Karoline Vitto is the designer, as her Instagram bio aptly puts it, “accentuating the curves and celebrating the folds”. While many designers see bodies as passive objects from which to hang clothes, Vitto “places the body in the centre of the design process.” Stretch fabrics are draped and cut to reveal hips, thighs, and stomachs, and features which are traditionally smoothed and hidden are framed and dissected by undulating metal frames.
Born in Brazil, Vitto found her visual language after moving to London to study at Central Saint Martins, taking contorted mirror selfies to accentuate her body’s folds and creases, as Dazed explored earlier this year. Although the designer opened her studio in 2020, her SS23 Fashion East show was her first official fashion week collection, and it was undoubtedly one of the standouts, spotlighted by publications internationally.
With models including Precious Lee, Paloma Elsesser, and fellow Dazed100er Alva Claire stepping out in her designs both off and on the runway, and the likes of Shygirl and Jojo Todynho sporting her creations on stage, Vitto has a proven track record of making sculptural yet wearable fashion. Plus, with e-commerce up and running on a pre-order model in sizes from UK8-28, Vitto has found that rare, sweet spot between the conceptual and the commercial.
Text Sophie Benson
