OntFront
fall/winter 2009/2010


Music, Tailoring, Youth Culture, and Costume History

The Dutch men’s clothing label Onfront by the designers Tomas Overtoom and Liza Koifman presented the new fall/winter 2009/10 collection "Emperialistic!", inspired by the wardrobe of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia on 24 and 25 January 2009 at Bright in Frankfurt (Germany), and from the 5th to 10th March at the showroom Studio Charlot (an initiative by Gaspard Yurkievich) in Paris.

Liza Koifman (head designer) went back to her Russian roots and has researched on Tsar Nicolas II of Russia who was an iconic figure in the 19th century. She has transferred his obsessive elegance and his taste of made-on-measurement clothing into a collection that mixtures genre and time.

OntFront signature design is expressed best in the brand's slogan 'Sidewalk Tailoring', which means as much as the interaction of alternative youth culture, music, traditional tailoring and historical costumes.

"Emperialistic is a word pun which celebrates the style of Tsar Nicholas II in combination with subtle innovative street fashion elements. Tsar Nicholas II was officially declared saint, but on the other hand carried the nickname ‘Bloody Nicholas’ due to cruel military actions on his behalf." OntFront

fig.: OntFront fall/winter 2009/10. Photo by Philip Hübenthal

OntFront's 'urban Tsar' shows this polarity with refined fabrics and uniform like pattern. He is dressed in rich suit fabrics of grey, anthracite, black and off-white, majestically combined with royal red and deep purple.

The long coats, blazers, trousers, dress shirts, v-necks, baseball jackets and hooded blazers are featuring OntFront signature details which are expressing the label's strong connection to music, such as golden plated 3.5 mini-jack plugs on drawstrings.

OntFront and music

For spring/summer 2009, OntFront has worked on the visualization of 100 years jazz under the title ‘Midnight Sessions’, inspired by the creative atmosphere of the underground jazz scene in the 1920’s fashionoffice.org/design
/2008/ontfront10-2008.htm.

For fall/winter 2008, the label presented the hooded blazer, a mix of street wear (a hood with embroidered headphones and mini jack plugs on the drawstrings) and English tailoring (a fitted quality pin-stripe garment) fashionoffice.org/design/
2008/ontfront5-2008.htm.

Video: In November 2007 OntFront developed the stage concept for the (coffee and cacao label) Senseo party; by youtube.com/user/OntFront.

On the website you will find current and former collections, a webshop, news... www.ontfront.com.


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