Akris (Q2566)
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Swiss fashion house specializing in luxury goods for women
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Akris |
Swiss fashion house specializing in luxury goods for women |
Statements
2019
creative director
2019
production and management
1980
creative responsibility
Of the nearly 60 Akris looks that were shown in the Gothic hall of the Collège des Bernardins, its stone vaulting dating back centuries, many featured applications of sheerness without exposing the body. Cascades of “techno tulle,” tiered waves of floaty tulle and organza in single and multiple configurations, underscored a material lightness in calm contrast to the solid stone surroundings. “What does it help when we create sheerness that cannot be worn,” said Albert Kriemler about a collection that was aptly named Flou and Pragmatism (floureferring to the fluidity and draping carried out by dressmakers).From the opening ecru layers to the pastel tones of pink and peach toward the end, the lineup was sophisticated and easy on the eyes. This can be traced back to Kriemler visiting the Camera degli Sposi in Mantua, Italy, where the frescoes of Andrea Mantegna convey his ethereal way with color.While clean lines and subtle design details are emblematically Akris, the flou made a forward impression, as though the soft asymmetric cuts and transparent layers contained all nuances while introducing some edge. For all the delicate assertions of flou, there were sporty pieces in supple leather and jackets deliberately proportioned so that everything balanced out. “It was the perfect season to play with those second and third dimensions in layering,” said Kriemler.His interest in Mantegna and the early Renaissance artists was prompted by the costumes he designed forEpilogue, John Neumeier’s final ballet as chief choreographer and director of the Hamburg Ballet, which nodded to the more saturated crimsons and ochres of Piero della Francesca. By the time the clothes are complete, all these art inspirations that underpin each Akris collection are barely discernible. They inform the creation process rather than appearing explicitly. And knowing this, you can better appreciate how 15th-century robes might evolve into a flounced minidress—a graceful simplicity inherent to each.As Akris is widely known for attracting women in high-ranking roles, from actors to politicians, my eye was continuously scanning for something Kamala Harris might be inclined to wear. “With politicians, it happens; you don’t really go for it,” Kriemler said diplomatically. If not the flou, then any one of the water-repellent parkas or raffia knits in warm beige.
Or if a bag is needed, the compact, top-handle Alice (named after Akris founder Alice Kriemler-Schoch) would qualify as pragmatic…and presidential.
29 September 2024
Before the Akris show began Albert Kriemler was backstage walking through the racks, pulling individual looks, and offering them up for inspection. Kriemler’s clothes are subtle compared to much of what we see on the Paris runways, and their nuance is best appreciated at close range. Even better if you can hold them in your hands.Today, he was talking up his many different kinds of cashmere: pebble cashmere, cashmere silk rib, cloud cashmere (not mohair or alpaca, he pointed out, but pure brushed cashmere), cashmere lined with silk, cashmere jersey, loop cashmere. Though the show notes didn’t specify, it seems likely that the baseball hats that several of the models wore were cashmere too. You get the picture; these clothes and accessories feel wonderful—like a warm embrace.Texture was one of the collection’s main attractions, whether the see-through micro stripe embroidery of a nearly weightless cape, the “dual” sequins that changed from black to silver and back again with the brush of a hand on a fitted dress, or the lacquered lace of a floor-length dress that caught the light as it glides down the runway. Another attraction was the clothes’s functionality. Kriemler pointed out a double-face coat that separated into a long vest and a cropped jacket (a nod to unpredictable weather) and maxi skirts that were actually full-legged pants, and thus a bit more practical.Last but not least among Kriemler’s considered details were the digital prints he made of the Swiss artist Katalin Deér’s analog photograms, which he discovered at a recent Basel art fair. Deér uses neither a camera nor negatives to get her effects, but light sensitive paper, colored light, and glass tubes. Kriemler used the prints for both weightless caftans in silk georgette and long and short coats in more substantial fabrics like double-face wool and wool gabardine. The results were more graphic and abstract than some of his more literal interpretations of his favorite artworks. These would get you noticed across a room.
3 March 2024
An Akris show is often an art-history lesson. This season, Albert Kriemler was excited to share one of his own recent discoveries, Felice (Lizzi) Rix-Ueno, a remarkable artist of the Wiener Werkstätte period who is too little known today for the usual reason—her gender. One hundred years later, she’s finally getting her due. An exhibition of her work, “Stars, Feathers, Tassels,” featuring drawings she made for textiles, wallpaper, and other home goods, opens at the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna on November 22 (Akris is a sponsor).Rix-Ueno’s oeuvre stands apart from those of her male contemporaries; where they believed in “reduction and rationality” and sharp angles, she produced pieces that brought “vibrancy, color, and curves” to the fore. “Lizzi,” Kriemler wrote in his press notes, “was convinced that only inner creativity will lead to one’s identity, truly believing in the expressive possibilities of craft. I very much relate to her idea of craft as a momentum.”He used many of her pieces as inspiration. Her poppy sketch was transformed into the delicate Saint Gallen embroidery that appeared on the cocktail dress that opened the show. Her design for an Easter bonbon box decorated the front of a white shirtdress sewn from two rectangles. And an abstract watercolor and pencil rendering of birds enlivened a simply cut button-down and matching cargo pants. Akris customers collect these pieces like they would art objects.The prints and embroideries notwithstanding, this was a collection of clean, minimal lines—and also extraordinarily lightweight materials. Mentioning the 80-degree heat, a full 10 degrees warmer than the usual high temps in Paris in October, Kriemler pointed out the silk organza he developed for neatly tailored suits and a sweeping black trench. The evening pieces with platinum silk fringe reaching to the floor were another nod in Rix-Ueno’s direction. “To creativity, it’s freedom,” he said.
1 October 2023
Akris is in the midst of its 100th anniversary celebrations. Last season Albert Kriemler’s collection for his family brand included a couple handfuls of archive pieces. This season, he explained backstage, he came across some 1970s patterns that belonged to his parents. It was the decade when Akris expanded from a maker of women’s aprons into a purveyor of fine tailoring. The patterns formed the basis for this outing, which was clear from the straight, efficient shapes of the dresses and flared cut of the pantsuits.“I love going back to the ’70s. They were the real seeds of change,” Kriemler said, alluding to second-wave feminism and the self-liberation it brought about. “Women were wearing the clothes and not the other way around.” That much is true, but a lot has changed in terms of fabrics between then and now, even for a brand built on the finest Swiss-made materials.Kriemler is a textile obsessive, always pushing Akris’s fabric mills toward innovation. This season he was particularly chuffed about the brand’s exploration of velvet, which is usually too stiff to do what he wanted to do here. Adding stretch made it a viable material for a slinky black jumpsuit and a liquid bottle-green dress. By bonding it with neoprene, he was able to achieve the precise A-line silhouette of abbreviated polo dresses. There was also quite a bit of straightforward neoprene, which he likes for its luxe, futuristic hand.The collection was rounded out by pieces in more traditional fibers, including double-face plaid pantsuits and shearling jackets and coats patchworked into floral patterns inspired by a 1976 print from the Zurich fabric company Abraham, which provided silk to Paris couture houses. The floral, which also appeared on floaty chiffon dresses, was an outlier for Kriemler, who tends toward graphic motifs, not romantic ones. An even bigger surprise at this home of quiet luxury was the abstracted logo print that was the centerpiece on everything from a wool coat to a belted short caftan in silk crepe. Even at a company that’s a century old, there’s a first time for everything.
5 March 2023
For Akris’s 100 birthday, Albert Kriemler put on a show at the Palais de Tokyo, with a 2011 Ugo Rondinone rainbow sculpture proclaimingWe Are Poemsarching over the pools. Kriemler has a strong affinity for art, and he said he worked months negotiating the loan; the agreement was just finalized this morning. For the finale, he made chiffon dresses in each color of Rondinone’s rainbow, and another in a creamy beige with rainbow stripes on the inside of its vertical pleats. He often works with artists on the collections, but given the important milestone, he took himself for a collaborator this season.Akris, for those who missed its first century, is a Swiss company renowned for the fine quality of its fabrics. Beyond his strong connections with artists, Kriemler has a reputation for exacting designs and a minimalist’s eye for embellishment. He has no social media presence; timelessness, not viral trends, is what he’s after.For the celebration, he selected nine pieces from the company’s archives to walk the runway (in the selling showroom, there are reeditions). “I was so impressed [by] how modern my clothes look today,” he said. The double-face cashmere coat that opened the show dates to 1978; a black single-face cashmere trench from two years later. They handily made Kriemler’s point about the timelessness of Akris’s products, but if you couldn’t pick the vintage pieces out of the lineup, that’s partly because he lifted some of the motifs and applied them elsewhere; the large gold buttons that appear throughout the collection were taken from a circa 1979 navy cashmere caban.Also interesting was a gabardine suit in twisted wool from 1993. He explained, “I have to redo it and I don’t really know if we’ll succeed, because these yarns just don’t exist anymore.” He had a similar challenge re-creating a lace from the 1980s: “The original lacemaker asked for six months to reproduce it.” That these resources and skills are fading with the passing of time is perhaps not surprising—we live in a fast-fashion world—but it is sad.So it was cheering to hear the story behind the collection’s multicolored hearts. The hearts were the first print made by the Como-based manufacturer Gianpaolo Ghioldi for Akris. At first Ghioldi was wary about Kriemler’s request to work together. In the late ’80s, when Kriemler came knocking, Ghioldi only supplied to couturiers. But eventually Kriemler won him over.
Today, Ghioldi’s son runs the company, and it’s the base for all of Kriemler’s digital prints. What comes around, goes around—hearts, rainbows, and vintage Akris.
1 October 2022
Rare is the season that Albert Kriemler doesn’t choose an artist collaborator, but rarer still is the one that he nominates someone as closely aligned to his own aesthetic as Reinhard Voigt. A German artist, Voigt reduces his landscapes and portraits to grids. He’s a man who sees the world in squares.“Voigt once told me that his motive in art is raising the question of how far reduction can go without abandoning beauty,” Kriemler explained. “I can relate.” The Akris designer thinks like a geometer too. Though his preferred form has tended to be the trapezoid, he took up Voigt’s signature squares for fall, not only printing and embroidering his grid canvases on an array of pieces, but using the square as a pattern-making tool.The asymmetrical fall of a dress’s hem was the result of sewing two squares together. Sweaters and sweater dresses with cold shoulders were constructed using the same principle. Designers elsewhere have been experimenting with these reduced shapes this season, maybe as a balm for the chaos of our times. For one reason or another, their flat planes flatter our more irregular bodies.Other pieces were designed more conventionally, and on them Voigt’s paintings became the center of attention, in particular the boldly colorful Drei Teile, a portrait triptych from 1976/77 whose pixelated look anticipated our digital existence by decades. “He was ahead of his time,” admired Kriemler. There was a deep respect for the past here too. A stunning evening dress was made from chiffon woven with tiny squares of glimmering black velvet. Apparently, there’s only one loom left in the world that can achieve the effect.
