The final couple of reveals that I’ve seen by Avenir, the Berlin-based zero waste upcycling model by Sophie Claussen and Maximilian Luers, took quotidian actuality and made a captivating factor of it: a metropolis life tableaux held outdoors the place you didn’t know at first who was strolling the present and who was simply strolling down the road, whereas one other took a extra typical runway format, however did it with the chattering informality of a fantastic ebook get together—you realize, the cool crowd who’re doubly cool as a result of they really learn.
This previous July, as a substitute of staging one other present throughout Berlin Trend Week, Luers walked me by way of some key appears in an set up setting, and defined they have been going to current spring 2026 for gross sales through the Paris collections and shoot a lookbook someday over the summer season. If some younger manufacturers may need seen that as a slip backwards after the adrenalin (and possibly additionally, let’s be trustworthy, ego) rush of reside reveals, not him, and never Claussen: Avenir is a model that likes to maintain it actual and speak it actual. They’re excited by making issues that final, they usually wish to final—and there’s a refreshing pragmatism about what it’d take to get there.
For spring, then, Luers defined, they’d dubbed the gathering TALIS, after talisman, with all that means: one thing of lasting worth and that means which continuously brings a little bit magical pleasure. Luers and Claussen have been additionally, he stated, seeking to the work of early Twentieth-century feminine sculptors, just like the German Renée Sintenis. In fact, there’s the prizing of feminine creativity and expertise amidst the male dominated annals of artwork historic ‘price’ occurring right here, but there was additionally a extra direct connection for Luers. “We had this concept of utilizing the material like clay, one thing very pure in its software for type and quantity,” he stated. “We have been fascinated by the pureness of the supplies we have been utilizing, even when they’re on a regular basis, to make one thing distinctive and excellent and elaborate.”
A working example: Constructing on the denim embroidery approach that they’d began doing final fall. Primarily, that had meant slicing strips of previous, worn denim, stitching them onto a garment in bias or criss-cross striations, although for spring, he stated, the concept was to go extra fluid, leading to a body-skimming tank, a lean skirt with fraying edges, or a costume (lengthy and brief). All have been constructed out of the upcycled denim constructed onto a base cloth which dissolves in water leaving solely the fragile however sturdy denim behind. It’s a fantastic concept, creating items which really feel, with the sleight of hand from the disappearing base, mild and ethereal—and likewise particular, a souvenir.
Elsewhere, Avenir supplied a distillation of a recent wardrobe of clothes which is grounded however can fly a bit with creativeness too: “sturdy and useful,” Luers stated, “but additionally with particular particulars.” They do nice trenches, this time round in ice blue, a gauzy softness to it, whereas one other was sturdy stone bonded cotton. There have been outsized shirts, together with one, denims jacket type, in pink drill, with a really bricolage impact of a black and white photograph portrait of Sintenis patched onto it, a tad stylish but additionally punkish in spirit.
Large pants got here in silken emerald inexperienced or uncooked denim with round seams tracing their legs. And, one other trademark of theirs, roomy, shrug-it-on blazers, adorned with their signature steel pin which appears for all of the world like a tuning fork. Feels acceptable: that’s one solution to counsel concord when at present every little thing is so discordant and chaotic. Avenir could also be on the quieter facet as a label, however in our ever extra clamorous period, that’s a high quality to not be underrated.
