OTB Group Renews Collaboration With Viktor & Rolf for Another Five Years
MILAN — Just as the revolving door of designers continues to spin in the industry — whether real or rumored — the OTB Group on Monday said it is renewing its collaboration with Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren for the next five years.
The designers will continue to lead the creative direction of Viktor & Rolf, which they founded in 1993. The Italian fashion group first invested in the brand in 2008 with a 51 percent stake and raised it to 70 percent in 2019. The remaining 30 percent stake is equally split between Horsting and Snoeren.
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“Viktor and Rolf are two unique voices in the world of international fashion, couturiers who have revolutionized the very concept of haute couture, and everything they do is art,” said Renzo Rosso, chairman and founder of the OTB Group. “I am very happy to continue the collaboration with them; their talent will continue to inspire and amaze the fashion world.”
“Within an ever-changing fashion landscape of brands and designers, we are proud to continue our singular artistic path of 30+ years,” the Dutch duo said in a joint statement.
In addition to Viktor & Rolf, OTB controls Diesel, Jil Sander, Maison Margiela, and Marni, production arms Staff International and Brave Kid, and holds a stake in the Amiri brand.
Last week, Glenn Martens, also creative director of Diesel, was confirmed as the successor of John Galliano at Maison Margiela, who in December wound up a successful 10-year collaboration at the brand. There are ongoing rumors that changes are also brewing at Jil Sander, as speculation mounts about a potential exit of Luke and Lucie Meier from the brand after the fall 2025 show at the end of the month in Milan. Sources say Bally’s creative director Simone Bellotti could be considered as a successor.
In 2015, Horsting and Snoeren decided to halt their women’s and men’s ready-to-wear business to concentrate on couture, fragrances and special projects.
Last week, Viktor & Rolf paraded its spring 2025 couture show in Paris at the Westin Hotel centered on 24 silhouettes, exuberant variations of three staple wardrobe builders — the beige trench, the white shirt and blue pants.
Prized for their experimental approach to fashion and reverence for glamour, Horsting and Snoeren started collaborating after graduating from the Netherlands’ Arnhem Academy. They shot to prominence in 1993 by winning the International Festival of Fashion and Photography in Hyères, France. Two of fashion’s consummate showmen, Snoeren and Horsting have incorporated elements such as fog, pyrotechnics and scaffolding into their shows.
Viktor & Rolf’s Mariage collection is available at top wedding dress retailers and, after entering the fragrance scene in 2005 with Flowerbomb, the brand in 2018 launched an e-commerce platform dedicated to its signature scents under L’Oréal, launching the successful Spicebomb and Good Fortune fragrances.
They also have an eyewear collection, Viktor & Rolf Vision, made in Italy.
The designers were ahead of the curve in terms of upcycling, ever since their first collection at the Hyères festival in 1993 and using vintage fabrics from Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent in their first couture lineup.
They have been designing stage costumes, for example for “Der Freischütz,” a 2009 opera production by American theater director and playwright Robert Wilson.
They have been vocal through their collections on overconsumption and current events, for example with their spring 2023 collection called “Late Stage Capitalism Waltz,” with surrealist garments worn upside down, sideways, perpendicularly, and away from the body.
Among other memorable collections, for spring 2019, they created a lineup entirely made of colored tulle, and for spring 2022, they sent extreme, distorted, and elongated silhouettes down the runway.
In 2018, the brand celebrated 25 years in fashion with projects such as the “Viktor & Rolf Fashion Artists” retrospective at the Kunsthal Museum in Rotterdam, and the launch of “Cover Cover,” a Phaidon book. On the occasion of the brand’s 30th anniversary, 100 of their most iconic pieces were showcased in the exhibition “Viktor & Rolf: Fashion Statements” at the Kunsthalle in Munich.
Other exhibitions include: “Camp: Notes on Fashion” at the Met Museum; “Viktor & Rolf: MetaFashion!” at the Sea World Culture and Arts Center in Shenzhen, and “Viktor & Rolf: Fashion Artists” at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, among some. Several of their dresses were also selected for the ongoing exhibition “Memorabile. Ipermoda” at the MAXXI National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome, in collaboration with the National Chamber of Italian Fashion (CNMI).
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