Market Moments
A snapshot of the industry's latest launches, collaborations and up-and- coming designers.
At. Kollektive Drops Season 03
In 2022, Ecco Leather debuted its collaborative platform At.Kollektive as a way to “radically consider luxury fashion” by giving designers access to Ecco’s tanneries and leather workshops in the Netherlands. Since launching, the platform opened its e-commerce marketplace with guest collaborators including Natacha Ramsay-Levi, Isaac Reina, Bianca Saunders and Kostas Murkudis.
This month, At. Kollektive dropped its third season featuring fashion styles and accessories by London- based designer Kiko Kostadinov, New York- based Peter Do and shoe designer Nina Christen.
Styles from Do include genderless leather accessories and ready-to-wear, like a pair of black modular pants that can be worn at three lengths, and his debut sneaker, The Hybrid, while Kostadinov’s said he wanted to design items he could use in his daily life, with elevated travel essentials in mind.
“Overall the collection was designed to be quite balanced. Looking at size and function across categories, uniting them by material and use of color and stripes. Thinking of traveling, long haul but also quick day trips across Europe. Leisure or r business, making sure the product can accommodate d both bh purposes. B Bags can connect to each other, jackets can be zipped in different positions. Material wise, we work toward developing a new idea of stripes with debossing and coating color on top. Footwear leather is backed with bamboo fiber for extra comfort,” he told WWD of his slip- on sneaker style; myriad bags, and color- and fabric- blocked rtw.
“I was very inspired to collaborate with the Ecco factories and tanneries due to the amazing possibilities of material and technical development. With my work I look to combine engineering and design for which the Ecco manufacturing offers many innovative techniques to use,” Christen told WWD of the experience.
For the collection, Christen — who has created footwear for the likes of Loewe, Bottega Veneta and Celine — offers four footwear and one clutch style in shades of yellow, black, gray and white. Her key style, the Plasma x Ballerina, was designed by combining an outdoor sneaker sole with the feminine Ballerina shoe silhouette. “The inspiration came from elements seen in the Ecco archive which I was looking to modernize by using new material components. This season I wanted to enhance the comfort by using a very soft calf leather,” she said.