7 March 2022
Akris turns 100 next year. Albert Kriemler’s grandmother Alice started making aprons for women in St. Gallen in 1922. A century ago, the apron was a wardrobe essential. Women had fewer, fancier clothes, and they cared for them in ways that T-shirt and jeans types wouldn’t consider today. Eventually the business grew across Switzerland. Kriemler’s father established the company’s Paris business, and Kriemler himself was responsible for introducing Akris to the U.S.With the anniversary approaching, Kriemler embraced the apron’s essential A-line shape. “It’s the definition of what I always thought design was,” he said. “It’s about clothes and humans. It’s not about fashion; it’s about construction, about making a woman feel her best. It’s as simple as that.” Kriemler is a disciplined creator, in love with clean lines and geometric shapes, but his minimalism is of a gentle variety. He knows his straight lines have to accommodate human curves.The simplicity and rigor of the apron silhouette left Kriemler a lot of room to play with fabrics. Several of the pieces were spliced from past-season materials, but the gesture feels less like the grab for sustainability cred that it might be at another label and more like a celebration of St. Gallen’s lace makers. But in the end, the apron shapes weren’t all that rigorous. In white plissé silk georgette and iridescent gray silk georgette with side panels, they wafted down the runway Kriemler and co. set up in St. Gallen’s Red Square. Similarly, the flat planes of Kriemler’s designs made ideal canvases for his artist collaborator Katalin Deér’s photos. One was of a St. Gallen sky crisscrossed by contrails and another featured an image of Seealpsee, an alpine lake on whose surface the towering mountains that surround it are reflected.
4 October 2021
Albert Kriemler has long talked up his St. Gallen home base. Its legacy as the small Swiss city once responsible for 50% of the world’s embroideries has always been apparent at the level of the cloth at Akris. And yet Kriemler tends to look outward, collaborating with an international array of artists to reproduce their work as seasonal prints and embroideries.In this year of lockdown he turned inward instead, creating map prints, a subtle logo embroidery, and sturdier-than-usual clothes designed less with the runway in mind than a restorative walk in Dreilinden, where a meandering nature path offers vistas of the town. Anton Corbijn shot the collection video there after one of the heaviest snowfalls in years, and the look book images were taken at the exquisite Abbey Library of St. Gallen, a UNESCO World Heritage site.Who needs Paris? This was an energized outing from Kriemler, rooted in practicality but still luxurious. Playing the key role was outerwear, the highlight of which was a coat of wool-on-tulle embroidery in a geometric tile motif combining tones of terra-cotta, forest green, ivory, and black. In shades of blue, the same tile embroidery formed the top layer of a double-layer jacket, its three-in-one nature adding versatility to its virtues. Coats are likely to be important investments as we reemerge, both for their utility and statement-making properties.Via Zoom, Kriemler pulled a St. Gallen map-print blouson jacket off the rack and pointed to the Akris studio, his high school, and even—“I’ll let you in on a little secret,” he said—his kindergarten. The sepia-tone map that he used for a pretty midi-length shirtdress is antique and old enough to predate the formation of the Akris studio. It’s not a trip to the Alps, but for grounded clients of the brand it would make for a fun, collectible substitute.
8 March 2021
Typephosphorizing fabricinto Google and you get exactly zero results. Yet Albert Kriemler’s new Akris collection opens with a series of phosphor fluorescent looks in techno cotton, linen silk, and sequins, photographed in low light to show off their glow-in-the-dark properties. They’re conversation starters, for sure. Kriemler is a fabric obsessive, so it makes a certain sense that this kind of pushing at ready-to-wear’s boundaries is happening at Akris. The question is why such experimentation isn’t happening more frequently. Now would seem to be the time for innovation, mid-pandemic, when shoppers are thinking harder about big purchases, and expecting more from their clothes.The phosphor fluorescent pieces sprung from Kriemler’s collaboration with the eminent German artist Imi Knoebel, who maintains a color workshop that the Akris press notes describe as “a studio draped with an infinite array of 700 color swatches where he creates unique hues.” Kriemler works with a new artist nearly every season; it’s a deeply pleasing exercise for him personally as an art lover, and a successful formula on the sales front. But this was one of his more inspired match-ups to date. To start, there is their mutual interest in geometric shapes. Knoebel’sKindersternpolygon was rendered as a repeat print on a sleeveless jumpsuit with a coordinating jacket. And Kriemler also used it as a starting point for pieced and banded cocktail sheaths that count as the most body-conscious and sexy pieces he’s yet done. Then there is the fact of what the press release rightly calls Knoebel’s “unique hues.” Prints of his large abstract acrylic and aluminum works enliven tunic dresses, tops and pants sets, and a caftan-as-canvas that is sure to be popular with Akris fans.
5 October 2020
When Akris creative director Albert Kriemler talks about his grandmother, Alice Kriemler-Schoch, the family matriarch who in 1922 founded the Swiss fashion house that he now leads, he refers to her as a “woman of purpose.” And that, he said in an interview at his Paris studio this week, “is who I design for—women of purpose.”How does that translate into the clothes themselves? “First of all, they have to be comfortable,” he explained. “It’s a very basic phrase, I know. But I think when a woman is at ease in her clothes, she can really be her own person. I think a woman of purpose doesn’t want to have complicated clothes.”And certainly the first few offerings that came out on the runway on Monday afternoon at the fall 2020 show, held at Paris’s Museum of Modern Art, did not look complicated. Sumptuous cashmere pullovers, either paired with a cashmere patch-pocket cape or a wool double-face, single-breasted coat, swaddled and caressed the wearer. They were an elegant, high-fashion version of comfort food.But Kriemler had more than comfort on his mind with the collection, starting with the setting; the designer said it was the first time he had ever shown in a museum. Though Kriemler has often referenced the works of artists in his collection—most recently the Italian painter Antonio Caldera for spring 2020—this time he said his starting point was the 1924 silent filmL’Inhumaine, particularly the Cubist sets designed by the architect Robert Mallet-Stevens.Mallet-Stevens was known for his collaborations with other artists, working relationships that grew into the Union des Artistes Modernes and helped establish Paris as a center of avant-garde art and design. (Works by two members of that collective, Sonia and Robert Delaunay, hang in the Museum of Modern Art, and provided the striking backdrop of Monday’s show.) Kriemler said those collaborations reminded him of his own work with his artisan colleagues, particularly his printers and the skilled embroidery workers from the Swiss city of St. Gallen, and he wanted to celebrate those collaborations with this collection.
That work was showcased in such striking looks as a long taffeta parka with a trapezoid closure; a taupe, millefleurs-lace, hand-pleated shirt gown; a Cubist-inspired stand-collar tunic; a plum double-face wool cutout dress with slits; a stretchy, black silk crepe strapless gown with a techno grid-structured cube skirt; and in particular, the show’s final look, a multicolored silk and velvet double-breasted jacket paired with a wide-leg pant with cuff.Just what a woman of purpose might well be adding to her wardrobe in the fall.
2 March 2020
Albert Kriemler was a very young man when he started working in Akris’s atelier. His father lost his righthand man at the same time Kriemler was studying for his baccalaureate and convinced his son to join him. It was supposed to be a two-year stint, after which the young Kriemler could go to Paris as he originally intended. But two years went by and he was already so involved in the workings of the studio that he stayed. Thirty-eight years later, Kriemler is marking four decades at the helm.It’s some milestone, but it wouldn’t be Kriemler’s style to overplay it. This pre-fall collection is no nostalgia tour; it’s more a showcase for all the notions that have made Akris into the quiet powerhouse it is: reversible double-face cashmere outerwear, lean tailoring, and subtle St. Gallen embroidery for evening. For Kriemler, textiles are the thing. He waxes equally rhapsodic about cool wool and techno cottons that he uses for his sportswear as he does about the silk stretch crepe marocain that he employs for a body-limning evening dress. “Akris clothes must be felt,” he says. Of course, he hasn’t ignored clothes with visual interest all these years either. The digital photo prints that are his signature made only the briefest of appearances here on an easy-to-wear cotton voile blouse and midi-skirt. He said there will be more on the fall runway.
12 December 2019
It’s been 10 years since Albert Kriemler launched Akris’s handbag collection with the Ai bag. To mark the occasion, he tented a room in the Grand Palais in the Ai’s trapezoidal shape and had a giant Ai created for the back of the runway, from which the models emerged. Naturally, they carried bags, most of them a softly constructed trompe l’oeil update called the Aicon. Kriemler continued the trapezoidal motif with his clothing. Backstage he said, “It’s good for the physiognomy,” and he was right. Inserted into the backs of dresses, the geometric shapes created a graceful fluidity.Italian painter Antonio Calderara was Kriemler’s reference point for Spring. He chooses a new artist each season, but this one is a particularly apt match. In his late career, Calderara was as obsessed with geometry as Kriemler is today—apparently he was a figurative painter until he saw a Mondrian in the 1950s, after which he never looked back. Calderara’s signature rectangles appeared on a voile shirtdress and caftans as ethereal as his discreet pastel palette. Of the artist’s colors, Kriemler said, “They scintillate.” That led him to his own silvery palette, which included a silver foil stripe that he developed in St. Gallen, Switzerland, and a metallic Lurex jersey with a liquid cling. Rounding out the story were the micro Ai belt bags in chrome leather.
