Sruli Recht Field Dressing AW12

The Sruli Recht studio is a cross-discipline practice caught somewhere between product design, tailoring, shoe making and industrial design. It is as hard to define as it is to refrain from marvelling over its output. Now based in Reykjavík, the studio rose to notoriety as it began in 2008 to produce one “non-product” every month from knuckle duster umbrellas to bulletproof scarves, tables, to belts and boots which incorporated such materials as concrete, diamonds, skin and wool. Today , the studio produces two seasonal menswear lines per year and AW12 sees the unveiling of its third full collection.

“This collection was lost out on the hunt, chasing the goal to no end,” the designer states in the press release. As with everything Recht had created before, the AW12 collection entitled Field Dressing, manages to be completely intuitive and free whilst still being very dimensional and formed. Having met the design talent at Reykjavik Fashion Festival back in April, he managed to blow me away with the debut of his full menswear collection and his methods. Recht does not believe in following rules aside from designing without drawing. For Recht, as he has made clothing for some time now, he is able to see the realised garment in his head without the need to pre-design. He practises intuitive design and uses a mind opening combination of handcraft and digital tools to realise his work. Now, rather than beginning with a sketchbook, he approaches the collection on half scale mannequins draping and crafting directly on to the form whilst using a digital camera and projector to see the garment take its full size shape in real time. Through using a half scale mannequin it minimises the opportunity to over design and over think each element. Once satisfied, a pattern is marked and duly scanned in before being exported to the laser cutter ready for further development on the mannequin. At full scale, the garment is taken further to work on the body. Most of the garments are made from one pattern piece and cut from a single piece of fabric. This technique both speeds up and frees the design process whilst being remarkably precise.

Field Dressing consists of thirty five total looks, from tuxedo to tracksuit, coats, tailored jackets and cardigans, to trousers, shorts and leggings and is complimented by boots, shoes, bags, raincoats, gloves and silver jewellery in a total of seventy styles with approximately one hundred and eighty with material variations. Recht is able to summarise the collection in three words; tailored, pulsing, visceral. Now over to Marinó Thorlacius's ever stunning look book photography that repeatedly whispers these three words...

Look book credits:

Photographer – Marinó Thorlacius

Models – Emil Þór Guðmundsson, Driton Kaleviqi.

 Stylist – Megan Herbert

Lookbook Layout – wearenotyou

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In Field Dressing, it is clear that Sruli Recht is once again driven by fabric, form and function. This season employs a global selection of wool, waxed cottons, leathers and silks, glass, timber and steel, complimented by Icelandic reindeer and horse skin. Everything in the collection is made in Iceland. In the collection notes, Recht thanks his talented team for their tireless, phenomenal drive and the uncountable amount of hours sacrificed for the designs. Garments and accessories are crafted in leather made from dolphin skin, fabric woven from horse hair and silk extracted from a spider’s gland implanted in a goat. Made from the waste products of the horse farms and slaughterhouses, Ásthildur developed hand-loomed satin from single strands of horsetail hairs, master Icelandic wood carver Muggi crafted sniper-rifles from hand cut maple whilst glass blown slippers were made with the breath of Sigrún Ólöf Einarsdóttir and mounted to heat formed PMMA for the clear path ahead. Head scratching-ly amazing.