Akris celebrates its 100th birthday: fashion makes art

Reinhard Voigt (born 1940) sees the world in pixels.

Fashion makes art

By ANKE SCHIPP, JULIA VON DER HEIDE (photos) and MARKUS EBNER (styling)

Reinhard Voigt (born 1940) sees the world in pixels.

09/21/2022 Akris was founded 100 years ago.

Albert Kriemler also works with artists to ensure that the luxury brand from St. Gallen stays up to date.

The first "Woman with Purpose" was a farmer's child from a small village near St. Gallen.

When she was born in 1896, nobody would have thought that Alice Kriemler-Schoch would one day lead the life of a successful woman.

Growing up as the eighth of eleven children without educational opportunities at the beginning of the 20th century, she made it from a simple seamstress to an entrepreneur with remarkable willpower.

In 1922, she had her apron manufacture entered in the St. Gallen commercial register.

Because it was too much trouble for her to embroider her long name on every finished apron, she abbreviated it with her initials and called her company Akris.

For autumn and winter 2022, Albert Kriemler has incorporated the painter's geometric patterns into his personal style grid.

This is how the current design becomes a fashion work of art, formally stringent and crassly colored.

Photo: Pictures Alliance

It's a hot day in St. Gallen.

The collegiate church rises above the old town into the azure sky.

Not far from there, between Kapellengasse and Felsenstraße, is the Akris fashion house, a conglomerate of many small buildings, which also includes the house into which Alice Kriemler-Schoch moved in 1939 with her husband, a sales representative, to give her sewing room more space needed.

The small flower garden on the street that she planted at the time is still looked after and cared for today.

When Albert Kriemler talks about his grandmother, he smiles.

Kriemler is sitting in his studio on the third floor on Felsenstrasse.

You can see the mountains in the distance through the skylight.

There are clothes stands everywhere, drawings for the next collection hang on the wall.

An assistant discreetly places pens, sticky notes and a measuring tape on the white table in the middle.

For Kriemler, his grandmother, the farmer's child, is the symbol of the classic Akris customer, whom he calls "Women with Purpose".

Most of them work, some also celebrities like Princess Charlène of Monaco, actress Angelina Jolie or the former American First Lady Michelle Obama.

"The fact that my grandmother was someone who was convinced of what she was doing was shown by her posture," says Kriemler.

She was still learning English at 60, got her driver's license at 62, and was a member of the first local businesswomen's club.

In an old black-and-white photo, the head of the company has stretched her shoulders back and is looking clearly and boldly into the camera.

Kriemler experienced her strength as a boy when he lived with her for a while.

When his grandmother started work in the morning and quickly put on her apron, that was a signal: I'm ready for the day!

That clarity, will and work ethic are part of Akris' success.

In the 100 years since it was founded, the family business has not only expanded, but also developed from an apron manufacturer into an internationally successful luxury brand.

Today it is men who wield Akris, with similar willpower.

Albert Kriemler as creative director and his brother Peter as managing director took over the company in the 1980s from their father Max, who had switched the business from aprons to ready-made fashion at the right time.

For autumn and winter 2014, Albert Kriemler takes the pictures of Thomas Ruff (born in 1958), who is only two years his senior, to another level of abstraction with photo prints.

But the industry has changed.

In the fashion shark tank, brands that belong to listed luxury groups and have large capital dominate.

Prada, for example, formerly a family company, now a family-owned holding company, has 635 stores around the world under its own management, with 7,200 employees.

Akris has 300 points of sale, including its own stores, and 500 employees.

Unlike the listed companies, Akris lives from fashion and not from accessories and perfumes - with which other brands also reach the mass market.

"We're almost alone today," says Kriemler.

Until recently there were independent brands such as Dries Van Noten, Lanvin and Missoni.

“They were all about the same size as us.

And all three have now been sold in part or in full to investors.

If the family business hadn't existed, Albert Kriemler might have become an architect or he might have studied art history.

But there was another passion, the sensual, which has nothing to do with the intellect.

In conversation, he says that the nature of materials is actually just physics.

Even as a boy, when he disappeared for hours in the company's fabric store, he was already dealing with different physical states, with the cool feel of silk, the crackling of crepe fabric, the softness of cashmere.

He was not yet an adult when Kriemler discussed the different qualities of doubleface with fabric suppliers, the fabric that gives his jackets and coats their lightness because it makes the lining superfluous.

He later accompanied his parents on trips to Paris,

where they attended fabric fairs or couturiers such as Hubert de Givenchy, for whom Akris created prêt-à-porter collections for a number of years.

Even today, Kriemler takes thick folders with him on longer flights when he is thinking about the next collection.