29 September 2019
Cashmere and color were Akris designer Albert Kriemler’s twin passions this season. At his Fall runway show in March, he said, “To feel well in the clothes, that’s the point,” and nothing beats cashmere and color for that. Against a backdrop of neutrals, his sunrise orange and cherry blossom pink shades really popped, the sunrise hue in particular. It’s harder to appreciate the appeal of his cashmere in these pictures. Though the shapes are both flattering and timely, their allure is derived first and foremost from how they feel, which as a rule is delightful, the black cashmere joggers worn with a graphic striped black-and-white poncho in particular.“As you know,” he said, “I am very deep into the idea of building a wardrobe that works for today’s women, who balance business and life.” Look 17, a black blouse with glossy sequin pinstripes worn with matching sequin-striped flares in silk marocain, suggests Kriemler is well aware of how often work and life intersect for today’s women. (During Resort season here at Vogue Runway, it starts to feel there’s no separation at all…) The effect of that outfit was dressy yet effortless, an unbeatable combination.
5 June 2019
The runway was extra narrow at Akris today. Designer Albert Kriemler intended it to be; he wanted us to see his fabrics close-up. Akris is famous for its St. Gallen embroidery, and there were some fine examples of it on a pair of dresses in the most delicate of black lace, though these were more or less covered by coats. Outerwear and suiting were the focus of Kriemler’s effective collection for Fall. Backstage, he was discussing investment pieces. He’s picked up on the fact that tailoring is the big talking point of the season. “For us it’s a culture, not something we do to be trendy. But it is nice to fit into the moment better than anyone else.”Kriemler’s two art preoccupations this season—he almost always references art—were Richard Artschwager’sAll in Good Timehorsehair exclamation points and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Farbtafel prints of the early 1800s, which look remarkably modern 200 years later. Artschwager was quite loosely referenced in the first and last looks of the collection. Coco Rocha’s double-face coat was impressively inset with colorblocks of horsehair embroidery, and Dilone’s halter-neck gown featured a cut-out on the back in the vague shape of that declarative punctuation mark. The cues Kriemler took from Goethe were more direct: his prints appeared on a shirtdress, a ’60s-ish mod shift, and a pantsuit.In contrast to those graphic seasonal collector’s items, the investment pieces were the subtler elements of the collection. Despite their discretion, this is what stood out: an ivory pulled-wool coat that looked like shearling but weighed almost nothing in comparison; a black cashmere corduroy pantsuit with a fashionable oversize, boxy fit; and St. Gallen wool-on-tulle embroidery that looked deceptively like a cardigan jacket, worn with matching plaid trousers. “To feel well in the clothes,” said Kriemler. “That’s the point.”
3 March 2019
A deep appreciation for art is the first thing Akris followers tend to think of when they consider the Swiss label’s designer, Albert Kriemler. He showcases it most seasons on the clothes he creates, often collaborating with living artists or coordinating with the estates of historical ones. But art isn’t his only preoccupation; just as important to the Akris aesthetic is Kriemler’s ongoing fascination with textiles. Absent a project with a well-known artist, luxuriously subtle material was his major talking point for Pre-Fall.A picture can’t convey how fine the paper-thin cashmere of the coat and blazer of Look 9 are, but, take our word for it, they’re practically weightless. The woman who wants to wear the fabric year-round will respond. Of course, there’s more substantial cashmere on offer as well, in the form of a color-blocked double-face caban. The color-blocking of that coat picks up on the hues of the collection’s vibrant “Indian summer” motif, which was printed on chiffon and—quite painstakingly, apparently—on paillettes. Another impressive detail: the fine threadwork depicting an abstract mountain scene on a wrap jacket worn with matching pants and on a sleek halter-neck gown.
6 December 2018
Another art history lesson from Albert Kriemler at Akris—this one with a bittersweet ending. Kriemler discovered Romanian multimedia artist Geta Bratescu at the Documenta 14 art fair in Athens, Greece, and Kassel, Germany, last year. The nonagenarian also represented her country at the Venice Biennale in 2017.Kriemler was so taken by Bratescu’s use of color and her collage work and their joy-inducing properties that he approached her about a collaboration, the lifeblood of his Swiss label. She agreed, and in February, he visited Bratescu at her Bucharest studio. In April he presented her with his sketches and she “gave the green light.” But she never got to see the collection come to life; the 92-year-old artist died two weeks ago.Bratescu worked for decades, and Kriemler’s varied collection spanned a few of them. To start, he reproduced her magnet sculptures of the 1970s (photographed in black and white on a Communist-era Bucharest street) on characteristically streamlined dresses and separates. The magnets also turned up as hardware closures on sleek black pantsuits. Bratescu’s later work became progressively more playful in spirit (the Romanian revolution coincided with the fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1989). Her 2011 collaged self-portrait, in an electric shade of yellow with red lips and blue googly eyes, is easily the most audacious piece Kriemler has ever reproduced. More in keeping with the usually reserved Akris aesthetic were his riffs on Bratescu’s graphic collages.The most impressive work this season was actually Kriemler’s own. It’s been a big week for pleats in Paris, from Valentino to Balmain. Kriemler’splissé soleil(sunray pleats) were stitched flat, a technological feat.
30 September 2018
You know it’s an Akris collection when masterpieces of modern art or architecture are reproduced on sleek, minimal tailoring. Creative director Albert Kriemler is a collector and connoisseur, and he enjoys elevating his understated clothes by reproducing paintings and photographs on them. For Resort, he switched up his approach somewhat, and worked with his own studio to create the abstract artistic collages seen on a cagoule, among other pieces. The lip motif embroidered on an A-line midi skirt was also designed in-house. “Resort designs are really all about joie de vivre in our busy times,” Kriemler said. “The symbol for this to me are the lips—they smile and they kiss. And who does not want to invite love and joy in their lives?”In keeping with this feeling, Kriemler gave this collection a sportier-than-usual mien. Akris is known as a tailoring resource for high-powered executive women with a minimal streak. This time around, he zeroed in on their off-hours. “This collection is probably the most playful I have done so far. I wanted to create a complete weekend wardrobe that fulfills every desire from departure to return, in fabrics that are airy and cozy, but also sleek and special,” he said. Why change tacks? It probably has to do with the way the market is going; athleisure has invaded every moment of our lives, low to high. But the Akris woman is not a leggings-wearing kind of person. Kriemler’s travel clothes are fine-ribbed cashmere in lush neutrals soft enough to make you look forward to an overnight flight. Of course, he didn’t shirk the signature Akris tailoring entirely. His slim-line suits looked fresh with white logo trainers.
6 June 2018
It’s interesting how centuries move in parallel. Albert Kriemler chose Vienna circa 1900–1918 as a starting point this season, in part because he sees those years as a time of women’s advancement, not unlike our own. The Akris designer isn’t one to wear his politics on his sleeve; he’s more comfortable in the world of art, which is why Egon Schiele portraits lined the back of the runway and the clothes were informed by the works of Gustav Klimt.Discussing the period, Kriemler described it as the “birth of modernism,” pointing out that it wasn’t minimal. “There was still the richness of art nouveau, and the romanticism of before . . . . ” It gave him a lot to work with, but being rather more of a minimalist himself, Kriemler handled it subtly. Klimt’s famous gold leaf, for example, appeared as just a dusting on a St. Gallen lace tunic and pants set, and as barely a shimmer on the inside of a kangaroo leather coat, although it’s worth noting that the coat was actually reversible. Functionality was apparently another of the era’s hallmarks, which suits very well Kriemler’s 21st-century repertoire of streamlined suiting and unfussy shirt-dressing.This was a well-judged collection from Kriemler: lively with color and pattern, including a bold black-and-white stripe impressively constructed from horizontal strips of felted wool sewn together in shoulder-to-hem vertical stitches. Yet it was restrained in a way that felt true to this sober label, with silhouettes that looked notwerkstätten, but of today. The exception was the St. Gallen lace cardigan, which Kriemler said he modeled after styles worn by Viennese ladies of the 1910s, among them salonnières like Berta Zuckerkandl and Alma Mahler Werfel, who have been more or less lost to history while the men they hosted—Klimt et al.—enjoy enduring fame. Kriemler gets extra points for bringing them to light in the small way he did today.
4 March 2018
The sculptural dolls by Alexander Girard that inspired Akris’s Spring collection didn’t stick around for long, leaving only a trace of their geometric patterning in the Pre-Fall offering. But the influence of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the artist lived for 40 years until his death, lingered in Albert Kriemler’s mind and became the key message of this season. From the adobe architecture to the open-air opera, the lifestyle there felt of a kind with the Akris sensibility, and a visit to the Paris showroom yielded sophisticated yet laid-back looks that, intentionally or not, tackled dressing for fluctuating temperatures. The reversible shearling cardigan, for instance, was a perfect assertion of the brand’s discreet luxury positioning—the type of piece you keep forever. Jeans, which figured throughout, were actually made of Sea Island cotton instead of denim; think soft and breathable. And you had to know that the drawstring dresses weren’t nearly as ordinary as they looked; in sheer 100 percent wool, they were well-suited to travel for any variety of occasion. What Kriemler considered to be a track pant was more like a relaxed trouser that matched nicely with a cashmere felt zip-front jacket.As with any designer referencing a destination, Kriemler’s trip to Santa Fe played up the aspects most suitable to the narrative he wanted to tell. Which is why it might seem curious that there were no immediate nods to the female, arguably more famous, artists who called Santa Fe home: Georgia O’Keeffe and Agnes Martin. In fact, they were very much top of mind, he said, but more in the sense of Martin’s minimalist compositions or the fluidity of O’Keeffe’s forms. Kriemler took a world-wise approach with this collection, imagining a local wearing the devoré check wrap dress in the evening but then still addressing the woman halfway across the world needing refined knits or a seasonless suit.
29 January 2018
The Akris show has become something like an art history lesson. Designer Albert Kriemler is a collector and a scholar; each season he selects an artist whose work he adapts as prints and/or fabrics for the clothing he makes. This season, Kriemler gave us a primer on Alexander Girard, the American architect and interior, furniture, and textile designer who turned to folk art late in life. Reproductions of Girard’s wooden dolls stood at the end of the runway and appeared on the show’s first series of looks.Will women want to wear colorful depictions of dolls on their otherwise streamlined, slim pantsuits and silk crepe gowns? The jury is out. Among the seven Girard works that Kriemler used, the ballpoint sketch of staring faces that appeared on a kimono silk coat and matching V-neck dress is similarly debatable. When art is reproduced on clothing, abstraction tends to work best, which is why the graphic stripe Kriemler lifted from a print Girard designed for Herman Miller and used on a clean shift was one highlight, and the drawstring-waist shirtdress printed with a colorful geometric sketch Girard did for a mural in his Santa Fe home was another. Kriemler treats his garments almost like canvases: Most of them have a clean spareness to them. The pieces on which he transformed the cutouts of Girard’s iconic plywood sculpture into 3-D flower embellishments were a touch heavy going. Minimalism suits Kriemler, as evidenced by the collection’s neatly tailored, zip-front navy jacket and pants.
