Botter co-founders and creative directors Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh credit their move to Antwerp with giving them the clarity and peace to reflect personally on where the brand was going. “Our vision was clear, but we didn’t know which way to run,” explain the designers in the lead-up to their Autumn/Winter 2024 show. “Before we would be screaming about how we wanted to change the world, but now we are more pragmatic about how we want these things to happen.”
Pragmatism, however, in no way equates to a simplification of their environmentally charged agenda or complex craftsmanship. As their collection Dark Waters, presented last Wednesday morning during Paris Fashion Week, attested: there is power in showing, not telling. The designers’ peaceful confidence in the well-honed Botter design vocabulary allowed the refined silhouettes to speak fluently for themselves (the most literal example: a tracksuit on which the ‘S’ was dropped from the Shell logo). As such, the collection continued now-iconic brand archetypes like the cleat-stacked-banker shoes from their ongoing collaboration with Reebok and pops of Botter aquatic blue, while the designers also manipulated their deft hand for tailoring to innovate dresses and trenches crafted from trousers.
Here, speaking in their own words, Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh talk us through the making of their most recent collection.
“Every collection is an ongoing story, from one to the other. We find new ideas and techniques that we carry on. For this season, we focused on the wearability of Botter. Both personally and emotionally, we felt that we had to move a bit away from unrealistic propositions as we have always been designers who are very attached and reactive to what’s going on around us. And this is definitely a moment where we felt like it’s not a time to create dreams. So, in terms of fabrication, we worked from the inside out, more from feeling. How does this garment make you feel? How does it function around you? We wanted it to be comfortable and soothing for the wearer, and less about provoking a reaction. It was much more grounded.
“Dark Waters can also be something beautiful. 95 per cent of the ocean is undiscovered. There’s so much poetry going on down there” – Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh
“During the process of making, we had moments where we felt like, ‘What are we actually changing by making fashion?’ To go back to why we started fashion and ask what’s the purpose of it all. And you can feel that as a positive way of thinking, as a challenge. We always stay true to ourselves but it’s also always an evolution – we are growing, we are maturing. And you can tell that from this collection. Before, we wanted to show that we can do this and that, but the challenge now is to focus, to pure things out, to leave some things away. So, it becomes more soothing, gives more rest for the eyes, and allows you to completely understand the garments – you don’t have to search. We are more confident, let’s say. You know, it’s one of the first seasons that we really want to wear most of the things ourselves.
“We were inspired by the fragmentation of Caribbean culture but also wanted to celebrate it. So, one way [we translated it] was through a needle punch technique: where we take raw traceable wools, needle punch it, put it in between two different fabrics to create, for example, a blazer underneath and more of a technical jacket on top. [Needle punch] is an old Dutch technique so you have this Dutch influence with sober Antwerp tailoring and the spontaneous vibe of Caribbean culture.
“[The collection name] Dark Waters is due to many details. The colour palettes – the toned-down darker colours combined with more vibrant ones like you see underwater. It’s also a reflection of what’s going on in the world now. I don’t want to sound depressed, because we’re always positive, but it’s really a time of dark waters. You cannot walk away from that, we have to be realistic. But then again, Dark Waters can also be something beautiful. 95 per cent of the ocean is undiscovered. There’s so much poetry going on down there.”
