Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren (both b.1969) are the collaborative duo behind the avant-garde Dutch fashion label Viktor&Rolf. They first met as students at the Arnhem Academy of Art and Design in the Netherlands and joined forces upon graduating in 1992, launching their label the following year. Their twinned vision for groundbreaking haute couture – meaning ‘high sewing’ – was quickly defined by unconventional silhouettes, exaggerated sculptural forms, luxurious glamour and a wry sense of humour, as well as a distinctly conceptual approach to fashion.

An early work that typifies their playful, interventionist style was Viktor&Rolf Le Parfum (1998). Side-stepping clothing altogether, the duo manufactured a perfume bottle that couldn’t be opened, and launched it with an elaborate advertising campaign. The marketing of the perfume was just as important as the perfume itself and cannily traded on the circulation of imagery in the fashion industry. Viktor&Rolf’s perfume readymade could ‘neither evaporate nor give off its scent, and will forever be a potential: pure promise.’[1]

Although Le Parfum predates Viktor&Rolf’s entry into haute couture, it reflects the way luxury fashion is marketed and displayed, from magazines to billboards to film and television. It also exposes fashion as an aesthetic phenomenon. Akin to the history of photography, fashion embodies the paradox of replication and representation, that is, the mass production of the ‘aura’ of an image.[2] The transition from clothing to fashion marks the shift ‘from utility to sign… it is the representation, not the garment, that goads our desire.’[3]

Get mean, from Viktor&Rolf’s 2019 runway collection Fashion Statements, trades on a similar canniness. The oversized baby-doll nightgown, crafted from voluminous apricot tulle, is a convergence of references and signs. The garment’s punctum – a ruffled pink love heart with the self-titled statement ‘GET MEAN’ at its centre – caddishly brands the demure Victorian-era style dress replete with frilled gigot sleeves, also known as mutton leg sleeves for their distinct hind-quarter shape. In Get mean, Viktor&Rolf play with the global ubiquity of the graphic tee. A clothing staple, it is considered a fashion ‘basic’ often used to brand consumers with labels or products or to showcase low-brow humour, even political opinions. As a popular culture commodity, the graphic tee is purposefully at odds with Get mean’s decadent fabric and silhouette; to produce Fashion Statements, Viktor&Rolf used over eight kilometres of tulle.[4]

Branding is taken a step further as the title statement is written in Rosewood font. Originally designed by Carl Crossgrove, Carol Twombly and Kim Buker Chansler as part of the 1989 Adobe Originals suite, Rosewood makes reference to William Page’s 1874 pioneering typographic guide Specimens of Chromatic Wood Type, Borders, & c. But Rosewood has since become equally generic through its global digital distribution, now obliquely conjuring a Wild West, mid-twentieth century Americana aesthetic.

In many ways, Get Mean is an assemblage of the close at hand in the twenty-first century. Mass production meets luxury goods; saccharine femineity meets feminist assertions; kitsch slogans trawled from the internet are crafted in intricately laser-cut hand-sewn tulle. “These statements that are so obvious or easy – there's a lot of banality on Instagram and social media in general – are counterbalanced with this over-the-top, shimmery, romantic feeling," says Rolf Snoeren.[5] “Are we designers or artists? Maybe it’s possible to be both.”[6]

Reference List

[1] Adam Geczy and Vicki Karaminas, Critical Fashion Practice (Bloomsbury Academic: London), 2017, p92

[2] Ibid, p102.

[3] Ibid.

[4] ‘Viktor&Rolf Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2019 ‘Fashion Statements’, an investigation into the expressive power of clothing’, Viktor&Rolf website, accessed 1 October 2024

[5] Rolf Snoeren quoted by Layla Ilchi, ‘Viktor & Rolf’s Couture Show Goes Viral on Instagram’, Women’s Wear Daily, 24 January 2024

[6] ‘Viktor&Rolf: Fashion Statements’, Exhibition 23 February – 6 October 2024, Kunsthalle München website, accessed 2 October 2024

Books and Articles

Ed. Jones, Terry and Mair, Avril. Fashion Now (Taschen: Koln), 2003

Evan, Rebecca. “Viktor&Rolf” in AGSA 500, Art Gallery of South Australia (Thames & Hudson: Victoria), 2022.

Geczy, Adam, and Karaminas, Vicki. Critical Fashion Practice (Bloomsbury Academic: London), 2017.

Ilchi, Layla. ‘Viktor & Rolf’s Couture Show Goes Viral on Instagram’, Women’s Wear Daily, 24 January 2024

Websites

‘Dress’, Costume Institute: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accessed 22 September 2024.

‘Viktor&Rolf Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2019 ‘Fashion Statements’, an investigation into the expressive power of clothing,’ Viktor&Rolf, accessed 1 October 2024

Videos

‘The Story of Viktor&Rolf’, NGV, accessed 22 September 2024

  • What occasion might you wear this garment to?
  • Investigate the marketing campaigns for luxury fashion items. What characteristics are similar in the way they are advertised? How does this differ to other clothing items that are sold and advertised in more affordable retail stores? What is the difference between 'fashion' and 'clothing' - is there a difference?
  • Rolf Snoeren stated “Are we designers or artists? Maybe it’s possible to be both.” Below are definitions for an artist and designer taken from AGSA's Art School in a Box. Create a Venn diagram for artist and designer based on your knowledge and the definitions provided. What qualities overlap and how are they different?
  • Research other art or design collaborations such as Trudy and Sheree Inkamala with their piece Dilly Bags Everywhere! Dress and Dilly Bag (2021). What is the benefit of working collaboratively?
  • Get mean is from Viktor&Rolf’s 2019 runway collection Fashion Statements. Take a look at the other garments in this collection. Design and make an additional fashion statement garment for this collection that would be in keeping with the Viktor and Rolf's aesthetic. For example, is your garment playful? Have you incorporated humour into your design? Is it glamorous or luxurious? Is it over the top? Perhaps you might like to begin with an unconventional silhouette.
  • Viktor&Rolf's haute couture has been defined by exaggerated sculptural forms. Find a sculptural work of art in AGSA's collection, either one on display or using our online collection. Using this work of art as a starting point design a fashion garment inspired by a contemporary sculpture.
  • Design a companion garment for Get mean.

The Gallery’s Learning programs are supported by the Department for Education.

This education resource has been written by Dr. Belinda Howden with activity contributions from Kylie Neagle.