1 October 2017
A new store in Cannes, which happened to open in time for the film festival, gave Akris’s Albert Kriemler a reason to design a French Riviera–themed Resort offering. This is a brand that does a big business in urban and urbane tailoring, but he sidelined it here, in favor of making a destination collection. Better yet, make that a travel collection, because one of the most desirable outfits was a heather gray cashmere knit sweatsuit, the kind you’d find in the business-class cabin, and a three-in-one silver raincoat with a zip-out woven cashmere lining.In general, this collection had a power woman on her off day kind of vibe. She’s the kind of gal who likes, or needs, as the case may be, to look pulled together even when she’s letting it all hang out. Take her black T-shirt, which is made from a crease-free tech fabric and trimmed at the hem with silk fringe. Her pull-it-on-and-go dress comes in a graphic silk print with a breezy asymmetrical hem, or an even more graphic striped cotton voile—try to find the A for Akris. Logos may be everywhere, but they’re not Kriemler’s—or his clients’—thing. The evening options followed the same laid-back rule. These were not traditional red carpet numbers, but the celebrity who did opt to wear one would exude a nice sense of chill.
3 July 2017
They don’t call them investment pieces for nothing. In good retail times and challenging ones, coats and bags are the items that sell because they’re the forward-facing essentials of a wardrobe. At the Fall fashion shows in February and March, they’re often all we see of one another’s outfits as we hurtle from venue to venue. They telegraph status, taste, and—sometimes lately—a person’s politics. The same goes for out there in the real world. Albert Kriemler opted to make the most of this fact with his smart new collection for Akris.For his de rigueur photo prints, Kriemler worked with the Canadian artist Rodney Graham. A six-photo self-portrait series, in which Graham shrugs on a coat, was installed on the Palais de Tokyo’s curving wall and printed on the backs of Kriemler’s closing pieces. The audience for these will be a cross section of Akris customers and Graham collectors (or would-be collectors). In other words, highly specialized. But the variety elsewhere—sleek, reversible black leather; denim-blue mink; a swing coat in vichy check; the duster in shearling—will have broad appeal. Bags ranged from small, structured cross-bodies to large, weathered leather weekenders. The shapes that fell somewhere in the middle (large enough for an iPad, too small for gym clothes) are likely to connect best with the polished corporate power brokers who shop this brand.A bit anachronistically, all of the looks were shown with bare legs and stiletto sandals. Shoes say just as much about a woman as her coat and bag, and like those items, they’re also a practical necessity. How would the Akris woman have faced down today’s driving rain? That’s something Kriemler could consider before the next go-around.
5 March 2017
One early trend of the Pre-Fall season is designers finding inspiration in great female artists—of the heralded variety and the less so.Akris’s Albert Kriemler belongs to the latter camp. He came across the street photography of Vivian Maier, whose backstory is as sublime as her work, through the Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York and the documentaryFinding Vivian Maier. A nanny who took more than 100,000 pictures, almost all unpublished during her lifetime, Maier was “discovered” in 2007, when boxes of her negatives were sold at a Chicago auction house.In addition to street photography, Maier took many self-portraits—of her shadow on buttercup-dotted grass, of her reflection in shop windows—and Kriemler has incorporated them into his new collection. He has long been a proponent of photo prints, but he’s never approached them in such a tongue-in-cheek way. A sleeveless shift and a blouson top, for example, bore the photographer’s selfies from the neck down, trompe l’oeil style. Finding Vivian Maier, indeed. The opening dress with its fit-and-flare silhouette, meanwhile, was lifted from her everyday uniform, although you can bet that Akris’s cotton poplin grass print is finer than anything Maier wore.Rounding out the collection were the kinds of hardworking wardrobe pieces that have made Akris a go-to brand for women of a certain power and income bracket. Slim, simply cut pantsuits came in black seersucker and a lightweight denim; a shirtdress picked up the photography motif with an enlarged black-and-white pixel print; and a little black dress with sheer panels at the sides will be sold with an accompanying 3/4-sleeve top. Together they’re office appropriate; take the top off and you’re ready for cocktails and dinner.
6 December 2016
An invitation to be honored at theCouture Council of The Museum at FIT’s annual September luncheongot the wheels turning in Albert Kriemler’s head. Why not put on hisAkrisshow in New York instead of Paris for a season? And why not approach the artist Carmen Herrera about using her paintings as a reference point? He had fallen in love with her 1959 paintingBlanco y Verdeat the new Whitney’s inaugural exhibition last year.Kriemler’s Akris collections are often informed by art and architecture: The work of Kazimir Malevich, Thomas Ruff, Sou Fujimoto, and Roberto Burle Marx has been inspirational in the past. Kriemler met Herrera on May 31 of this year, on what happened to be her 101st birthday, and the encounter proved especially fruitful. This was a terrific Akris show, one in which the boldness of the graphic prints trumped the intricacy and precision of the house’s famous, but more subtle, St. Gallen lace. The colorful geometries of Herrera’s paintings made for eye-catching motifs on shifts and shirtdresses with breezy, away-from-the-body silhouettes that echoed those geometries. A more minimal work informed an excellent linearly draped black-and-white long dress, and the shorter version was good, too.Kriemler listed seven paintings dating from 1948 through 2014 in his show notes, a gesture suggestive not only of the serious collector he is, but also of the precision approach he takes to everything he does. Sometimes that tendency leads to quite literal interpretations of an artist’s work. Herrera’s oeuvre seemed to free him. There was a nice sense of ease to the collection’s best pieces. In another bit of synchronicity, a solo exhibition of Herrera’s work opens at the Whitney later this month.
9 September 2016
Akris’s Albert Kriemler will pick up the Museum at FIT Couture Council’s Award for Artistry of Fashion in September as New York Fashion Week kicks into gear. The Swiss designer, in town yesterday to present his label’s Resort collection, was visibly excited at the prospect. A quiet powerhouse, Akris is not often in the spotlight; Kriemler’s workmanship more than bears up to scrutiny, but it’s of the subtlest variety. Under the bright sunlight in The James hotel’s garden, the designer busied himself turning reversible double-face cashmere coats inside and out, and pulling apart a two-in-one coat that featured a rainproof outer layer in silk and a tailored cashmere under-layer. Needless to say, the finishings were flawless.The collection’s starting point was horse racing. The jockey intarsias and silk jacquards were a bit on the nose, but the sunset rider shift dress and cocoon coat will please collectors of Kriemler’s photo prints. Color-blocked tops modeled on a traditional jockey jersey were an understated evocation of the theme. The big winners here were the pieces outside his chosen topic: A pleated trapeze dress in black silk and a belted black wool coatdress both showcased the timeless elegance and fine craftsmanship that nabbed Kriemler the FIT honor.
6 June 2016
A Kriemler family trip to Kenya and Tanzania inspired the newAkriscollection. There was no escaping the clues, from the savannah red of the runway to the animal calls on the soundtrack. Albert Kriemler's collection was shades of red, too, from the orange shaker knit sweater opener to the aubergine of a reversible cardigan coat at the end. In between he sampled all manner of safari motifs, from zebra stripes to giant turtle hashings to an embroidery designed to mimic elephants’ deeply grooved skin. To sharpen the image, he accessorized with Maasai-inspired collar necklaces made out of thin cords of fabric and knee-high, stacked heel boots with rugged lug soles. The models’ faces were painted with graphic markings.Destination collections have gone somewhat out of vogue. Taken as a whole, this one struck a rather literal note, especially considering that Akris is a brand known for its understatement. But there’s no denying the persistent success of animal prints on the sales floor. We’ve certainly seen plenty of leopard spots elsewhere this season, and it’s savvy business on Kriemler’s part to get in on the action. Akris is also known for its fine Swiss embroideries, and the animal patterns gave the brand a chance to show off its know-how. The leather scale embellishments on a jacket and coat were so finely rendered that they almost tricked the eye into thinking it was actual python skin. That elephant embroidery, meanwhile, was so densely stitched it hardly looked like embroidery: It seemed more like a richly textured fabric. In the end, this collection’s appeal will be more clearly seen up close and in the hand than on the runway.
6 March 2016
A New Year's trip to Africa was the starting point for Albert Kriemler’s brightPre-Fallcollection. Flocks of karminspints dart across a fine wool shirtdress, their brilliant colors true to real life, the designer attested, and a pride of lions emerge from the midnight blue darkness of a swing coat. Kriemler has long created photo prints chezAkris, but most have had an architectural bent. These animal images might strike some as a tad obvious, but this was not a lineup of safari clothes per se. There was nothing as literal as aYSL-inspired Saharienne, for instance. Kriemler appeared to have designed the collection with travel in mind, though. Many of the looks were accessorized with leather high-tops. Leather pants in flared and legging styles were made with a fair bit of stretch for ease of movement, and coats in both cashmere and tech materials were designed to be waterproof.The Akris shopper is accustomed to luxuries of all kinds. This season Kriemler kept them on the understated side, save for a couple of clingy matte sequin numbers, one cocktail length, the other to-the-floor, their lively colors lifted from those gorgeous birds.
9 December 2015
Akris’sAlbert Kriemlerhas long looked to architecture as a reference, but he made the relationship explicit for Spring, teaming up with the Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto to create fabrics. Fujimoto designed London’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in 2013. Kriemler was so moved by the matrix of white steel poles that he approached Fujimoto about working together. Backstage it was hard to tell who was more excited about the collaboration—Kriemler or Fujimoto. The architect sat in the front row; it was his first fashion show. Architecture is architecture and clothes are clothes. Bringing them together isn’t always the smoothest project. Indeed, there were a few proposals here that read as too literal: A dress made from thin strips of cork to look like wood siding with a black mesh “window” at the hip, for example, was a little on the nose. The Forest of Music is a music hall project in Budapest with a molded round roof that has openings for trees to grow. The shirts and skirts it inspired were perhaps a tad eccentric for the Akris customer. Where the clients are concerned, the best pieces on the runway were the ones made from square slices of Perspex sealed between two layers of organza. The streamlined dresses glinted subtly; they won’t require any backstory on the sales floor. On the other hand, if the Akris woman learns about Naoshima, the Japanese island filled end-to-end with art museums and site-specific installations, including Fujimoto’s faceted pavilion, then this Akris collection was a job well done.