He is concerned with researching the material, developing new techniques and finding the optimal material.

Kriemler does not conform to the cliché of a fashion designer, he is not extroverted and does not seek the limelight.

He speaks in a soft voice, is reserved, and formulates as thoroughly as he thinks.

Every step the company takes, forward or backward, is carefully considered.

Kriemler knew early on that he wanted to show Akris fashion in Paris.

He likes to tell the story of how he first applied to the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode in the 1990s.

"Quoi?

Akris?

Je connais pas,” said the then president and declined to deal with the application of the small Swiss company.

Kriemler did not give up and applied again a few years later when Didier Grumbach became the new president of the fashion chamber.

You were immediately sympathetic.

But it took another five years before a date was available in the show calendar that was worth it from Kriemler's point of view.

The first show was an instant success.

Buyers and journalists were enthralled by the understated luxury that Americans had discovered the year before, when Bergdorf Goodman's powerful chief buyer, Robert Burke, displayed Akris in the shop windows.

The Swiss set out to conquer the USA like hardly any other European brand.

Color blocking by Cuban-American artist Carmen Herrera (1915-2022) shows through minimally on the green lapels in the Akris Spring/Summer 17 look.

Photographs from the garden by Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925–2006) were staged by Albert Kriemler as a digitally altered print for spring and summer 2009.

Many well-heeled American customers don't just buy Akris models to look good at the next dinner or to be perfectly dressed for the board meeting.

Akris models are also collector's items, intended to last for decades in the walk-in closet and pulled out again and again like a good bottle of wine.

The fact that his models are collectibles is also due to an almost brilliant idea that Kriemler had shortly after showing his fashion in Paris for the first time.

"I knew we had to have a message," he says today.

"Just sending wearable clothes down the catwalk is not enough."

But what gives a piece of clothing depth?

Kriemler remembers that day in Winterthur, when he saw photos by the Italian artist Giorgio Morandi in the art museum and was fascinated by the pastel-colored still lifes, over which lay a strange haze.

It was then that he had the idea of ​​trying to translate this haze into fabric.

And he did that in 2004 by layering chiffon, crepe and organza on top of each other.

"Every interaction with an artist triggers something different for me and leads to very different creations."

Albert Kriemler

Today, collaborating with artists has become a hallmark of Akris.

Also because Kriemler is serious about the cooperation.

Ever since Yves Saint Laurent's Mondrian dresses, art has been a popular tool in fashion to attract attention and set itself apart from the mass market.

For many brands, it's a form of better marketing.

For Kriemler, it's about more than just attention.

Not only is he inspired by artists, since 2005 he has also been collaborating with them on a regular basis.

They are a kind of catalyst for him to get ahead in his fashion.

"Every interaction with an artist triggers something different for me and leads to very different creations," he says.

And when he talks about how he transforms a certain image or photograph into a fabric, what digital technology he uses or how complicated it was to recreate a staircase by garden artist Ian Hamilton Finlay in the drape of a dress, you could mistake him for a scientist, looking for the right formula.

“The difference between the artist and the designer is that we make something that has a purpose.

That doesn't mean we're less creative."

Two things make it easier for Kriemler to work with artists.

On the one hand, he can put his ego so far behind that he leaves at least part of the stage to the artist.

On the other hand, he has the self-confidence not to feel inferior to the artist as a designer.

He knows how to classify himself: “The difference between the artist and the designer is that we make something that is supposed to serve a purpose.

That doesn't mean we're less creative."

The basic requirement: the artist must be able to allow a new version of his art to be found in Kriemler's textile works.

A lot also depends on whether the chemistry is right.

“Human relationships always play a role.

Fashion is about people, I'm convinced of that.” This is where another of Kriemler's talents comes into play: he can get involved with people, listen to them and, in his friendly manner, discuss with them until the result is satisfactory for both sides.

He does that every day with his team.

And he does the same with the artists.

"My collaboration with Thomas Ruff was very intensive, we saw each other every month," he says.

The two had been friends for a long time.

"We celebrated our ten years at Paris Fashion Week with a parade,

Once a month he drove to Düsseldorf with sketches and fabrics to discuss the drafts with the photo artist.

They became a close-knit team.

Together with Ruff, he perfected the photo prints for the autumn-winter 2014 collection and created spectacular dresses and coats that were completely printed with Ruff's slightly blurred photos.

"It is important that evolution takes place, otherwise the surprise that is so important today does not take place."

Sometimes a collaboration comes about by accident.

Like in 2016, when he stood in front of a white diptych with a green triangle in the newly opened Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, in the style of abstract geometry.

Two distinctive white areas side by side with a green arrow-shaped triangle.

