2024-02-02
Interview with Fashion Designer Viktoria Lorenz (Part 1)
The garments by young fashion designer Viktoria Lorenz are inspired by minimalism and exude sheer elegance. Clean lines and intricate craftmanship define her work. A great example of this is her Lambelle Bag made out of carefully arranged fabric rectangles, which has recently been featured in InStyle.
Lorenz’s collaboration with the ZERO Foundation is just one of many reasons why the designer captured our attention. (Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, and Günther Uecker founded the artist group ZERO on April 24, 1958, in Düsseldorf, striving for a radical new beginning in the arts after World War II.) As part of the exhibition “A Dress, Monochrome: ZERO and Fashion,” Lorenz presented an exclusive collection in Düsseldorf in 2023, paying homage to ZERO artists such as Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, and Günther Uecker.
With a kneen interest in abstract art, Viktoria Lorenz is currently working on another collaboration with an art institution. The interview below reveals more about her project.
A cosy café on Wiesbaden’s town square is the perfect meeting place. Viktoria Lorenz, dressed in an elegant black top with pleated lace, finds a comfortable seat by the window. A beaming smile on her face hints at the excitement about the upcoming conversation, where she is to share her plans for 2024 with enthusiasm.
Ms Lorenz, you are a young designer from Wiesbaden, currently commuting between Cologne and the Hessian capital due to work.
Yes, that’s correct. I have another studio in Cologne and collaborate with a skilled seamstress in a different studio simultaneously. It makes me happy to maintain regular exchanges in this craft, and I’m grateful to work alongside such an experienced master seamstress.
You recently presented your ZERO-inspired collection at the Art Cologne fair. How did your idea of combining abstract art and fashion design emerge?
Since I was 13, I’ve been fascinated by fashion. After exploring various fashion houses and designers, it didn’t take long for my first collections to come up. However, they were initially limited to a conceptual and illustrative level. Back then, I also spent a lot of time in my grandfather’s veneer workshop. The thin wood fascinated me, and I started integrating this material into my designs with the goal of making it wearable.
So, your designs are often inspired by a theme, right? How did the idea of connecting fashion design with abstract art develop?
Exactly, this design process has established itself over the years. There’s always a theme that inspires my clothing. The idea of merging fashion design with abstract art came to me during a magical moment at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. While experiencing the works of art during the “ZERO Countdown to Tomorrow” exhibition on New Year’s Eve, I could already envision the clothing. The reduced forms and colours, as well as the partially three-dimensional surface texture intrigued me.
After realizing these designs, you reached out to the ZERO Foundation in 2020. Together you developed a concept for presenting a clothing collection in conjunction with works of art. The fact that abstract art is a theme that inspires your creations is also reflected in an upcoming collaboration. We are delighted to be working with you on a project for the Reinhard Ernst Museum.
The pleasure is all mine! Through contact with the ZERO Foundation, I realized how beautiful it is to create and present fashion in a different kind of collaboration. Art merged with fashion, and during the vernissage of “A Dress, Monochrome: ZERO and Fashion,” it also united with music. I’m drawn to not taking the traditional path in the industry but explicitly integrating what inspires me. And now, I again received the opportunity to be part of such an interdisciplinary project.
The Reinhard Ernst Museum has not yet opened – how did you become aware of it?
As I was born and bred in Wiesbaden, I naturally keep track of what’s happening in the city (laughs). I found it quite fascinating that a renowned architect like Fumihiko Maki would construct a building here. That is definitely outstanding!
Beyond that, clothing often doesn’t receive much attention in overall concepts, but I noticed the passion and attention to detail in the museum project. So, I simply reached out to the museum’s team and introduced myself. I was thrilled when I received a response! The idea of working on a collaboration emerged quickly through personal meetings and exchanges with Ms Dallmer (Head of Relationship Management, Events, and Marketing).
Do you want to learn more about Viktoria Lorenz’s plans for the Reinhard Ernst Museum? We will unveil the young fashion designer’s creation for the museum in the forthcoming part of our interview. To offer you a preview of her ideas during the design process, the above-shown study offers a glimpse into some of the preliminary drawings. One of them is the final design we chose for the Reinhard Ernst Museum. Which one do you think we chose and where will it be put to use? Exchange with our community on our LinkedIn channel!
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