Collective Swallow

Here: Metzgete → Collective Swallow further investigate the collective memory of tastes and shared moments around food, following their own pace in the fashion world. Their label stands for an experimental combination of traditional techniques, collective memory and a conceptual approach. Their fifth series Metzgete, shown at Mode Suisse Edition 15 and in Paris in a solo showroom during Paris Fashion Week, is inspired by a traditional seasonal dish, offering a rich range of sensations such as a walk through the forest on a sunny autumn day followed by a festive dinner, the Metzgete. The looks translate the varied tastes and ingredients into a visual feast that feels abstract and personal like a memory, yet urban and versatile like their extra-voluminous trench or revamped cargo pants with asymmetrical pockets.

There: Many sizes fit any dish → The designer duo Anaïs Marti and Ugo Pecoraio, who work between Basel and Berlin, create durable garments based on high-end tailoring crafts. The collection, built on a one size chart so that each garment fits its own set of customers, translates the taste and materiality of a dish through fabric surfaces, colours, volumes, pockets, topstitching, and whatever represents a specific aspect best. This empirical and conceptual translation process opens up inspiring questions of textures (is it oily, sticky, fluffy?) and colours, leading for example to the use of onion skin to dye the fabric. “Fashion dinner is served, and we’re ready for it.“ writes Arnau Salvao in Metal Magazine.

Everywhere: Designing collective memory → There is humour in Collective Swallow’s conceptual ploy of turning food into fashion, a statement of lightness and joy. But it requires vision and mastery to cook up deeply rooted memories of collective experiences into actual objects, garments that fit the [urban contemporary context]. Their next show will be served at 17th Mode Suisse Edition in Paris.

Collective Swallow → (Anaïs Marti 1987, Ugo Pecoraio 1988), Based in Basel and Berlin, www.collectiveswallow.it

Education → MA in Fashion Design, FHNW, Basel

Project(s) → Metzgete, 2019