Collective Swallow

Who: Anaïs Marti and Ugo Pecoraio founded Collective Swallow, a fashion design collective that adopts a conceptual yet playful approach to fashion design, in 2015.

When: Collection 04 – Restaurant zum Schwälbli, premiered in September 2018 at Mode Suisse Edition 14 in Zurich, is their fourth collection, inspired by idyllic memories of enjoying ice cream in Switzerland.

Where: Marti lives in Bern and works in Basel, where she develops, produces and manages the collections. Pecoraio lives in Berlin where he manages the label’s PR. They met while studying at the FHNW Institute of Fashion Design, Basel.

What: Their Collection 04 is based on the fictitious restaurant “Zum Schwälbli”, situated in the heart of the Swiss landscape and surrounded by green hills. The inspiration comes from the generous coupes of ice-cream served on the sunny terrace among the geraniums by the friendly smiling staff in their cream-coloured costumes.

As with all of their collections, Collective Swallow expands on a specific food culture to create a new ensemble of clothing items. They integrate the rounded volumes of ice-cream coupes, develop marbled prints based on the mixed colours of melting ice-cream, and take their lines from tablecloths and sunshades.

Collective Swallow completed the collection with accessories obtained through collaborations: bags designed together with Simon Burgunder, Basel, and a lip and nail style developed with the Berlin beauty label USLU Airlines.

Although inspired by concepts, all items are intended to be wearable and are produced to a high standard of quality from Swiss-made products. Exceptions such as the logo T-shirt follow state-of-the-art fair-trade labels.

Why: “This emerging Swiss fashion collective asserts that food is all we need to maintain the peace. With design being the tie that binds the two, and food the core of their unity, Ugo Pecoraio and Anaïs Marti take edibles a step forward by basing their designs on the visual and sensory experience of food.” (Glamcult Family Issue / Alejandra Espinosa)