Max Schiller’s current mood is reductionist and “locavore.” It’s present in the raw denim uniforms he created for Carsten Höller’s Brutalisten restaurant in Stockholm (which operates according to a manifesto that just one ingredient is used per dish), and in a more nuanced way in the spring Eytys collection. Tired of the pervasive influence of “perfect” AI imagery, he had the lookbook shot without fanfare on an iPhone in the office and unretouched. Many of the clothes have an easy, worn-in feeling, particularly the washed Echo jeans, which are three times the size of the label’ best selling Benz jeans with a raised waist and a long, exposed button placket that is at once rustic and cool. Other denim styles are more decorative with grommet details or an expressionist patchwork of metallic threads.
The origin of the leather racing jackets and “joyride” tops is as surprising as it is unexpected. Schiller went down a rabbit hole researching the Paris-Dakar Rally after learning on The Crown that Margaret Thatcher’s son Mark went missing in the Saharan desert during the 1982 race. This resulted in the addition of warm colors into a collection that was otherwise rooted in the reality of Swedish life, which is partly defined by seemingly endless winters.
“What I wanted to do this season—and for all the seasons to come, I think— is start in Stockholm and create from and for life in Stockholm. The fact that we’re supposed to do clothes for life in Ibiza, it’s not our lives. I wanted the collection to reflect how we live and how we dress in the months that are internationally known as spring/summer, but [aren’t] for us.” There’s a lot to unpack here, but it seems the brand has abandoned its fascination with “Eurotrash” (the logo on a popular Eytys T-shirt in favor of some Scandi shoegazing (and weather watching).
Eytys debuted as a footwear brand, and Schiller made reference to that when he made a structured blazer out of a woven raffia usually used for shoes. This is an interesting, self-aware development that has the potential to yield results that play to Eytys’ strengths, which are leather and denim plus casual separates (see the pleated khakis and shirts). While Schiller has flirted with being a capital-F fashion label, at core the brand delivers stylish pieces that make up a cool, citified uniform. In a global world the local becomes fetishized, so it would seem that the more Stockholm-ish that Eytys makes its collections, the better. There’s authenticity in a connection to place and lifestyle. If the shoe fits, wear it.
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