Per Götesson Civil Engineers An Armand Basi Collection

Catalonian architecture, an appearance of effortless expression and the Barcelona grid system represent a panorama of posings in London-based, Swedish born designer Per Götesson’s capsule collection for Armand Basi. Future-facing yet grounded in the past, thoughtfully observant while leaning firmly into shared influences, the Basi by Götesson capsule zigs and zags like its sawtooth intarsia pattern does across a knit football polo.

Pulling together varied bits of aesthetic codes that breathe style throughout the cracks of city systems is the practise Per Götesson collections fuse to unlock masculine attitudes since his days at Fashion East. Working under Lulu Kennedy’s umbrella led to a design residency at SHOWstudio and two sold out collaborations with H&M sub-label Weekday. These relationships show off Götesson’s skill with intra-country business building that gets results from creative to retail levels. That Armand Basi has a distribution reach (Nautica, Cole Haan) and infrastructure providing Götesson those inherent creature comforts to thrive with, the only thing left to consider is the fashion.

In creative conception with Calum Knight, Götesson set about designing an idealised, but authentic feeling. A Catalonian city filled with residents reflecting Barcelona symbols (the ‘zig’) while lightly subverting the archetypes it represents (the ‘zag’). ‘The design process was partly remote, partly in Barcelona. An element I loved was the research - people watching in Barcelona with Calum was really informative for the feel of this collection,’ Götesson adds. Careful observation of the city and its people led to the clothing identity: a range for someone living in the city, living in the suburbs and the ambiguous visitor. ‘I found an identity by discovery versus sifting through an archive. What made me feel another connection was the city layout. Understanding social dynamics, people in movement, I know that about London but had to understand that with Barcelona.’

Armed with a thoughtful, determined understanding of Barcelona’s social grid helped Per Götesson reconfigure Armand Basi stylish incoherence into a visionary place sharing both aesthetics comfortably. Unused Armand Basi archive buttons from 1993 were repurposed as earrings. Götesson solved runway casting by looking back at Armand Basi shows from the early 90s. He wondered ‘What would the children of those supermodels look like today?’ Those results represent the visionary quality glinting across the capsule, also polished onto the campaign. We think we see friends, or at least possible inhabitants in the same city. In this environment postures become angular, origami expressions of the spirit. These city scenes indicate a relaxed way of living, which is a straightforward enough achievement for Armand Basi by Per Götesson.