AVAVAV Goes for Gold with adidas
AVAVAV has become notorious as the runway provocateur of Milan Fashion Week with shows blurring the line between fashion and performance art. At the heart of creative director Beate Karlsson’s creative world is humour and chaos utilised to deconstruct and critique the industry, captivating and confounding audiences alike, leading to just as many critics as super fans. Closing out Milan’s fashion festivities, this season AVAVAV flexed their funny bone with a sports-inspired presentation at the history Forza e Coraggio sports arena, unveiling a collaboration with adidas Originals.
Hot off the heels of the Paris Olympics, which gave even the most gym-averse among us sports fever, Karlsson tasked her models to attempt to break the world record in short-distance running. Of course, in her distorted world handicaps abound for the ‘athletes’ like knee-high sock boots, nail extensions binding fingers together, and adidas Superstars fused with the brand’s iconic finger shoe.
'There's so many people who live for sports. It's such a part of their everyday life and what they consume and I think there’s something very similar with sports and fashion. Sportswear can be very serious.’ From earnest fast-walking to the occasional stumble on the track, the presentation was a perfect blend of absurdity and satire, capturing the tension between high-performance athleticism and the impracticality of fashion’s ongoing obsession with sportswear.
‘What is AVAVAV in the sports context?’ Karlsson asks me before the show. ‘I’m not a sports person and we’re not a sports brand so we really played with and had fun with graphics’. Obvious winks and nods in the collection included ‘Unlucky 13’, adidas’ three stripes as extended laces on caps, and models wearing literal bandage dresses (bloody wounds, included).
Aesthetically, Karlsson merged track and field with today’s goths (a recurring reference for the brand). This time around it was evident in anatomical cutouts on hoodies mirroring human anatomy, both skeletal and muscular. Oversized shades paired with hoods could be worn at warehouse raves or triathlon meets alike. ‘I love this mix of gothic and sports because it's such a weird mix,’ she explains.
It was the recognisability of a billion-dollar brand like adidas that appealed most to Karlsson. ‘It's been a dream of mine to collaborate with adidas, since I was 16.’ The merging of worlds saw a reimagining of AVAVAV's sculptural Larva handbag crafted from spliced adidas Superstars, and deconstructed tailoring stamped with those legendary three stripes. Still, the most provocative piece in the collaboration isn't a garment at all. In true AVAVAV fashion, Karlsson took one of the brand's most recognised pieces (the Beckenbauer track top) and painted it on a model. 'It's the kind of idea that we can't do with just AVAVAV alone. And those are the kind of ideas that I had so much fun with at adidas'.