4 October 2015
Akris' Albert Kriemler brought his signature photo prints back for Resort. "After a couple of seasons of quiet collections, I thought it was time," he said. Inspired by the Netherlands' vast tulip fields, he worked with a photographer on two exclusive prints of the orderly planted flowers; they were among his boldest ever. An oversize T-shirt dress was the canvas for a landscape; zoomed in, that landscape functioned like stripes on a pleated skirt. The tulips' natural hues provided the collection's heady colors: shocking pink and orange, bright yellow. Those shades may be out of the Akris client's comfort zone, but Kriemler sagely balanced them with pale neutrals, as well as navy (on a fully reversible sheared mink coat) and black. As ever, the materials amazed. One dress and coat were made from a poly thread that he had stitched into a micro repeating tulip motif. Very close to weightless and not prone to wrinkle, the material is ideal for packing, Kriemler pointed out. For your own trip to the Netherlands' flower fields.
10 June 2015
Akris' Albert Kriemler has long been known as a minimalist, but it's a misconception. It's true that his work is understated compared to much of what we see on the Paris runways, but he does quite a bit of fabric development and invests a good deal of time and energy dreaming up novel ways to embellish the luxurious materials that come out of Akris' St. Gallen mills. That's rarely been truer than it was this season, when Kriemler made an in-depth study of a rather straightforward subject: jackets.It started simply, with his take on the athleisure trend that's swept through fashion. Kriemler's hoodie came in bicolor Sea Island cotton, and was shown underneath a reversible silk fleece blazer downy as all get-out. From there, he upped the ante: quilting leather for a fitted down jacket, laser-cutting small checks into the gray and white tartan of a pantsuit, and embroidering tiny bits of wool onto the silk tulle of a column dress and matching redingote gilet.Things culminated in cotton-lace parkas that appeared to be lacquered. These were clean, streamlined clothes—the real bang for the buck will be found at close range, where the details can be savored. Kriemler's main interest here was surface treatments, so he stuck to a restrained palette of barely there neutrals and black, save for a one-off bright yellow leather tunic. A little more of that kind of color could've woken up this well-executed but somewhat sleepy collection.
8 March 2015
The '70s were a popular reference for the Spring collections, and the decade continues to be a big talking point for Pre-Fall. We have a lot of leisure suits in throwback prints and off shades of orange. As it turns out, Albert Kriemler was looking at the '70s this season too—he cited the dandyism of Helmut Berger in films of the era likeThe Garden of the Finzi-Continis—but as usual at Akris the finished product was subtle. A three-piece suit had no retro affectations; there was nothing to keep the Swiss label's high-powered customers from wearing it in the boardroom or the courtroom or on set (we've spotted Akris onHouse of Cards). Sheared agnello trenches were equally sleek and streamlined. To juxtapose all the tailoring, Kriemler turned to florals. A shattered single orchid decorated the left leg of a pair of ivory culottes. It was unusual and super vivid, but the deep purple, black, and bronze of the allover print he used for a sleeveless trapeze gown were the collection's real beauty.
13 January 2015
It hit you about three-quarters of the way through the Akris show. Where were the photoprints? Albert Kriemler has made them his signature; landscapes, famous architectural landmarks, and images by well-known artists have appeared in his collections. Tonight, not a one. Kriemler's new Spring lineup owed a large debt to the Russian Suprematist artist Kazimir Malevich, whose most famous canvases the designer reproduced on his minimalist designs. Malevich was known for using a limited range of colors, but Kriemler preferred the subtlety of tone-on-tone motifs. Blink and you almost missed Malevich's intersecting rectangles on the skirt of the white leather dress that Kriemler opened with. They were more apparent on the cotton voile shirt and shift that followed, but stripped of colors the embellishments lacked the definitiveness of the work that inspired them.There were squares almost everywhere: in the grid-like St. Gallen lace that Kriemler showed in white, black, or amber, and in the peekaboo black wool and sheer tulle tube dresses. When he wasn't thinking along such graphic lines, he showed a trim white seersucker pantsuit offset by a pair of bright yellow handbags, or—more of a surprise—apron pants and skirts (i.e., overalls) that might've been a nod to Malevich's studio gear. Yes or no, they were a departure from Akris' typical grown-up fare. This is not an argument to bring back the photoprints; it was time for Kriemler to try something new. But the show didn't quite connect as directly as usual.
28 September 2014
Albert Kriemler had Morocco on his mind for Akris' Resort collection. The North African country has been a fashion nexus since at least the days of Yves Saint Laurent, but Kriemler's is a Morocco less traveled. Rather than Marrakech or Tangier, he looked to a city in the Rif Mountains called Chefchaouen, famous for its blue-painted buildings. Blue, no surprise then, was the show's dominant color. A navy wrap coat stood out for the leather it was made in—it was paper thin—but there was no shortage of ultra-fine fabrics here. From the simple to the sublime, others worth noting included the triple-twist cotton of an elongated button-front shirt, and a waterproof material used for a trench that looked and felt like cashmere. Kriemler specializes in photo prints. Of the two he used this season—a landscape of Chefchaouen's remarkable architecture and an image of spools of thread found in a souk—the former was more compelling. It came across especially well when it was abstracted so that it appeared more like a graphic geometric pattern than a photo. By and large, Kriemler's focus was on daytime clothes, the kind you could imagine Akris' well-heeled clientele packing for a long weekend getaway. There were only a couple of evening looks to speak of. A floor-scraping organza overlay worn with a strapless sequined cocktail number was a real sparkler.
25 June 2014
This season marks ten years on the Paris runway for the Swiss label Akris. Cause to celebrate. The brand's creative director, Albert Kriemler, has used photo prints in his collections for nearly as long as he's been showing here, but never the work of a living artist, despite being an avid collector of contemporary art. For today's milestone collection he approached the influential German photographer Thomas Ruff. Ruffs thirty-year career spans genres, but he's best known for manipulating existing images. That makes him an apt source for Kriemler, who was doing his own appropriating here.Saturn and its rings were intarsia-ed into a red mink jacket, and an up-close shot of the surface of Mars became a print for a skirtsuit. Both looks landed on the louder side of Kriemler's output. Then there was a sleeveless dress printed with one of Ruff's night-vision photos on top of which the designer embroidered three-dimensional tiles of differing sizes and colors. It sounds busy on paper, but it looked unstudied and chic. Rounding out the collection was luxuriously minimal fare like jackets that reversed from sheared mink to leather or waterproof silk to cashmere. The marvel was how light they were. For the finale, Kriemler lit up embroideries of outer space inspired by Ruff'sStarsseries with LED lights. In another designer's hands, pyrotechnics of that sort could've been silly, but Kriemler was in control of his material from the beginning to the end.
1 March 2014
Albert Kriemler tends to look at art and architecture for inspiration. For Pre-Fall, he was thinking along more cinematic lines. Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, as played by the photogenic Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty in the 1967 movie, are his new muses. Beyond the jaunty berets, however, the references were subtle and smart, as befits the Akris brand.Bonnie and Clyde's getaway car was a Ford, so Kriemler and co. hunted down Ford's color card from the early thirties and used it as the basis for the collection's palette of deep reds, charcoal grays, ivory, and black. Pleated below-the-knee skirts and pleated full-leg trousers likewise hinted at the outlaws' heyday. But Bonnie never had the good fortune of slipping into Akris' oversize leather bomber jacket, which reverses rather luxuriously to nubby shearling. And Dallas and its environs probably had nothing in the way of Akris' St. Gallen mill, nor the silk dresses with fused and embroidered lace that came out of it this season. If it had, Ms. Parker might have been tempted to swipe them.
19 November 2013
One of the subcurrents of the Spring season that is slowly rolling to a close here in Paris is nature. Our manipulation of it (mostly to our detriment) on the one hand, and its awesome power on the other. Akris' Albert Kriemler focused on the latter. His press kit featured photos of sandstone lines, algae, honeycombs in the sand, and granite curves. "It's a dream of fabrics and nature—moved forward through technology," he wrote. That sounds like fertile ground for Kriemler, who treasures fabrics and has Akris' fabulous St. Gallen mill at his disposal. In a number of cases it was.To begin with, Kriemler reproduced those nature images in large scale on cotton voile, plissé chiffon, and even leather. The designer has become known for his photoprints, but these signaled a new direction; they were more abstracted and more exuberant than the street scenes and aerial landscapes he's used for the last couple of seasons. That's why they worked best on a shirtdress, or a breezy skirt worn with a thin-gauge sweater. Paired up in a suit, the patterns tended to be overwhelming. As the collection progressed, Kriemler laid the textures on thick: St. Gallen embroideries in honeycombs of lace, fagoting designed to look like horizontal strands of algae, and, most vividly of all, tiny holographic foil appliqués. The tricky, midriff-revealing cuts on a few dresses did not simplify things. Nature is a dangerous beast, but in the end Kriemler finished strong, confidently in control of a trio of pieces in black and gold wave-pattern chenille.
28 September 2013
The Pritzker Prize-winning Mexican architect Luis Barragán inspired Albert Kriemler's new Resort collection for Akris. Kriemler's de rigueur photo prints came from Barragán's famous Cuadra San Cristobal in Mexico City; the pink stucco walls are his stables, the flowering trees his bougainvillea. Currently listed at Christie's for $12.9 million, the estate's modernist yet lush style is a good fit for Kriemler, who has branded Akris with a sleek sort of über-luxe.Beyond the vivid color palette—all fuchsia and azure blue—Kriemler's other big obsession this season was fabric development: a wool suit made with 10 percent polyester so it doesn't wrinkle; a double-face wool coat as fine as cashmere, but not as delicate ("which makes it sportier," he said); and a leather tunic cut so thin it moves like silk. Innovations like that keep the Akris customer coming back for more. The most compelling material he used was a black stretch denim, which looked positively elegant cut into an hourglass sheath with sheer tulle shoulders. Kriemler promised its below-the-knee length was a teaser of what's to come for Spring ’14.
