Dezeen Magazine

Anna Blessmann creates utilitarian clothing line for creatives

German artist Anna Blessmann came up with the idea for her highly practical clothing label following a conversation with British artist Peter Saville and American fashion designer Virgil Abloh.

Called A Plan Application, the versatile collection is designed to eschew trends and instead function as a working wardrobe that can be built upon each season.

The first core collection, made up of practical garments in black, white and bright blue – a shade inspired by the colour of corner shop plastic bags, was designed by Blessman with artists and creatives in mind.

The pieces were designed off the back of a conversation that Blessmann had with her partner, British artist Saville, and Louis Vuitton creative director Abloh.

"In a conversation with Peter and Virgil I expressed my points of view on fashion culture now and how to resist the endless high speed chasing of the next thing yet while acknowledging the zeitgeist," Blessmann told Dezeen.

"Virgil was intrigued by this and also appreciated the pieces of clothing I had been doing for myself, so he suggested to meet with New Guards Group, the people behind his label Off-White," she continued.

The result is a logoless collection that Blessmann describes as "borderless, between men's and women's wear, with jeans, knits and outer layers available to all parties".

Anna Blessman and Peter Saville create capsule clothing line for creatives

"A Plan Application proposes a system wardrobe – reductive, combinable, practical, elegant and easy to wear," she said. "A colour palette from white, pale blue, cyan to navy and black. On a spectrum from masculine to feminine. Something for every day from day to night."

Accessories include a blue silk scarf called Glitch, which was designed by Blessmann's partner, Peter Saville, who plans to contribute one limited edition piece to each season's collection.

Anna Blessman and Peter Saville create capsule clothing line for creatives

Key pieces from the inaugural collection include a tailored adaptation of the classic hooded sweatshirt with an outsized hood and broad shoulders swept into a slim waistline; a multi-pocket jumpsuit adapted from a window cleaner’s overalls; slim over-the-knee leather boots, and a kimono collar wrap dress.

As a reaction against the high frequency and turnover of trends, Blessmann chose not to use any form of branding, including external logos, patterns or prints, and will instead opt to present each capsule in various tones of one colour, starting with blue.

Anna Blessman and Peter Saville create capsule clothing line for creatives

"I don't see the point of doing what everyone else does at the moment and I’m also a little tired of irony and quotation," she stated.

"I just wanted to do, and have for myself, well-made contemporary looking clothes that are wearable now and ideally still looking good in a decade. Something not 'in fashion' and so not immediately 'out of fashion'."

"Like the creative worker of today, A Plan Application is ready to travel," continued Blessmann, who splits her time between London, Milan and Berlin.

"In place of the air-conditioned homogeneity of the office, these clothes are as suited to the reality of icy Berlin studios and rain-soaked London pavements as they are to projecting intellectual, creative and even sexual power."

Anna Blessman and Peter Saville create capsule clothing line for creatives

Alongside a photographic lookbook, Blessmann elected to hand-draw a version featuring herself as model and muse.

"I developed the ideas for the garments by drawing them on myself, so the drawings are an essential part of my working process" she explained.

"I'm not calling myself a fashion designer. The collection is informed by my life as an artist, how to develop one's uniform in which one feels oneself. How to have your own identity and not become a carrier of other people's narratives."

"I'm concerned about shapes and how pieces feel on the body and how you move in them. Aspects of that awareness of shape and the body have parallels to my practise as a sculptor," she continued.

The collection, which will arrive in Browns and Selfridges July 2018, is produced by New Guards Group, the house behind Virgil Abloh’s Off-White label.

Abloh, who was appointed as artistic director of menswear for Louis Vuitton in March 2018, unveiled his inaugural collection for the brand during Paris fashion week. The polychromatic menswear collection, which included mohair suit jackets and crocodilian leather harnesses, was paraded down a hand-painted, 200-metre-long rainbow runway – or "gradient painting" as Abloh calls it – inspired by the dream-like land of the Wizard of Oz.