ANNTIAN

PEOPLEText: Gudrun Rau

When you think of summer, what comes to your mind? Do you think of the early morning, when the air is still cool and refreshing? Or do you think of the afternoon, when it’s so hot that everything you can do is laze in the shadow and watch the glittering of the ocean?

“Whitecaps”, this year’s summer collection by Berlin based fashion label Anntian, grounds on certain feelings and pictures that a day at the seaside evokes. Ebb and flow of the days there, with their changing stages and moods, serve as an inspiration for the heavenly colors and shimmering, breezy prints: sunrise, crack of dawn, midday heat, afternoon, evening hours and sunset… The entire collection goes along and benefits nature, so do the prints, that convey the impression of camouflage. All tends to be fluent, unagitated and rather quiet.

Anntian
“Whitecaps”, Spring/Summer 2008

The collection radiates homogeneity since all garments derive from the same idea, in particular the idea of conforming with nature…

Anne Hilken and Christian Kurt, the designers behind Anntian, put emphasize on the conceptual origin of their collections.

Anntian
“Whitecaps” sandals, Spring/Summer 2008

First there’s the theme, the idea of a situation with all its sense perceptions – color, haptic, mood. Along with the theme, they begin to think of the silhouettes that would fit into this world. The clothes’ patterns of the “Whitecaps” – collection for example are developed on the basis of stone-shapes. They are wide, roundish and wavelike. Christian, the fashion designer of the team, constructs these unusual shapes.

Anntian
“The Box” cushion, Autumn/Winter 2008-2009

Meanwhile Anne, graphic designer, develops a visual language appropriate to the subject. She thinks of textures and patterns that would support the atmosphere of the theme and explores new ways to achieve those structures. She experiments a lot with her silk screen printing machine and with techniques like marbling or braiding, that you maybe still remember from elementary school. After all, many of their accessoires evoke vivid childhood memories: heart-shaped charms made of casting resin, marbled plastic bathing sandals and brooches embossed with a seal stamp. You can see they care for details, both in the handcrafted prints and accessoires and the non-compliant patterns that envelope you in an unexpected yet comfortable way; as a matter of course the quality of the material and fabrication shows real workmanship.

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