15 May 2013
Albert Kriemler lost his mother, Ute, last December. His show today, accompanied by a small orchestra playing her favorite composer, Bach, was a tribute to her, he explained backstage. Although it was almost all black, and inspired by her personal wardrobe of turtleneck gowns, blouse-and-pant combos, and clean tailoring, his new Akris collection wasn't necessarily somber.Though in demeanor still mournful, Kriemler found interesting ways of letting in the light. Starting with the house's signature photoprints: This season, he used a dark photograph of a street, the streetlamps casting horizontal white lines across the planes of what he called his new three-piece suit—a double-face cocoon coat worn over a double-breasted jacket and a tunic dress. A nubby, three-dimensional St. Gallen embroidery added shimmer to a short cape and its matching pencil skirt, while a floor-grazing skirt in unlined lamb's fur had its own sheen. Other embellishments, including gridlike patterns of jet crystals and silk fringe, lit up his evening offerings. The fringe was contained by horizontal seams; Kriemler didn't seem quite up to the cheerfulness that loose fringe might've suggested.And yet there were other intimations of a son and a company moving on. Kriemler had some brilliant sportswear on the runway today; his customer will love the look of an oversize herringbone sweater and snood worn with matching chevroned pants, or a pantsuit in a tonal plaid cut from cashmere, angora, and wool. In right about the middle of the show, he included a single white lamb's-fur coat. That bright moment served to underscore the poignancy of this season's story, and one couldn't help but be moved.
2 March 2013
Amelia Earhart had something of the tomboy about her. Who knew she was such a sucker for loveliness? Albert Kriemler took her as his muse for Akris' pre-fall collection, which he prefaced with a quote from the aviatrix herself: "I have often said that the lure of flying is the lure of beauty." She was convinced that this was the real reason that flyers fly.In knowing that, you know more about why Akris, with its focus on sensual luxury, would make Earhart its icon. (That the house is also well known for tailoring doesn't hurt.) The more boyish shapes of the pre-fall collection—the pegged trousers, bomber jackets, and penny loafers—called tomboys to mind. (Even if you happened to be dense, the red leather aviator's jumpsuit and the flying goggles on every model should have made that all very plain.) But the fabrications were, as always, pushed to the hilt. There was shearling for miles—in coats, in vests, in capes—pushed further here than Akris ever has before, in colors like sunset and canary: horizon shades. There were blue suits in a color the company called "denim," but don't get confused—they're cashmere. There'll always be a photo print at the label, and this season's represented the abstracted lines of landscape seen from the air.After the rich colors of the early deliveries, the collection shaded into more graphic black and white—territory, a rep hinted, that Kriemler will be taking up for Fall. The delicate blouse in laser-cut silk chiffon was feminine, almost to a fault. Earhart and her influence had been grounded. Or maybe it's nicer to think of her still out there somewhere, far removed but appreciating it all from the above.
28 January 2013
Akris is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, but the first look out was designer Albert Kriemler's way of telling us the Swiss brand is 90 years young. The black pebblestone-embroidered tulle sheath wasn't a model of discretion, if you get our meaning. In fact, many of the outfits in this 90-look show were noticeably sheer, but they weren't as compelling an advertisement for the brand's vitality as the tailoring, most of it softly structured and paired with sexy jersey racerback tanks that dipped low in the front.Models strode out confidently in Walter Steiger-designed ballerina flats, wearing cardigan jackets and A-line horsehair skirts or double-face, elongated gilets with flaring bootleg pants. Tailoring is the heart and soul of Akris, and Kriemler showed the label's range, going from a casual yet crisp oversize button-down and leather almost-leggings (not quite second-skin-tight), to an ivory take on a smoking, to a fluoro orange jacket and matching color-blocked pants.Another theme he touched on: the house-signature photoprints. This season, Kriemler used images of gardens designed by the famous Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, a personal hero of the designer's known for his curved and sensual silos. An overhead shot of the roof garden of the Banco Safra headquarters looked pretty sensational reproduced on a floor-length skirt shown with one of those low-key tanks.With 90 looks on the runway, though, they couldn't all be hits. An organza shift with a huge leaf appliqué didn't quite live up to Akris' elegant reputation. Still, we like what it suggested: that even after nine decades, Akris is still in growth mode.
29 September 2012
Akris is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year. There's a new book, penned by Valerie Steele, to mark the occasion, and the Swiss label will throw a party in September the night of its Paris show. Standard practices both for a company marking a big milestone. One thing you won't get from designer Albert Kriemler, though, is a retrospective collection that rehashes the brand's past; he's too interested in improving the present. His new Resort lineup contains more than a few pieces designed to make his luxury customers' lives even richer. Take, for instance, a navy evening jacket made from a high-tech Japanese fabric in which the paillettes are woven into the material rather than sewn on top of it, or, at the more casual end of things, a zip-front hoodie whipped up in double-face cashmere. A painting of Prince Albert I of Monaco helming his yacht, thePrincess Alice, is one of three photo prints in the collection. It informed the other two—a print of light reflecting off the Scandinavian sea and another of the Caribbean. A relaxed, casual attitude permeated. Kriemler even showed two different styles of jeans.
26 June 2012
Franz Kline'sPainting No. 7was Albert Kriemler's starting point for Akris this season. The black slashes on the action painter's famous canvas inspired not only the geometric grid print of the opening pantsuit but also the graphic color-blocking and patchworking of different fabrics and textures that informed much of collection. Kline is also something of a totem for Kriemler for the way his work embodied a dynamism and freedom of movement.Among the collection's highlights were a jacket pieced together from parallelograms of leather, cashmere, and ponyhair; a color-blocked cape; and a patchworked side-zip jacket teamed with fitted, tapering pants. All of these were in varying degrees of black, but Kriemler also embraced color. His clients will get a lot of wear out of double-face cashmere coats in purple and a fiery orange.At times, Kriemler stumbled. Simplicity isn't effortless. The fit of the low-waisted, pleated trousers could've been better, and the allover paillette embroidery on evening pieces was distractingly sheer; it would've looked more elegant worn with slips. But he ended on an up note: A series of dresses that were belted in front and hung loose from the shoulders in back captured the ease of movement he was talking about.
3 March 2012
The sportiness of race cars inspired Akris' Albert Kriemler to go shorter, sleeker, sheerer, and sunnier for Spring, but he's relaxed into his more restrained Swiss groove for his latest pre-collection. That sections of his new offering were divided into color-coded blocks called Steam, Wheat, and Steel should give you some idea. He was still thinking of travel, but of a less heart-in-your-mouth variety: The season's inspiration came courtesy of the Trans-Siberian Railway and its stately journey, in days gone by, between Moscow and the Far East. (To set the appropriate mood, he shot the lookbook in Le Train Bleu, the nineteenth-century train car-turned-restaurant at the top of Bloomingdale's.) The Trans-Siberian itself, and the views from it, provided the photo print that has become a house signature, here emblazoned on dresses, tops, and soft cashmere coats. Overall, fluid tailoring and smart outerwear (from almost-casual to full-on luxe in natural mink) defined this quietly elegant collection. The Akris woman travels business class, no doubt, but there's more than enough here to exercise her imagination.
29 January 2012
Like Miuccia Prada, Akris' Albert Kriemler got turned on by cars this season. Kriemler specifically referenced John Frankenheimer's 1966 filmGrand Prix, set in Monaco and other pit stops from motor racing's golden age. Still, the two collections were as night and day as you'd expect; where Prada was cheeky, Akris was sleek.Kriemler devoted a large part of the collection to the photoprints that have become a house signature. A shot of the Hotel de l'Hermitage on racing day and another of spectators gathered on top of a large rectangular viewing structure were bold. More clever, if not necessarily more subtle, were the tiny speedometer print and a graphic horizontal stripe made from manipulating the image of a car.Speed was the organizing metaphor here: Shifts were aerodynamic and A-line, while jackets and pants with racing stripes looked inspired by uniforms. Sport has been a persistent trend this season, and this collection puts Kriemler and co. in the center of it.
1 October 2011
Disco, at Akris? Albert Kriemler looked to Studio 54 for Resort, a well-trod reference point if ever there was one, and somewhat unlikely for a brand that prides itself on its elegance and refinement. If a black-and-white photo print of the jam-packed club erred on the literal side, it came across surprisingly subtly on a sleeveless sheath—chalk that up to the designer's sure hand. Kriemler's cutting and draping skills were also in evidence on a sleek one-shoulder jersey gown of the sort Bianca Jagger once rocked; it was a head turner in vivid azure blue.Otherwise the seventies vibe was just that, a suggestion rather than a full-on commitment. A linen pantsuit was full-legged and boxy silk tops slouched off shoulders. As for another pantsuit in a striking black and silver jacquard, it pointed to the modern accomplishments of Akris' St. Gallen, Switzerland, fabric mills. Chance are good that it'll be the collection's big hit.
20 June 2011
The Salle Wagram, a dance hall dating to 1865, suggested we were in for a different kind of Akris show than we're used to. And indeed the program notes said that designer Albert Kriemler took the Vienna Secession movement as muse for Fall. But he hardly went as bohemian or Art Nouveau as all that suggests. Kriemler is a committed minimalist: He has a light touch.Here's an example: fur. It was there, but if it wasn't exactly flying the way it has been on so many other runways this season, that's because it was used so discreetly. A vicuna bolero worn over a cashmere coat was shorn thinly enough that it almost looked like velvet. Everything had that pared back yet still luxe feeling, from a suede and wool second-skin sweater worn with skinny suede pants to a wool jersey sleeveless dress whose only adornment was a zipper detail front to back on one shoulder. Even paillettes looked classy here, densely embroidering the hems of a shift and a dress.Kriemler used a photo print of architect and Vienna Secession founder Joseph Maria Olbrich's Wedding Tower for an otherwise understated sheath and a floor-length cape, both in double-face wool. It's not a sure thing that the Akris woman will want to wear something quite so overt, relatively speaking. As for something that will be on her playlist, that's easy: the new additions to the house's burgeoning bag line, horsehair iPad cases.
