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Sandwiched between megabrands, scrappy avant-garde label Ottolinger has been bringing some edge to Paris Fashion Week since joining the schedule in 2019. Previous shows have featured graffiti, CBD products on seats, beds for the front row and thumping techno, all as a backdrop to the brand’s inclusive casting and deconstructed, sci-fi-inspired clothes.
Now, Ottolinger is ready to grow. The goal is to reach nine-figure revenues by 2035 (up from seven figures currently), say founders Christa Bösch and Cosima Gadient. To get there, they are scaling up production, working on pre-collections and reigniting some of the brand’s old DNA, all while combining it with more grown-up, wearable clothes.
Ottolinger is known for its inclusive, avant-garde fashion, with references that exist somewhere between the ’90s, the future and the club. Its deconstructed and reconstructed fashion, often with off-kilter silhouettes, straps and textures, has secured the brand a global cult following. Stockists include Ssense, Machine-A and Selfridges.
Swiss-born designers Bösch and Gadient founded the brand in Berlin in 2015, after meeting during their studies at Basel School of Design. Berlin was a practical choice. “The cost of living was cheap, you could rent a big studio space, we had friends nearby and there were a lot of good art shows,” says Bösch. They had no plan, other than to create something new that they hadn’t seen before.
Really, Ottolinger started as a project rather than a business, says Gadient. Pretty soon, the duo were thrown in at the deep end. Soon after they started the brand, Ottolinger won support from New York emerging designer platform Vfiles, which included showroom space to sell their collection in the city. After that first season, during which they’d secured some small orders, Bösch and Gadient caught the attention of Ye (Kanye West), who tapped the duo to consult for Yeezy for two seasons. “It helped us bridge a gap that we had, not selling the large quantities. We are completely self-funded but we used money from ghost designing or consulting for other brands.”
Over recent years, Bösch and Gadient realised the need for commercial viability, investing more energy into finding suppliers and balancing their conceptual, hard-to-produce pieces with more commercial offerings, like T-shirts and sunglasses.
Now, after eight years, the duo have hit steady growth and secured a robust supplier network. Ottolinger revenue grew 60 per cent year-on-year in 2023, driven by key stockist Ssense and collaborations with Camper and Puma.
Heiko Desens, global creative director and director of innovation at Puma, says the brand saw the opportunity to team up with Ottolinger in 2023 as a way to “energise” one of Puma’s trending low-profile silhouettes, the Mostro. “Ottolinger’s disruptive approach to fashion makes them a great partner for this move. Ottolinger has a style-curious community and they embraced the Mostro immediately. An instant buzz was created around this collaboration and it looks like it kicked off a conversation with a lot of new interest in both parties,” he says. “The response was amazing.”
From Yeezy to Puma, collaborations have aided Bösch and Gadient in meeting new suppliers, increasing brand awareness and revenue, and better understanding how bigger brands work. “In the beginning, we’d have a crazy idea and then have to somehow figure out the production. Since we figured out our production and we got a good factory in Greece, we’ve been able to do more sales,” Bösch says. The brand also introduced pre-fall and pre-spring, allowing the designers to structure collections: the pre collections, which remain in stores for longer, are more commercial. Show collections are mostly conceptual to fuel press and social media buzz.
Production is no longer an afterthought
Bösch and Gadient learnt their lesson in the early days. During their first season, they created jeans and skirts made from burnt-jersey denim — constructed by actually burning holes in the clothes — to be presented in the Vfiles showroom. But as orders started to roll in, it was a “nightmare” for production. No factory wanted to do burning, and also, the burnt effect came out in the wash, so suppliers wouldn’t be able to uphold their usual quality guarantee. Gadient and Bösch took matters into their own hands to make the orders, burning the garments on Bösch’s Berlin terrace, or at Gadient’s family farm. “It was small quantities, but we even hired someone to do the burning,” Bosch laughs, “I have so many fun photos from that time, it’s like, what were we doing?”
When Ottolinger changed showroom, and was advised that buyers wouldn’t like the burnt clothes because they didn’t wash well, they stopped burning. But unorthodox treatment of materials remains a central tenet of the brand, via drastic cuts, extreme shapes and added straps or lace.
For SS19, Ottolinger ran into production issues again. Buyers took interest in a ceramic bag that was made for runway impact, not to be sold. “We were like, OK, we need to figure out how we can make this bag. We started with a studio in Berlin, then we found a factory in Italy that could do it,” Bösch says. “It’s good we did, because it sold really well, and has become a signature.” The brand introduces the bag (retailing between €480 and €620) in different colourways season to season, with continued success.
To show or not to show
When Ottolinger speaks to Vogue Business, it’s 6pm on a Sunday night a week out from their Autumn/Winter 2024 show. “It’s not a normal Sunday for us,” says Bösch over Zoom from Berlin. “We’re in the studio, we’re working and we’re in the last steps of getting everything done before we head to Paris on Wednesday to do the casting. It’s always stressful but we’re ready.”
Paris Fashion Week is the ultimate platform, in terms of press and buyer attendance. But it’s also difficult to be on schedule in competition with the big players, with bigger budgets. (Ottolinger’s show is the same day as Balenciaga, Valentino and Mugler.) Paris is also tricky because of strict laws and restrictions on venues and production. It’s a challenge, but one that ultimately helps Ottolinger come up with creative venues and show ideas, the founders say. Their last show took place in an old bank near the Paris Opéra, with windows covered in graffiti.
As economic challenges mount for everyone, Bösch and Gadient have debated if the show cost is worth it. Ultimately, it remains important for exposure and industry connections. “You look at the numbers, a show costs so much. But, since we’re not based in Paris, it’s a real event for us. We meet so many people before and after the show, and the show has so much reach,” Bösch says. “It’s one of the best mediums to present the collection. You can present your whole vision in eight minutes, it’s like a little firework.”
With this season, they’re hoping to boost stockists through a show that’s true to form — but perhaps a little more sophisticated. “It’s more business-like, let’s say? The style is evolving as we are getting older,” Bösch says. “We say that every season,” Gadient smiles.
Contrasting this newer mood for Ottolinger, the final third of the show will hark back to the brand’s origins. “We’re doing something we haven’t done for a couple of seasons. When we look back at all the shows where we used to be more extreme, when we didn’t care or didn’t know about numbers, we think this looks so effortless. We’ve brought that back a little bit.” The duo won’t share details ahead of the show, but hint that some of the pieces will be reminiscent of the very deconstructed, sci-fi clubwear they became known for in the early days.
Balancing this creativity with the more “business-like” wearability aligns with Bösch and Gadient’s mission this year: to sell more clothes. “The growth needs to be financed. Right? So in order to grow more, to really make a bigger jump, you need to be really smart,” Gadient says. Part of this is hiring. It’s been challenging to find talent in Berlin because it’s not a major fashion city, for example; over time, they’ve managed to secure their 20-strong team. “The structure we’ve built is quite stable in order to achieve what we want to achieve in the next year. I think the house can hold it,” Gadient adds.
While many emerging designers across the world are struggling right now from delayed payments, reduced or cancelled wholesale orders, and increasingly difficult payment terms, Ottolinger so far hasn’t met serious challenges in wholesale. “We’ve heard horror stories, but luckily we’re not there,” Bösch says.
Would they consider outside investment? Perhaps. But for now, they’re proud of mastering their own growth, Gadient says. “Sometimes I think if we had external money, it’s kind of a fake brand, right? It’s good we built this ourselves.”
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