Since the third collaborative collection of Daniëlle Cathari and Woolrich dropped a couple of days ago, we delved into Cathari’s take on the Woolrich woman, her impressive career up till now and her appearance on the Amsterdam Fashion Week schedule.
From NYFW with VFiles to Adidas Posterchild
Cathari already turned heads of a handful of prominent figures in the fashion industry whilst still studying design at Amsterdam Fashion Institute. In 2017, she appeared on the international fashion radar and was the youngest designer to be awarded with the VFiles price. VFiles, the social network that put internet fashion on the map and offered a gateway from elitist designers in 2012, selected Cathari to be part of the VFiles show during New York Fashion Week. She then sent out eight looks made of reconstituted Adidas tracksuits, got an outstanding review from the likes of Vogue, and the rest is history. The designer’s name became synonymous with Adidas Originals, producing multiple collections with Kendall Jenner as her muse.
DC x Amsterdam Fashion Week
In the winter of 2018, Cathari decided to take a step back from the success of her upcycled Adidas tracksuits to develop her namesake label: DC. With the same love for contrasting elements, both on a conceptual level and a design level, her mission to deconstruct fashion as a whole continued within her own brand. DC DROP1 offered a more nuanced take on deconstruction, and captured small details that reflect the designer’s personality. Fast forward to 2020, the Dutch designer made her debut on the Amsterdam Fashion Week schedule. Heavily inspired by mid-century modern design, Cathari gathered a clique of diverse and uber cool characters, to relax in a living room curated to the designer’s taste and accustomed to her design identity. An exemplar of Apartemento Magazine, greenery, and a retro checkerboard, graphic prints that could also be found in the loungewear collection and walls decorated with her famous Adidas tracksuits as a tribute to her beginnings as a designer signified how much the Cathari had grown so far. DC has an identity beyond the initial designs she became so well-known for. Soon after AFW, the DC deconstructed Knit Sweaters became the new it-item, disproving the idea that Cathari was just a one-hit (or in this case design) wonder.
Woolrich x DC
Despite the focus on her own brand, Cathari didn’t completely rule out collaborations, and went on to launch another Adidas Originals capsule collection for the Fall 2019 season, as well as a collab with Italian eyewear brand Retrosuperfuture. In 2020, Cathari announced her biggest partnership since Adidas so far. After visiting outerwear brand Woolrich’s extensive archive in Bologna, Italy, the designer decided to revive The Woolrich Woman and take up an essential position within the brand. Deconstructing and playing with Woolrich’s heritage, Cathari implements her eye for contrasts yet again and explores the boundaries of the classic Woolrich fabrics. After the success of the first Woolrich x DC line, came a second drop, and as of a couple of days ago, an impressive third one.
Season 3 is the most versatile collection yet, showcasing the perfect balance between comfort and cool, night and day. A puffer mini skirt in a chocolate brown colour features distorted quilting and comes with a matching jacket. The same quilting technique is used for an ivory mini dress with a silhouette reminisced of Twiggy-esque 60s fashion. Mohair is used in a new way, to create elbow length soft-yellow gloves, or an asymmetric top with contrasting brown and pink colours. Just as Cathari originally started playing with the context of a tracksuit and its connotations, Season 3 reflects the designer’s ambition to divert and surprise.