5 March 2011
Albert Kriemler isn't the kind of designer who looks for inspiration in movies, but something about the 1968 filmTwo for the Road, in which Audrey Hepburn ditches her Givenchy for blue jeans, really resonated with him. While you won't find denim in his pre-fall collection forAkris, there's a newfound casualness to, say, a cashmere rugby stripe dress or the second-skin knits with contrast tipping at the shoulders.That said, Kriemler hasn't neglected the needs of his power women clients. He cut a sharp pantsuit in a bold, no-going-unnoticed plaid, and whipped up a great-looking sleeveless shift with a supple leather bodice and a two-for-one cashmere skirt. Unbutton the two buttons at the waist, and in place of the full skirt there's a narrow pencil. The most powerful power woman of the moment (Michelle Obama, duh) should add it to the top of her shopping list.
23 January 2011
The minimalism trend has been good for Akris' Albert Kriemler. Everyone's shopping for a pantsuit lately, and smart tailoring is in his family company's DNA. The upshot: More than a few women who might've previously written off the Swiss brand as strictly for uptown types have been turned on by the quality of its fabrics and the sharpness of its cuts. Other Paris collections are moving away from the spare and the streamlined this week, but not Akris.The starting point was the classic button-down shirt. (Funnily enough, there was a similar inspiration at an otherwise very different brand, Viktor & Rolf, a day earlier.) Kriemler opened with a simple, but not boring, asymmetrical shirtdress in crisp white cotton, and riffed on the idea in denim and (surprise!) a lush floral-print organza.Those bold blooms were a bit too much on a vest and pants, but that was the show's one big misstep. You could picture a lot of the rest stepping off the runway and into real life, and not just the straightforward sea blue pantsuit or the khaki cardigan jacket and matching pants, but also the more adventurous pieces. A short jumpsuit with a bateau neck looked like Kriemler's play for the under-35 set, and he did his own discreet take on Spring's cutout trend, via a V-neck silk shift dress that unzipped at the torso to reveal a triangle of silk mesh. Both of them worked. And both were signs that Daphne Guinness (the brand's ad campaign star and ardent fan) won't be the only in-crowder searching out Akris next season.
2 October 2010
Albert Kriemler took his cues for Resort from Jean-Luc Godard's Capri-set filmLe Mépris. It made for an unusually unrestrained Akris outing, complete with a pair of vivid photo prints—one of the island's sun-drenched Marina Grande and another of a packed outdoor café—which he used for shirtdresses, horsehair tote bags, and, yes, capri pants. The prints informed a color palette lush with coral, aloe green, and a gorgeous azure blue, and the easy, relaxed atmosphere of the vacation spot itself inspired some of the collection's most winning silhouettes: a breezy A-line camel silk polo dress, a boxy cotton shell tucked into a slim skirt with an asymmetric button closure, and a three-piece bermuda shorts suit. Yes, there were more buttoned-up options hanging on the racks, but the Akris customer likely has plenty of those in her closet already.
20 June 2010
Picking up where his smart pre-collection left off, Albert Kriemler's Fall lineup was focused on languid, seventies-ish tailoring and outerwear with a sportif sensibility. The lean, spare silhouette of his suits—elongated jacket, high-waisted flared trousers—provided an opportunity to showcase the fine fabrics that Akris' St. Gallen mills specialize in: Prince of Wales checks, houndstooths, tweeds, and plaids, all in the supplest cashmere. And it doesn't get any more luxe than Kriemler's long-sleeved blouse in a taupey-gray sheared astrakhan. As subtle as that fur and those menswear cashmeres were, his leathers were vibrant: a trim, to-the-body sleeveless dress in cassis, a fitted double-breasted coat in plum. As for the sportier fare, you're never going to see a straight-up down parka here. Kriemler's came in camel hair with drawstrings on the sleeves and across the torso and back to adjust the fit.Ornamentation only entered the picture for evening, but it remained understated: Trapezoidal black crystals adorned the sheer shoulders of a black double-face long dress; the bodice of a strapless cocktail number was stitched with smooth feathers.If Kriemler got carried away, it was with his bags—not with the totes themselves, which are as finely made as they were when they debuted last season, but in the sheer number of them on the runway. In the end, though, they didn't detract from this well-considered, elegant collection.
6 March 2010
Removing the pressure of a runway show can free up a designer to do his best work. That's what's happened to Albert Kriemler at Akris for pre-fall. Focusing on traditional yet timely shapes—like the trench, shrunken double-breasted jackets and high-waisted, full-legged trousers, and capes—he let the luxe fabrics that the Swiss label is famous for do all the talking. And speak to his patrician-class customers these materials will: the double-face cashmeres, the bonded leathers, the buttery suedes. His black wool tweed pantsuit qualifies as one of the sharpest of the season, but it wasn't all boardroom material. Akris has its sporty side, too; one smart highlight among the off-hours looks was a knit poncho (with sleeves, so it stays put) teamed with matchstick-thin pants.
17 January 2010
Albert Kriemler has designed his first-ever handbag collection for Akris, and his Spring clothes served as a well-considered minimalist canvas upon which to launch it. A few coats and dresses were made from leather that was scissored into narrow trapezoids, then re-glued for a geometric effect. But for the most part, Kriemler dialed down the sometimes overwrought fabric treatments from Fall and got back to the spare, clean lines that the Swiss company has been known for.For day, that meant layered fine-gauge silk sweaters, sleekly tailored coat-dresses, and pantsuits with cropped jackets, elongated tees, and tapered knit pants. A sporty element came through via a gray laminated parka inset with athletic mesh and zip-front, blouson-back dresses. For evening, Kriemler was thinking streamlined. Long gray gowns draped gracefully from asymmetric shoulders, and a tall column of jersey came inset with inverted triangles of tulle at the neckline, front and back.As for the bags? It's a measure of the company's commitment that Akris bought a horsehair factory before launching its accessories. Logo-less save for the trapezoidal zipper pulls, the results stand apart from the hardware-heavy styles currently popular. Showing large bags can turn your runway into merch fest, but Kriemler avoided that fate by producing a range as subtle as his clothes.
3 October 2009
Akris is a name on everybody's lips these days because these are clothes that seem especially right for the times. Beautifully made and trend-resistant, they're the very definition of investment dressing. Albert Kriemler wanted his Resort collection to be a feel-good one—literally. To that end he focused on fabric development, creating featherweight jersey for smocked dresses that softly caress the body. A neat chiffon bodysuit—worn with a tailored coat and jeans—had a wafting neckline. Giving shape to these light fabrics were tucked sleeves that resembled lobster tails—a good thing, it turned out, when worked into jackets and a galaxy-print dress.
25 June 2009
Akris' profile is on the upswing lately, thanks to Angelina Jolie, who wore a minimal white suit from the Swiss label during the press junket forThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Designer Albert Kriemler, an avowed architecture buff, found inspiration for Fall in a pavilion in China's Jinhua Architecture Park designed by Mexico's Tatiana Bilbao. The result was a trapezoidal leitmotif that materialized as the geometric embroidery on the tulle sleeves of a fitted wool dress, on the geometric quilting of a bomber jacket, and on a floor-length number with a front constructed of interconnected trapezoids (one editor cracked that it looked like tile swatches).If there was a heavy-handedness to such pieces, there were others that gave glimpses of the sort of understatement that makes the likes of Jolie a fan. Take a deep bordeaux long-line vest in double wool crepe with a slightly padded shoulder and matching pants; a black-purple cashmere leather-belted coat; or a crackly glazed-wool tailored top worn with a matching skirt. Chic and wearable, they proved again that Kriemler is at his best when he thinks simple.
7 March 2009
After a stellar 2008 that included a million-dollar trunk show at Bergdorf Goodman, 2009 is off to a good start for Akris: Angelina Jolie wore a suit from the Swiss label to aBenjamin Buttonpremiere this week. Not one to let things go to his head, designer Albert Kriemler kept things down-to-earth with a pre-fall lineup of great-looking items like a slim ski pant or sporty jackets in rain-resistant silk lined with cashmere. The collection's sheared mink coats were a clever marriage of subtlety and luxury.
20 January 2009
There's a rumor going around Paris that Akris is dressing the Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, but we didn't see much that was campaign trail-friendly on the runway today.The brand is known for its understated, chic tailoring and exquisite, expensive fabrics. Designer Albert Kriemler likes to show off the know-how of the company's textile mills in St. Gallen, Switzerland. So, tapping into the current see-through trend, he spliced the label's superclean jackets with sheer panels, suspended step-pleated georgette from illusion necklines, and layered pencil skirts over net slips. The overall effect, thanks in part to an icy gray, light blue, nude, and white palette, was light and unfussy. (Still, however refined it was, when politicians talk about "transparency," this isn't usually what they mean.)What really stood out were Kriemler's flower-print silk georgette dresses. If not a first at Akris, they were truly an unusual sight. To make them, he had the famous mill pixelate photographs of gardens; the impressionistic results called to mind Monet at Giverny. Again, not exactly Sarah Palin's kind of thing, but we'll be paying extra-special attention at Thursday night's big debate.
30 September 2008
In May, Albert Kriemler's pre-fall collection for Akris briefly quieted retail doomsayers when it netted a cool million dollars at a Bergdorf Goodman trunk show. From the looks of Resort, the cash registers are set to keep cha-ching-ing. In addition to the house's classic full trousers, there was a new scrunchy, carrot-silhouetted pant. Kriemler took a lighter than ever touch in his perennial play with transparency, seen on sleeveless tops worn under tailored jackets, twenties-style pleated dresses with delicate meshlike panels, and a deep-sea-colored number with Deco-inflected insets that was a sheer delight.
22 June 2008
Albert Kriemler smartly avoided the decorative motifs that distracted from his impeccable tailoring last season. There was a minimalist, almost ascetic appeal to double-faced cashmere suits—the jackets long with high, stand-up collars and narrowed waists, and the trousers with graceful, sleek lines. Anything superfluous was eliminated.His coats were also elongated, several grazing the ankle and accessorized with floor-scraping knit or fur scarves. For a more casual take on the pared-down, cleaned-up look, there were streamlined suede tunics over second-skin turtlenecks and slim pants, as well as a horizontally ribbed dolman-sleeved sweater dress worn belted—like everything else—to accentuate the waist.The collection wasn't completely free of decoration. Graduated rectangles on silk tulle coat-dresses were more subtle than the mille-feuille layers of organza ribbon at another dress's hem (or, worse, bodice). The strongest evening pieces took their cues from the streamlined daywear: a floor-length cashmere dress with envelope pockets and double-inset pleats, or even simpler, a matte-jersey knife-pleated column with a double skirt in back. All in all, much improved.
