AW 1998-99

Our first collection already included all of the references and inspirations that came to play a defining role in our brand over the past 20 years: Joseph Beuys, the red cross, religion, horses and horse-riding accoutrements, rivets, lingerie, uniforms and fetish shoes.

The base of the collection was the lingerie. We asked all of the models to wear our collection of intimates because our clothes were very masculine and valiant. We used heavy felted fabrics and drew a lot of influence from the military, so we wanted all of our girls to have a strong inner sense of femininity. We thought that if we gave them lingerie from our line, they would walk in a different way. Our philosophy was that they would stride softly in tremendously bold and confident clothes.

In addition to the feminine sensibility, we gave a cassette that we had made to each girl we cast. The tape had three songs: “Wild is the Wind” by David Bowie, “Superstar” by Sonic Youth, and “I’ve Never Been to Me” by Charlene. Along with the cassette, we handed out the accompanying lyrics. Our intention was for the models to learn the lines to each tune so they could sing along while walking in the show.