Fingers crossed that someone wears a gown from the Akris fall collection on Oscars night: They were fabulous, many of them in gold or with gilded embellishments, something new for Albert Kriemler, a Swiss designer synonymous with luxurious understatement.
“Gold is sort of the antithesis of Akris,” Kriemler said sheepishly during a preview at the brand’s Paris showroom.
But he was emboldened by Colombian artist Olga de Amaral, with whom he collaborated on the show, visiting her for several days at her home in Bogotá.
Her large-scale textile works are often covered in gold or silver leaf to bring light to the dark spaces they can inhabit, and on Sunday Kriemler lit up a room at the Palais de Tokyo with a long curtain of golden beads, through which passed one of his best and boldest collections yet.
Kriemler had been in touch with de Amaral’s family for about five years, but a retrospective at the Fondation Cartier in Paris last year egged him on to clinch the collaboration.
He described a major mind meld when he sat with de Amaral.
“I always wanted to design a collection with a textile artist,” he related. “She works in her studio with seven girls and always says, ‘I cannot do anything without my 14 hands.’ I felt so connected…as I need my tailors, I need my fabric developers.
“And then there’s her approach to color. She said, ‘I love color. I live color.’ And I think this is also very parallel to my life.”
From de Amaral’s few paintings, he built the fall color palette, which stretched from gold to shocking pink, strong reds and kelly green, which gave extra zing to Kriemler’s luscious double-face coats, leather skirts, boyish blousons and cozy sweaters.
Kriemler hit on all the right notes this season — luscious shearling coats, cool leather jackets, austere black tailoring and dazzling textural embellishments, including knotted fringe and fluttering tile embroideries. All hail the textile wizards.