the rest of the industry, for example, showing unisex clothes on non-traditional models (yes, actually non-traditional), the end products are not collections, those commodified moments that saturate our image-laden culture before they are even in season, but more like an inspirational starting point that is developed and honed throughout different media over the six months the collection is out.
\nEckhaus Latta, founded by Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta, are the biggest hitters in this new field of designers, a cohort that also includes fellow NYC residents Telfar and Gypsy Sport. Perhaps unsurprisingly given their preference for the non-commercial, they found themselves in fashion after studying art together . \u201cI think it is really natural for us: both of us went to Rhode Island School of Design, where I studied sculpture and Zoe studied textiles,\u201d Mike explains.
\nWhen we meet, the pair are in Berlin for a celebration of their work at Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, specifically to celebrate their off-kilter fashion film collaborations with Alexa Karolinski. In one, a model in one of the brand\u2019s SS15 pasta shell string tops lies on a concrete pavement, murmuring Bon Iver\u2019s \u201cSkinny Love\u201d to herself, and gently feeding pigeons that gather for the breadcrumbs that surround her. Another shows a group of models pureeing vegetables and carefully grooming each other, then sitting down to dinner to eat their liquid meal mostly with their hands \u2013 both masterclasses in the unheimlich. <\/i>It\u2019s a startlingly different direction for fashion films, which are usually more about selling clothing.<\/p>\n
![\"eckhausweb2\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/eckhausweb2.jpeg\")
Pigeon, SS15, film still, directed by Alexa Karolinski, DP by Lowell Meyer<\/p>\n
BEST OF BOTH WORLDS<\/strong> \nTo Eckhaus and Latta, it is only natural that their work should be shown in a gallery \u2013 in fact, it\u2019s the fashion world that can seem more alien: \u201cThe whole art community has never really felt distant. I think at times the fashion community has been a newer world, even though we have both worked within the fashion industry since graduating, in various capacities,\u201d Mike says. Although, of course, there is a lot of cross-pollination in the art and fashion worlds, big-brand collaborations often take pre-existing structures and use them to make capital gains: the artist gains financially, the design house culturally by association. Eckhaus Latta have been involved with various artistic projects as a brand, such as contributing one-off clothing to a Bjarne Melgaard show and collaborating with Dora Budor on her Venice Biennale work. However, the development of these projects has been vastly different to the traditional fashion-meets-art setup. \u201cFor us, it has never been like that!\u201c Zoe says. \u201cNot saying we have enough street cred, it doesn’t feel like that, but it’s more like we’re more cosy. Way more of our friends are engaged in art and creative things like that than they are in commercial fashion,\u201d Mike adds. \u201cIt’s just been a very\u00a0symbiotic relationship.\u201d The development from one project to the next (there are always different manifestations of each collection) veers away from instant, image-based hype and sticks to how the ideas are best presented. As we speak, they are on their way to Paris for a second presentation of their SS15 collection. Eckhaus explains the reasoning behind this continual redevelopment: \u201cI think it’s nice, that we can re-visit the work in this way, within the pace of designing. We only do two collections a year, but still, it’s a lot, for us, at scale. So, we can approach it again, in a new context in a different city with new bodies involved, and then we will be able to rework it again, as a video.\u201d THE OPPOSITE OF MARKETING Yet hidden in these statements, there is clearly a question about the ever-present concept of \u201cmarketing\u201d, which the duo are vehemently against. Instead of boxing customers in and selling them a concept of what Eckhaus Latta believe they should look like, the pair attempt to draw on the authentic magic of clothing, that feeling of simply having to have something, whether it\u2019s been found through dumpster diving or in a designer shop vitrine. \u201cIn this day and age, one of the standard methods of selling is to define the guy or girl that you are making clothes for, so that the customer wants to be him or her. For us, we never respond to clothes in that way. It’s more like: \u2018I want to be me, and this helps me be me.\u2019 We do not want a head-to-toe Eckhaus Latta it-girl. I don’t even know what she looks like! It’s way more about an integration into someone\u2019s own paradox,\u201d Zoe explains. \u201cThere can be a very serious sides to fashion but it’s also about strengthening the individual, or allowing them to find something which makes them feel better more comfortable in their own skin, at the end of the day,\u201d Mike adds. Eckhaus Latta, photo by Franziska Sinn A new type of fashion brand is emerging. It creates new, exciting projects that are as innovative visually as they are conceptually. It doesn\u2019t depend on tired distinctions between different disciplines, and instead that takes its lead from the studio-based practices of the art world. Moving away from the…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[2944,38,2945,21,2043,2946,2947,624,213,1568,2948,1191,2949,375,2950,2951,2952],"class_list":["post-23343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fashion","tag-alexa-karolinski","tag-art","tag-eckhaus-latta","tag-fashion","tag-franziska-sinn","tag-gypsy-sport","tag-isabella-bortolozzi","tag-josie-thaddeus-johns","tag-marc-jacobs","tag-matthew-barney","tag-mike-eckhaus","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-opening-ceremony","tag-telfar","tag-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art","tag-zoe-latta"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\n
