02 Mar 2021
Autumn/Winter 2021 pays tribute to Bally’s remarkable 170-year heritage of excellence in design and leather craftsmanship, which first began in Switzerland in 1851.
Through a multitude of inspirations from modern art, architecture and the environment, the new season collection explores the consistent and continuous techniques that have come to define Bally for generations, fusing modern utility with unexpected layering. What results is a timeless yet timely range of functional sartorial styles for today’s world.
House icons are further reinterpreted, like the Bally Stripe, streamlined through a raised bombe? technique, while the 1851 symmetrical hardware graces across footwear and accessories. A celebratory monogram, created especially for the anniversary by Offshore, a Swiss graphic studio, features the signature B-Chain interlocked ad infinitum, purposefully resembling shoelaces as a creative nod to Bally’s founding as a shoemaker.
The designs also stay true to the brand’s mountain heritage, expressed through its support of early expeditions around the world, from the Himalayas to the Andes of Peru. Two particular climbing expeditions to the Cordillera, led by France’s Lionel Terray and Switzerland’s Raymond Lambert in 1956 and 1957, respectively, inspired consummate hiking boots with a recreated take on the Grip sole, produced by Bally since the 1940’s. A nouveau Bally red evokes the rich and variegated landscape of Rainbow Mountain in Peru and Laguna Colorada in Bolivia. From the Swiss Alps, native forget-me-nots get abstracted into graphic, cellular prints, as a warm, earthy color palette features bone, ebony and deep moss.
Integrating the city and the outdoors, raw forms are contoured and shaped with a contemporary take on tailoring, while reconstituted leathers morph into beguiling silhouettes; natural dyes meet alpaca yarns, making each piece singular and unique.
An homage to Bally’s legacy in the making, A/W 2021 is an innovative continuum of Swiss craft, culture and design honoring past, present and future codes.
