The Tamesis
The starting point for each Bonnetje collection is the deconstruction of men’s suits and clothing, adding a few twists somewhere along the way. Bonnetje’s core narrative was therefore one of structure and fabric treatment, something that wasn’t always clear on the catwalk. As Yoko Maja Hansen says, their work is “more of a holistic technique, a way of working and a way of looking at clothes than a story.” So, in the third and final season as part of the CPHFW NewTalent program, Maja Hansen and Anna Myntekær return to presentation form and introduce their own brand in 2024.
During the fall, the pair distilled the best aspects of their previous work and honed them into something spectacular. As well as digging into their own archives, the designer friends visited the recent “Paper Hyperreality” exhibition at Copenhagen’s SMK Museum and saw similarities between the group’s exquisite corpse play and their own way of working. “The way we work,” explains Myntekær, “a [of us will] Start with a piece of clothing and then give it to Yoko, for example, and then it comes back [to me]which is somewhat the same. ” (A Surrealist would create a text or image by having one person contribute something, folding the paper, and then passing it on to the next person to add something.) Surrealism works most intuitively in the films Casper Sejersen created for the series, and, as a variant of the Exquisite Corpse, the designer didn’t see it until after it was completed.
Repetition is clear evidence of a fall. One skirt is made from shirt cuffs joined together to form an openwork textile; on the long skirt they overlap and are arranged vertically. Tailoring was exaggerated to extreme forms, with bustle-like shapes. (Shades of Marie Antoinette?) Having the cake, not eating it, was the shoes, especially those adorned with dozens of plastic keychains that made a kind of music when in motion, and boots made from upcycled bags. These are showpieces, but the designers have a real knack for innovation, and with the right partners, accessories could become an important category for the brand.
