Fashion designers and architects each proffer aesthetic pleasure while satisfying fundamentally functional and practical needs for shelter and clothing. But the best of them elevate basic needs to the divine level of art. Nina Stotler’s applauded new collection of silver and gold hardware-inspired jewellery for her Von Kottwitz line might not have any more use-value than other decorative wardrobe details. But they brilliantly highlight the value of use.
For Stotler, the essentials of her line are derived from her remembrances of Berlin’s ravaged but stately and sleek architecture, which she saw as a child visiting her mother’s native country and the site where her parents met. Von Kottwitz, named after Stotler’s mother’s maiden name, was founded in 2004, four years after Stotler graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied sculpture and we met one another. Since then, she has worked as a trend-spotter with Peclers Paris trend network, and she currently serves as the Youth Culture Editor of Stylesight.com while also acting as an editor at Anthem magazine. Here we re-connect to talk about the inner mechanics of her industrial aeasthetic.

How has your thinking shifted from collection to collection?
Nina Stotler: I began with a much more baroque feeling, a feminine and vintage look based on found objects and embellishment. After working with burnished metals and classical signifiers like cameos, I moved on to a collection focused on oversized crystals and heavy metals called the Galaxy Collection. From there, I took the heavier, metallic aspects in a more functional direction with Industry, my latest work.
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