Originally posted by Yahoo! News@ Tue Oct 7, 9:45 AM ET
Dutch Designers Viktor & Rolf Ready for Mainstream
By Joelle Diderich
PARIS (Reuters) - After 10 years of pushing the boundaries of fashion with catwalk shows bordering on performance art, avant-garde Dutch design duo Viktor & Rolf say they are ready to hit the mainstream.
The twin-like designers celebrate a decade of design partnership with the opening on Tuesday of a major retrospective at Paris's Museum of Fashion and Textile.
Designers Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren have captivated fashion editors and museum curators with their creations, which include evening gowns weighed down with thousands of bells and mushroom-shaped clothes inspired by atomic explosions.
Not content with their elite status, the pair now plan an assault on the mass market.
"For us the retrospective is definitely a closing chapter," Snoeren told Reuters in an interview.
"It's a step in a new direction, which is reaching a much bigger audience and translating the core image of Viktor & Rolf to more things than just ready-to-wear," he added.
They recently designed a capsule collection for catalog retailer La Redoute and plan to launch a perfume in 2004 with cosmetics giant L'Oreal.
The project was announced with a full-page advertisement in the International Herald Tribune showing the po-faced duo above the caption: "Because we're worth it."
IRONIC APPROACH
The bespectacled designers, who work as one and finish each other's sentences, make no secret of their dream to replace Karl Lagerfeld at the helm of Chanel. They are even considering hooking up with a luxury conglomerate to fulfil their ambitions.
"What we want is to develop a global brand and we're aware of the fact...that you cannot do it alone, so we can imagine working with partners, but you would have to find the right partner," said Horsting.
The thought of Viktor & Rolf going commercial may come as a surprise. These are the designers who once created a fake perfume in a sealed bottle that could not be opened -- their wry comment on the power of marketing.
Although irony has always been at the core of their work, they are sincere about their passion for fashion.
"For us, fashion has always been a means to escape reality and to create beautiful or maybe sometimes not-so-beautiful fantasy worlds," Horsting explained.
The pair are famous for happenings such as the 1999 show in which they piled layers of glittering clothes onto model Maggie Rizer until she resembled a Russian doll.
Recently, they have been scaling down their exaggerated designs to appeal to real women, all the while retaining their innovative edge.
"I think we are infiltrating the system and the fact that we have been outside has really shaped us and has shaped our ideas," said Horsting. "We love fashion, but at the same time we really do everything our way and on our terms."
Isn't Viktor beautiful?
