Cottweiler returns to Pitti Uomo with Italian label Allegri

By

Dominique Muret

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Nov 27, 2018

Cottweiler is going back to Pitti Uomo after a first collaboration with Reebok, presented as a special project at the Florentine menswear show’s January 2017 edition. The uber-cool British menswear label designed by Ben Cottrell and Matthew Dainty will feature at Pitti Uomo 95, showcasing a collaboration with long-established Italian raincoat specialist Allegri.

For the collection, the designer duo has created 10 raincoats inspired by the deep sea and its underwater world. As usual with Cottweiler, the items blend high-tech functional sportswear rich in sophisticated details, in this case borrowed from scuba diving gear, with a tailored style which, in this collection, is expressed through traditional trench-coat cuts.

Tech innovation plays its part too, with detachable thermal lining combined with specifically treated fabrics, as the label indicated in a press release. Allegri raincoats are going futuristic.

Ben Cottrell and Matthew Dainty were finalists at the LVMH Prize in 2016, won the Woolmark Prize, in 2017, and are still moving onwards and upwards. For the second consecutive year, Cottweiler has been nominated for the British Fashion Council’s Fashion Awards 2018 in the British Emerging Talent Menswear category. The award ceremony will be held on December 10.

Cottweiler was a big hit with the audience last June in London, staging a highly appreciated show steeped in a fascinating New Age mood. The starting point was a sombre colour palette which morphed into sheer, sun-coloured outfits made with virtually weightless fabrics.

The show was held at the Rambert Building, home to the eponymous London dance company. Cottweiler then went on to create all the costumes for the dancers in the latest show by Rambert2, a new ensemble set up in partnership by Rambert, the oldest British dance company, and the Rambert School.

On the collaborations front, besides working with Allegri, Cottweiler will also team up with Reebok again. A Cottweiler X Reebok ready-to-wear line will soon be launched for the Spring/Summer 2019, and Cottrell and Dainty are also working with Reebok to design the footwear models they will present at the forthcoming Cottweiler show for the Autumn/Winter 2019-20.

Cottweiler’s sophisticated, avant-garde sportswear, driven by innovation and new fabric research, has enabled the label founded in 2012 to win over 45 top multibrand retailers, like Le Printemps in Paris, Dover Street Market and Opening Ceremony in the USA, and Antonia in Milan. Cottweiler’s main markets are the USA, Italy, China, South Korea, and Japan, the first overseas country to believe in the label’s potential.