August 3, 2021 |
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, the 2000s are back, and in a big way. Once beloved names like Juicy Couture, Miss Sixty and Baby Phat have all returned to the youthful orbit of Gen Z by way of TikTok and Urban Outfitters, but it’s trucker brand Von Dutch which has truly come in swinging.
Now vetted by the likes of Travis Scott, Megan Thee Stallion and Kylie Jenner, the brand was a mainstay of early-aughts red carpets and camera-filled Starbucks runs, recognised globally for its mid-riff showing denim and logo-obsessed accessories. After sitting out the better part of a decade, the old-school brand has since recalibrated and is now well on its way to luxury fashion domination – enter Koché.
The young French fashion house, headed up by Christelle Kocher, has made a name for itself by mixing the worlds of haute couture and streetwear into streamlined tracksuits and baggy outerwear, making the brand an ideal fit for Von Dutch’s rebirth.
“Christelle and I met at a Drake concert at the Acord Arena,” says Von Dutch’s executive director of design, Earl Pickens, having originally spotted the designer’s impeccably dressed boyfriend out of a sea of 25,000 people. “I noticed a guy wearing an amazing coat so I went and asked who made it, he said ‘It’s my girlfriend Christelle Kocher, and she is just next to me.’ Ironically, six months earlier I had a list of five women designers I wanted to work with, and she was on the list.”
The opportunity gave Kocher a chance to indulge in the best bits of her own childhood, reminiscing on stealing her older brother’s own Von Dutch pieces that in turn offered the designer a tangible slice of what noughties pop culture had to offer. “Von Dutch sounded so exotic to me, growing up in the cold East part of France,” Kocher shares, “it represented a kind of iconic, pop, Hollywood dream and allowed us all to feel a part of the energy, hysteria and glam of ’00’s California.”
Anna Nicole Smith
Missy Elliott
Gwen Stefani
Jay-Z
Paris Hilton
Justin Timberlake 
Courtney Love
Britney SpearsCelebrities wearing Von Dutch
It’s exactly this infectious spirit Kochér hopes to capture with her capsule, breathing a new lease of life into the brand’s iconic bowling bags, embroidered crop tops, and, of course, signature caps. “There is something quite innocent if you think back to this golden era,” Kocher shares of the collaboration, themed around Von Dutch’s own Phoenix-like rise from the ashes.
Across mesh shirts, sleek black It bag’s that’d pair well with any outfit, or the perfect cap to shield a bare-faced A-lister from those pesky paparazzi, Koché’s capsule is the future of Von Dutch, one that lies in the beauty of collaboration rather than resting on laurels of nostalgia. And we, for one, can’t wait to see where they take things next.
Photography courtesy of Koché. Shop the collection on August 15 here.
