Viktor & Rolf - Fashion Presentations

Fashion Presentations

In 1998, Viktor & Rolf put on an unauthorized, underground fashion show during Paris Fashion Week designed to attract members of the press. Ready-to-wear and their menswear label "Monsieur" were to follow over the next five years.

An early fashion presentation was titled ‘Russian Doll’ (Autumn/Winter 1999-2000). A lone model, Maggie Rizer, was positioned on a revolving platform to be dressed by the designers in nine garments, one on top of the other as a Russian doll in reverse. .

Further presentations saw models act as blue-screens in ‘Long Live the Immaterial’ (Bluescreen) (Autumn/Winter 2002-03) a parade that used chroma-key techniques to project moving images onto the garments. . Other collections such as ‘Atomic Bomb’ (Autumn/Winter 1998-99) and ‘Black Light’ (Spring/Summer 1999) have been presented twice. In both cases, models paraded the catwalk twice, first as a performative spectacle, and again to display the wearable collection.

Presentations have also featured several performers including Tilda Swinton on whom ‘One Woman Show’(Autumn/Winter 2003-04) was based, Tori Amos who performed in ‘Bedtime Story’ (Autumn/Winter 2005-06) and Rufus Wainwright who performed in ‘Ballroom’(Spring/Summer 2007).

In 1993, Viktor & Rolf won the Festival d'Hyeres prize.

In 2003, the Fashion Museum in Paris presented a 10-year retrospective of the designers' work.

In 2005 they opened their first shop in the Golden Quadrilateral (Quadrilatero d'Oro) in Milan (which closed in 2008), and were contracted by L'Oréal to develop their first perfume, called Flowerbomb. In 2006, their first men's perfume, Antidote, was introduced in the United States.

In 2008 an exhibition entitled "The House of Viktor & Rolf" was presented at the Barbican Art Gallery, celebrating the duo's 15-year anniversary. Key pieces from 1992 to 2008 were remade as detailed miniatures and presented on hand-made porcelain dolls, in a large doll house.

In 2008, Viktor & Rolf announced that Renzo Rosso —owner of Diesel, chairman of Only the Brave (OTB)— had taken a controlling stake in their company. Viktor & Rolf stated that this deal is meant to allow their company to put out a wider range of products and to open more stores.