VIKTOR & ROLF

Viktor Horsting (1968) and Rolf Snoeren (1969) were born in southern Holland and met at the Arnhem Academy design school in 1988. Their first collection won the grand prize in the competitionSalon européen des jeunes stylistesin Hyères, France, in 1993—their designs were conceptually oriented, with a focus on poking fun at fashion rather than creating wearable fashion. Their 1996 collection was shown entirely on Barbie-size dolls. In 1998, the Groniger Museum in northern Holland not only gave them an art show and funded their firstcoutureshow (inspired by the atomic bomb) but also launched a retrospective of their first five seasons. They were among an elite group ofdesignersto be invited by the prestigious Fédération Française de la Couture to show their fall/winter 1999-2000 collection in France.Their fashion presentations often have been media hyped, such as their couture show in 1999, the Russian Doll Collection, where they placed a model on a turntable and dressed her in nine layers of crystal-studded clothes until she could not move. In 2000, theylicensedtheirready-to-wear, handbags, andfootwearlines to Gibo, the Italian subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Onward Kashiyama, and, in 2001, the duo was hired to design Kashiyama'sbridge sportswearline, International Concept Brand (ICB).

They exhibited a ten-year retrospective at the Museum of Fashion and Textiles at the Louvre in 2003, the same year that they launched theirmenswearline. In 2003, Viktor & Rolf initiated a creative collaboration with actress Tilda Swinton, who not only had become their muse but had also been featured in their runway presentationOne Woman Show. In 2004, Viktor & Rolf partnered with L'Oreal and launched their firstfragrance, Flowerbomb, which was packaged as a pink hand grenade. In 2005, they opened their first store in Milan with an upside-down concept: chandeliers came up from the floor and a floor of oak parquet was on the ceiling. In 2006, they signed with Allegri to design a line of men's and women'souterwearand withH&Mto design a one-time line of menswear,womenswear, andaccessories. They continue to explore the world of avant-garde fashion in their ready-to-wear andhaute couturecollections and are definitely on the radar screens of both the art and fashion worlds.