Botter Men’s Spring 2024
Guests at Botter’s spring show discovered on their seat one of two gifts: Either a keychain gizmo made with a doll’s head or a T-shirt, rolled up in plastic like a burrito, that had been tagged with the collection’s theme: voodoo.
Other doll heads and body parts were strung from models’ waists or necks like talismans, while long, fine doll’s hair cascaded down the backs of jackets, or jutted from the spine of furry little tops, bringing to mind horse manes.
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It any of that sounds creepy, it wasn’t. The mood of the show fell somewhere between contemplative and whimsical.
Backstage, designing couple Lisi Herrebrugh and Rushemy Botter, the former holding their infant daughter, explained that voodoo in Caribbean culture — he’s from Curaçao, she the Dominican Republic — has positive connotations.
“Voodoo is all about unity, this idea that everything is connected to each, that one thing connects to another thing and that we all need each other to tell a true story,” Herrebrugh related.
“We wanted to bring a lot of different textures, and bring a lot of fun as well,” Botter added, referring to the plastic tubing, often referred to as Scooby Doo yarn, that had been woven into polo shirts and bags, and the evocative artworks of Day Brièrre, a Haitian illustrator and collage artist based in Brooklyn, New York, splashed on coats and dresses.
Many outfits suggested human stories: The black pantsuit with an embedded bikini top and pant legs peeled open? Frustrated executive counting the days until August vacation, perhaps?
The designers seemed to relish in mashups of corporate and vacation signposts, which reached a zenith with a billowing shirt composed of lasagna strips of florals and banker stripes. Fun!
Launch Gallery: Botter RTW Spring 2024
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