\nThis seems to be typical of Eckhaus Latta\u2019s general approach \u2013 taking components of a fashion brand\u2019s marketing language, but using them in an entirely different way. Their fashion shows are also a distant cry from the straight up-and-down runway affairs, with unusual casting and distinctly untraditional approach to the notion of an \u201cevent\u201d. Recent shows have involved models destroying brick walls, and choreographer Elle Erdman\u2019s \u201cclump choreography\u201d that asked models to look uncomfortable in their clothes.<\/p>\n![\"eckhausweb3\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/eckhausweb3.jpeg\")
Dinner, SS13, film still, directed by Alexa Karolinski, DP by Caleb Heller<\/p>\n
\nMike and Zoe\u2019s approach to materials also leans towards the sustainable, although they are not fans of the \u201ceco-friendly\u201d tag. \u201cWe are not selling these clothes so that people feel like they are saving the world, because that kind of consumerism really disgusts me,\u201d says Zoe. Much of Eckhaus Latta\u2019s collections have been made from \u201cdeadstock\u201d material \u2013 surplus fabrics left over from pre-consumer wastage.\u00a0 \u201cWorking with deadstock materials was initially and still is, really just a financial decision for us, in that this was what was accessible to us,\u201d says Mike. Yet watching Mike and Zoe\u2019s faces light up when they talk about finding bolts of velvet from the forties tucked away in a warehouse, it becomes clear that there is more than finance going into this decision. \u201cMaterials have these weird provenances of history and location, and that\u2019s really exciting,\u201d Mike nods. \u201cSomething that initially\u00a0bonded us\u00a0was this love of materiality, and applying atypical materials to bodies. I think, though, that the more Eckhaus Latta has grown, some of our novel fascinations have dissipated at times, but then at others, they have totally reprised themselves. For us, in using materials, there is also this hunt, which is really kind of sourcing and figuring out what we are going to need.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"eckhausweb4\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/eckhausweb4.jpeg\")
Dinner, SS13, film still, directed by Alexa Karolinski, DP by Caleb Heller<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong> \nHaving met in college, and worked with various other designers and institutions (Marc Jacobs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Opening Ceremony, Matthew Barney) before starting the label together, they intended to look at fashion in a way that doesn\u2019t rely on traditional market-driven practices. On this topic, as with most, Mike and Zoe are finishing each others\u2019 sentences: \u201cWe renounced the idea of market-driven practice because we didn’t want to pigeonhole our consumer, but now we\u2019ve decided to work in the fashion industry,\u201d says Zoe. \u201cAnd inevitably that’s a market-driven environment,\u201d Mike concludes.
\nDespite this internal harmony, there are some obvious pitfalls to Mike and Zoe\u2019s approach. For starters, how on earth do you participate in an inherently commercial enterprise while avoiding letting the market affect your work? And are there ways in which \u201cwhat people want to wear\u201d should be involved in the design process? \u201cWell, making a coat with a proper sleeve that feels comfortable is a market-driven practice! And we are not against that!\u201d Zoe says. \u201cWe are slowly getting to know our customer and we like them! We are really honoured that they are wearing our clothes.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"eckhausweb5\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/eckhausweb5.jpeg\")
Dinner, SS13, film still, directed by Alexa Karolinski, DP by Caleb Heller<\/p>\n
\nOf course, as Sleek points out, this sounds like the aim of all marketing \u2013 advertising teams across the world dream this stuff up every day. In fact, many of the brands of the Nineties made this their calling card: United Colours of Benetton and Gap, to name just two. And yet, there is no doubting the sincerity of these two. It does make a difference that these are clothes they design and make in a studio with their own hands, and these strategies for style are created from dedication and passion \u2013 traits they both have plenty of.
\nText von Josie Thaddeus-Johns<\/a>
\nMehr: Vetements: Die vielen<\/a>
\nMehr: Fiorucci: When Pop Art Met Fashion<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"