The picture of Carmen Herrera from the "Blanco y Verde" series fascinated him because it was from 1959. "You have to imagine that," he enthuses to this day, "green and white were the colors in the fifties, when all the Doris- Loved Day Pastel.” Kriemler didn't know the artist. He asked his friend, the director of the Whitney Museum, Adam Weinberg, and found out that the Cuban-born artist was 101 years old and lived in New York.

Kriemler asked for the phone number

called her and two days later she was in her loft near Union Square.

"We liked each other right away," he says today about meeting the old lady, who sold her first painting at the age of 89 and was only then celebrated as a pioneer of abstract geometry in exhibitions.

Today he calls it "one of the most exciting experiences as a fashion designer" to have translated the strict linearity of Herrera's art into clothes.

Kriemler, the philanthropist, kept in touch with Herrera until her death last February and sent her birthday flowers every year.

who had sold her first painting at the age of 89 and was only then celebrated as a pioneer of abstract geometry in exhibitions.

Today he calls it "one of the most exciting experiences as a fashion designer" to have translated the strict linearity of Herrera's art into clothes.

Kriemler, the philanthropist, kept in touch with Herrera until her death last February and sent her birthday flowers every year.

who had sold her first painting at the age of 89 and was only then celebrated as a pioneer of abstract geometry in exhibitions.

Today he calls it "one of the most exciting experiences as a fashion designer" to have translated the strict linearity of Herrera's art into clothes.

Kriemler, the philanthropist, kept in touch with Herrera until her death last February and sent her birthday flowers every year.

The recent artistic collaboration for the Fall/Winter 2022 collection was another stroke of luck.

By chance he came across an old correspondence with a curator who had told him about an exhibition in Zurich with an artist.

Kriemler didn't know him and did his research: Reinhard Voigt, born in 1940, lived in New York for a long time and has been back in Berlin for a few years.

"I was immediately fascinated by the pixelated oil paintings, his precision in painting and the incredible sense of color." Voigt, who had been making this raster art since the 1960s and got involved with computer games early on, was immediately willing to collaborate.

So the two met regularly on the Berlin-St.

gall.

The work with the artists thrives on exchange, just like the daily work with his design team.

Even with a simple sleeve there are countless discussions.

These are important processes, says Kriemler.

How do the seams look?

Quilted or not quilted?

Pads on the shoulders or not?

"It's important that evolution takes place, otherwise the surprises that are so important today won't happen." Sometimes that takes energy.

But he also learns from setbacks.

"I'm of the opinion that if everything goes well, it's dangerous.

The most difficult moments are when it just rolls, then you become superficial and don’t look so closely anymore, then mistakes happen.”

The richness of Thomas Ruff's work is the basis of an incredibly diverse Akris collection for autumn and winter 2014. One of the German photo artist's “Substrate” images can be seen in the background of this look with a photo print of an abstract starry sky.

His team is important to him.

There are employees who have been with us for more than 30 years.

"Akris is Akris because it's made here in the house.

The people who implement this with me are the foundation of the house,” he says seriously.

“I have trouble with the egomania that is often lived in fashion.

Any designer is only as good as their studio.”

For his next collection, which he will present again in Paris in October after a two-year Corona break, as a homage to 100 years of Akris, he went into the archive and looked at his first designs from the eighties and nineties.

In this collection he is, so to speak, his own source of inspiration.

It's about old patterns and old fabrics, but also how to change them so that they end up looking modern.

Kriemler is a seeker who always pushes things further.

Which he can also do because his brother Peter, who takes care of the business, gives him free rein.

He doesn't hide the fact that a cold wind is blowing in the industry.

"Life isn't easy as a small, independent company among the big ones." He cites the search for new sales locations as an example.

"If we try to do business in a mall in China, we're happy if we get a seat somewhere on the second floor." Global players like Chanel, Hermès, Prada and Louis Vuitton get the best seats.

"But," he adds: "Fortunately, there are always landlords who like us." And they grant Akris a place in the front row.

Being different, exclusive, not interchangeable, coming from Switzerland, standing for quality: that is what makes Akris something special in the fashion world.

If you buy Akris, you don't buy frills.

This is also due to the fact that tranquil St. Gallen, 738 kilometers from Paris, ensures that you don't get carried away.

Arrogance and daydreams have no place here.

With all the creativity, calculations are also made here.

It is not yet clear who will take over from the fourth generation, perhaps one of Peter Kriemler's children.

In the meantime, Albert Kriemler will start every day as energetically as his grandmother.

Julia von der Heide

Markus Ebner

Adrienne Jüliger

Thanks to the Düsseldorf Art Academy

Campaign for used clothes in Uganda Return to sender

Fran Lebowitz "No one asked me about it, I'll say...