26 February 2008
Albert Kriemler's pre-fall palette was a muted one of graphite, taupe, and storm blue, inspired by photographs of Icelandic landscapes. Spring's line-play continued, but now in monochrome on a textured sweater, say, or on a topper that featured fur worked in geometric stripes. Fuller pants were shown with slightly militaristic jackets, some made of double-faced cashmere. Two knit dresses, in contrast, were all about curves.
28 January 2008
Albert Kriemler finds himself in a tricky position: As the creative force behind Akris, he dresses seriously chic women—Diane Sawyer, for one—in seriously chic clothes that are fashionable without being fashion-y. No small accomplishment. But he wants to be taken seriously as a designer, too, which means setting trends, not simply setting his focus on the timelessness of a well-cut suit.He made a stab at it for Spring, using sailing as a leitmotif. The wooden runway, for starters, was made to resemble a high-tech yacht, and within this setting the designer loosely interpreted the sailor suit as a vertically striped sleeveless blouse worn with high-waist full-legged pants. Elsewhere, the maritime concept was given a full-on spin in tailored jackets with the squared-off back flaps of naval uniforms, and a two-piece dress stitched from strips of leather to resemble decking.Unfortunately, the conceit often came across as contrived. A poppy-colored organza dress adorned with laser-cut square pennants was like a red flag: Danger! Kriemler would do better for himself and his customers by sticking to the sophistication for which Akris is known.
2 October 2007
Trends evolve rather than ricochet back and forth at Akris. For Resort, Albert Kriemler explored some of the ideas from his Fall show—such as coats with a sheer fabric layered over a solid—in warm-weather materials. Delicate ladder work added subtle decoration to cream-colored shift dresses. New for the season were high-waisted, wide-legged sailor pants made of silk/linen denim. Will they continue the journey into Kriemler's upcoming spring collection? Stay tuned.
9 July 2007
Herzog & de Meuron, the visionary Swiss architects, were on Albert Kriemler's mind this season. The silvery high-tech "skin" of the Walker Art Center was interpreted as a georgette-covered metallic shrug, and San Francisco's new de Young could be seen in the sequins scattered over a black slip dress. Some of the more obvious building motifs, like the severe suede wedges and the 3-D cubes superimposed on large-gauge knits, looked clunky rather than light. But the theme was generally a good match for this designer's spare, precise sensibility and his strength as a tailor.Kriemler delivered in the suit department, showing sharp, lean cuts in charcoal gray, sometimes with a minimalist ring of ruffles decorating the hem of a putty vest. Jackets were cinched with a polished stainless-steel belt for a slightly futuristic touch. And the interesting surfaces on the coats turned them into the highlight of the show. Crushed aluminum made a cocoon shape modern, while leather made a cropped anorak deluxe. Parkas were taken apart and rebuilt as evening toppers, a trick clever enough to even impress Jacques and Pierre back in Basel.
27 February 2007
In a switch from the typical seating arrangements, buyers rather than editors sat at the head of Akris' runway, with the best views in the house. It was a fitting development, since Albert Kriemler's take on the week's black-and-nude illusion dressing trend was lessStrictly Ballroomthan strictly chic. Akris has become a quiet retail powerhouse on the strength of this designer's subtle and approachable interpretations of runway developments. In addition to those organza dresses with tulle insets or straps so sheer they almost performed disappearing acts, he also did volume. But that didn't mean trapezes or tent dresses. Those aren't his style, nor his clients'. A subtle bustle gave the back of plunge-front dresses in platinum shot silk, striped voile, or coated wool a youthful swing. Likewise, blouson tops were reined in by bands at the upper arm and waist. The season's billowy cuffed shorts appeared here, too, although with the front pocket linings dipping visibly below their hems, they didn't seem as comfortable a fit with the brand's sophisticated sensibilities.In a city where the grand gesture rules, this label risks being overlooked. That's why Kriemler and co. invited show-goers to Akris' St. Gallen, Switzerland, headquarters for a quick tour of the brand's archives at a special exhibition last weekend. By all accounts, the Alpine town has an illustrious past as a center for textiles. But today Kriemler looked straight ahead with the show's modern, geometric embroideries.
3 October 2006
Albert Kriemler's Akris collections speak in hushed tones. That's what makes his clothes so popular with ladies of decorous taste yet lavish means, but it doesn't always make for good runway. To compare him to the showman Karl Lagerfeld—whose Chanel productions directly precede those of Akris—isn't fair, of course, but Kriemler doesn¿t help his cause with some of his staging choices. Why not select music that's a little more upbeat? And while we're on the subject of change, perhaps he should think about swapping the catacombs of the Carrousel du Louvre for a new venue—someplace spare and fuss-free like his clothes.Like many other designers this season, Kriemler found inspiration in the sculpted silhouettes of Cristobal Balenciaga. Coats in black mattelassé and ultra-luxe heather-gray vicuña had a cocoon-like shape. Whether or not Akris customers will embrace this backward-looking, forward-moving new direction remains to be seen. But Kriemler played it safer with such items as slouchy cashmere knits and pants cut two ways: slim and tapered or fuller with flap pockets. For evening, the designer rather puzzlingly eliminated structure, draping silk satin or crepe in front and back and occasionally leaving the sides of the torso uncovered. Unlike other elements of the collection, these won't make the leap to retail without some serious rethinking back at the studio.
2 March 2006
The precision with which Albert Kriemler cuts his clothes—to say nothing of the efficiency of his presentation—came as a welcome tonic amid spring's endless frills (the ruffles! the bows! the lace!) and elaborate setups. Backstage, Kriemler described the starting point of his collection as a nude plissé blouse worn by Anjelica Huston in a 1973 Richard Avedon portrait. "It was its simplicity and lightness," he said, "that moved me."Kriemler did a deft job of charting the season's trends, too, starting with those pleats and continuing with subtle colors including aubergine, mushroom, and smoke. These came together beautifully in a nude (the noncolor of the season), accordion-folded frock with a deep V-back. Embellishments included tulle leaves hand-stitched onto organza; perforated-leather swing coats looked lighter than air; and crocheted cardigans had enough heft to stand in for a blazer.But Akris is really all about those dependably chic pantsuits. To persuade customers who already have a closetful of his short jackets, and perhaps convince new (younger?) ones, Kriemler lengthened his spring styles to the hips, cinched them with a belt, and raised armholes for a look he described as "rock star—but Akris rock star."
6 October 2005
Since the Swiss label Akris, designed by Albert Kriemler, entered the Paris scene, it has quietly garnered an impressive reputation for stealthily luxurious clothes that also happen to sell like crazy. So what's the secret? A conundrum that tangentially reveals a lot about our times, as it happens. For the buzz (or, more accurately, the high-frequency bat squeak) about Akris lies in the paradox that it's off the radar: nonfashion fashion. At a time when seeking out label-free anonymity in clothes is beginning to seem, contradictorily, fashionable, the collection is a need-to-know resource.For fall, Akris certainly is a place for women who can't find a nifty pantsuit to look. (And how many millions are we?) Cut with a tight, short double-breasted jacket and a slimly flared trouser in pistachio cotton-cashmere corduroy, it's an outfit guaranteed to send girlfriends into fits of "where did you get that?" distraction. Same with the velvet versions in subtle slate and duck blues.And while we're at it, there are beautifully unidentifiable coats to check out here. Take one in gray, with a raised waist, a subtle flare, and a yoke in back. Or another cut into a narrow collarless early-sixties couture shape, which makes a nice nod to the season without screeching "mod." Or yet again, a slim man's overcoat that transcends trend.These are pieces the nonfashion-fashion hunter is going to feel mighty pleased to have bagged—now, and next year, too. As for the rest, the quietly textured wrapped knits and the separates, like jersey fit-and-flare skirts, are minted for another, more conservative market. But the fact that Akris can attract both kinds of women (all of whom are fleeing from excess, yet willing to invest) explains the health of the company's bottom line.
3 March 2005
Unlike many labels, the Swiss house of Akris doesn't use ear-splitting music or crazy styling to jazz up its understated urban staples. This season did, though, see a small yet significant change: Instead of showing at its chic Paris HQ, the house chose the Carrousel du Louvre, the location favored by the likes of Chanel and Valentino. Quiet and refined or not, designer Albert Kriemler just may be trying to edge Akris into the spotlight.Either way, Kriemler's spring collection was as clean and fresh as an alpine morning. He referenced the innocence and purity of his roots via billowing, snow-white linen peasant blouses and flared cotton skirts. But Switzerland is also home to some really hefty bank accounts, so the Akris woman is well versed in the language of international moneyed chic: Witness a white cotton double-faced trenchcoat with tulle edges over supernarrow trousers, or a white linen bustier with a full organdy skirt etched in shell-like swirls of cotton. From there on in, the collection embraced some of the season's key colors (sage green, sea blue, sweet pink) and gotta-have-'em pieces (cuffed shorts, little jackets, billowing skirts).Kriemler closed with lightweight tulle evening dresses in shades of taupe and beige; while some were worn with heels, it was the few that came out with flat thong sandals that looked most in step with spring 2005.
7 October 2004
Every season has one or two of those shows where a well-respected but not terribly exciting line suddenly whips off its glasses, undoes a few buttons, and shakes out its topknot, leaving jaded fashion-world regulars stuttering over their words and groping for notebooks. This time, that delightful transformation happened at the venerable, 60-year-old Swiss company Akris. There's always been an upper-echelon customer for its painstakingly perfect suits and coats, but over the past few years, with Albert Kriemler (son of founder Max Kriemler) at the helm, Akris has been quietly freshening and lightening its designs, and fall's show proved the transformation complete.As much as this season's frill and flourish are fun to look at, ultimately women want clothes that can survive a grab-and-go lifestyle while still performing the important role of personal enhancement. Enter Akris' nip-waist jackets, trim trousers, pencil skirts, and snappy coats cut from cashmere, tweed, suede, and lamb, worn with luxe cashmere sweaters or silky tunics. Those kinds of basics can easily turn boring, but Kriemler has a gift for proportion and cut, and he managed to balance all the elements—rough with polish, bulky with airy—without getting bogged down in tradition. The silky dresses and gowns that closed the show emitted just the right amount of subtle sex appeal. And, while his fluttery smocked chiffon tops may have Swiss milkmaid in their genealogy, their flirty confidence was purely modern-day.
8 March 2004