OTTOLINGER SS26
Every girl dreams of having a cool older sister: the kind whose wardrobe you steal, who teaches you how to draw perfectly messy eyeliner, and who’ll call you names in front of her friends but still let you hang around them. Cool, assured, wild and wise, they’re the ones you look up to. There’s no doubt whatsoever that Christa Bösch and Cosmia Gadient, the Swiss-born designers behind Ottolinger, are those sisters. And if not for their own younger siblings, then to the thousands of girls who wear their clothes.
This imperfect, live-and-love-hard older sister figure was the main inspiration for the duo’s Resort 2026 collection, “Heidi”. After a regular spot on the Paris schedule, the show marks the duo’s return to their base city of Berlin, and just ahead of their 10th anniversary, their homecoming was a warm one.
From the second the music sounded, the show’s energy was electric. Kim Petras opened in a matching ribbed knit tee and booty shorts, strutting like a bratty teenager with a micro-technical vest and oversized visors. At some point, Darude’s “Sandstorm” started playing. Of course, this older sister knows how to party.
The looks that followed contained all the Ottolinger favourites: figure-hugging mesh, exposed midriffs, asymmetric deconstruction and piping. But extending beyond just a party girl, the older sister was tough in army green utility gear. She was daring in double denim, and ambitious in torn apart business-wear. A welcome alternative to the corporate chic of recent runways, the brand’s grey looks were styled with an improper amount of skin: unbuttoned suit pants that tapered at the ankles, a ‘90s style too-big blazer, and an inside-out silk shirt that could have been from the Margiela archives.
“We are both big sisters and we love being that role model; showing you how not to fail, because we already failed for you; that we’re here to support you in all that you do to succeed. So the clothes are playful, freer,” Gadient told Vogue Runway. If we’re talking about following in one’s footsteps, Ottolinger’s shoes would not be bad ones to follow. The looks featured a range of sculptural, quirkily cut-out wedges in strappy heels, pointed-toe pumps, sneakers and even flip-flop forms.
Although on the face of it, Ottolinger looks to be a brand that favours fierceness, the character of Heidi was deeper, more sensitive.”She taught you that strength isn’t loud. She holds space for you when the world feels too big. She’s proof that softness and power can coexist. She doesn’t protect you from the fall, but she teaches you how to land,” the duo described.
Words by SHARYN BUDIARTO
