Christa Bösch

Christa Bösch is a Swiss-born designer and the co-founder of the Berlin-based label Ottolinger, established in 2015. She met her creative partner, Cosima Gadient, while studying at the Basel School of Design, where they began to develop their disruptive and avant-garde approach to fashion. As a finalist for the LVMH Prize, Bösch has been recognized for her role in challenging the conventions of luxury through her label’s raw and experimental aesthetic.

Based in Berlin, she has cultivated an independent spirit that values artistic experimentation over commercial conformity. Her work is celebrated for its high-energy, DIY sensibility and its ability to transform mundane materials into complex pieces of wearable art. Bösch remains a key figure in the contemporary fashion landscape, representing a new wave of designers who embrace imperfection and industrial rawness.

'Punk couture' and the deliberate use of destructive tailoring dictate the structural output of the work. The design method involves the hand-processing of materials through heat-treatment, acid-washing, and burning to create raw, eroded textures that challenge the sleekness of traditional luxury. Silhouettes are defined by asymmetrical draping and the use of exposed seams and frayed edges, which serve to deconstruct the idea of the 'finished' garment. The focus remains on the visceral and labour-intensive nature of production.

Structural signals are found in the irregular, almost biological forms that result from the manipulation of fabric under duress. This approach rejects conventional notions of sex appeal in favour of a more confrontational and industrial aesthetic. By prioritising the tactile quality of the materials and the evidence of the designer’s hand, the work fosters a visual language of rebellious non-conformity. The resulting designs create a tension between the delicate and the destroyed, forcing a re-evaluation of what constitutes beauty and craftsmanship in a modern context.