In partnership with Akris
Founded in the seventh century, the Swiss city of St. Gallen is home to ancient monasteries and cathedrals, intricate embroidery, and colourfully painted oriel windows. The canton capital is also the inspiration for Akris’ Fall/Winter 2021 collection, a subtle homage to regional roots and local savoir-faire.
St. Gallen has been at the creative epicentre and beating heart of Akris since the brand was launched in 1922 by Alice Kriemler-Schoch, making and selling simple polka-dot aprons.
Current Akris creative director Albert Kriemler – Alice’s grandson – has spent the past three and half decades building a maison committed to quality, practicality, precision tailoring and fine craftsmanship.
Albert Kriemler honours St. Gallen
A city native, Kriemler conceived the St. Gallen Embroidery and Vintage Map Print for the new collection. The city’s rich heritage, a source of infinite reference and reinterpretation for Akris, is given modern verve and a contemporary, easy-going appeal by the new print.
The Akris Fall/Winter 2021 collection, a celebration of the Swiss house’s impending centennial, made its debut on a specially installed catwalk in St. Gallen.
‘To have a show staged at my own doorstep, my hometown of St. Gallen, seemed only natural to me,’ says Kriemler. ‘It was the first notion that came to my mind while designing this collection, and a leitmotif that let me play with everything that is at the core of the house.
‘The coat, the jacket. The double-face, the embroidery, the knit. The Trapezoid, and the letters spelling: A-K-R-I-S-,’ he continues (referencing the house’s signature trapezoid detail, derived from the letter A, and the brand name, which comes from the letters of his grandmother’s name).
‘St. Gallen, the embroidery city, is renowned for its exquisite fabrics,’ Kriemler says. ‘A textile-excellence cluster that started with the monks weaving linen in the late Middle Ages.
‘Each look in this collection holds an embroidery item. With it I want to celebrate the spirit of St. Gallen, this unique city that defines Akris.’
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