DESTINY’S CHILD

The collection’s story is inspired by the work of Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, who played an unexpected role in a recent family moment for 032c Readytowear creative director Maria Koch. “When my mother, Anna, told me she had gotten her first tattoo, I thought it was amazing,” explains the designer. “Doing a teenaged thing at 80 years old just says, ‘Do what you want, always.’” The new ink depicts three fundamental geometrical shapes – a circle, a square, and a triangle – stacked vertically, symbolizing the basis of modernism. Beside them is a black spider, chosen in reference to a quote from Kierkegaard:

What is to come? What does the future hold? I don’t know, I have no idea. When from a fixed point a spider plunges down as is its nature, it sees always before it an empty space in which it cannot find a footing however much it flounders. That is how it is with me: always an empty space before me, what drives me on is a result that lies behind me.

The passage channels the “freedom and fearlessness of living life backwards,” says Koch. Visual motifs from the tattoo make their way into Destiny’s Child in detachable patches on perfectionistic outerwear, new “spiderleg” typography, and leitmotifs hidden on functional hardware and garment details.

Reflecting further on this multi-directional view of time, the collection combines respect for legacy and heritage with an irreverence toward linear experience. Its two key silhouettes pull in opposite directions: one tight, taut, and fixed; the other voluminous and accommodating. Time is accelerated in pre-destroyed knit jumpers, and in velvet coats and trousers distressed by a technique that gives the material “visible lifelines … just like the ones on the palm of your hand,” according to the collection text.

Naturally treated leather and performance fabrics give a weathered, bi-color effect to bombers and cargo gear. Functional features from work- and sportswear standards are handed down to a new generation of hybrid classics. Unisex suiting disrupts familiar tailoring with dropped shoulders and secret branding beneath poppable collars. Men’s and women’s eveningwear surprise both in cut and fabric: there is a satiny gown in slick fluid black, and a strappy men’s camisole in featherweight sheer velvet in the season’s contrasting “microplastic yellow.” A “melted glacial blue” also interrupts the mostly black and grey collection, alongside restrained flashes of 032c’s signature red. The Berlin coat of arms pays homage to 032c’s hometown heritage on thick jersey layerables.

VOGUE

032c’s Fall 2023 Collection Was Called “Destiny’s Child,” But Its Inspiration Isn’t Who You Think — READ MORE

WOMEN'S WEAR DAILY

032c RTW Fall 2023: What do you get when you cross Kierkegaard with a tattoo? 032c has the answer — READ MORE

HIGHSNOBIETY

From Kierkegaard to Mrs. Knowles with 032c FW23 — READ MORE