Workwear, but make it fashion. That was the sense we got after scrolling through images from Berlin-based magazine 032c’s first-ever women’s ready-to-wear show. Designed by Maria Koch, one of the publication’s co-founders with experience at Jil Sander and Prada, the show took place in London on Monday, November 26. In addition to the magazine, 032c launched its first men’s ready-to-wear collection in 2016, and also maintains a carefully curated online shop stocked with branded T-shirts, hats, and pieces from various design collaborations, like the chunky “A630” Birkenstock clogs.
Sticking with the magazine’s famously utilitarian “leitmotifs,” Koch designed a 12-piece collection that reads part sanitation worker, part goth raver (in a good way). In addition to the high number of parachute pants that swooshed down the runway, lighter pieces, like sheer, clingy gowns with sequins, were juxtaposed with clunky, white boots (the shoes were a collaboration with Buffalo).
“It was always somehow part of the goal to slowly move from merchandise to apparel and then to ready-to-wear,” Koch said in an interview with WWD. “There are no fashion weeks anymore, everyone’s doing drops and pre-collections and cruise and other things, so we just figured, why not do it when we felt it was the right moment?”
The more accessible pieces, like the T-shirts and parachute pants, will be available on 032c’s online store in the coming months.