BERTHOLD LC:M AW16 PRESENTATION

Raimund Berthold’s third presentation at London Collections Men explores volume and shelter. An aquiline silhouette is displayed in supple rubber, nubby shearling and coated cotton jersey: robust textiles devised to cover and protect.

Research focused on the sculptural quality of religious habits and, as always, the life-jackets and uniforms worn by the British army during World War II. The performative sculptures by influential German artist Franz Erhard Walther are also a key reference. Since the early sixties, Walther has posed fundamental questions about the conventional idea of the artwork as a fixed pedestal- or wall- bound ‘thing’. From 1978 up to 1986 he conceived a unique series of installations that he named Lwallformations,’ made using sheets of canvas and basic clothing patterns. The largest piece from the series entitled Wallform Gelbmodellierung (1980/81) was shown at Art Basel Unlimited 2015. Encouraged by its dramatic scale, economic use of colour (a luminous yellow) and minimalist rigour, BERTHOLD autumn/winter 2016 shows how clothing can encase the body in an uncomplicated, free way.

The collection evokes the tension between covering and smothering; jacket sleeves grow from a vast hand-knitted blanket wrapped around the body. Smart coats and neat shirts have half-bib fronts. Roomy crew neck smocks are in smooth rubber or bushy shearling. Neat bomber jackets are lined in cotton jersey making them soft, yet hardy.

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