NINO BOLLAG

Judging by the hype around the Mayan prediction of our extinction in December 2012 people have been – and probably always will be – fascinated by the idea of the end of the world. The Big End invokes powerful images. We see fire, pain, death, often shaped by Hollywood’s never-ending love story with catastrophic plots: “The Day After Tomorrow”, “2012”, “28 Days Later” and many other movies featuring our last days.
All world’s great religions have some idea about how our meeting with the Grim Reaper will end. It will not be beautiful that is for sure. We would not, for example, wish for the Christian vision of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They bring conquest, war, famine, and death. Overall, it does not look too good for us when the end is nigh. However, and this is the one small silver lining, the concept of the Apocalypse often allows a new start, a purer re-beginning.
It is this positive concept of the new start that concludes the new collection of the fashion designer Nino Bollag. Bollag’s collection contains the three kind of conditions or stages of the apocalypse. The first one represents our present situation: mankind today. Bollag uses classical forms to illustrate it. The second stage is all about the apocalyptic destruction. Here, Bollag takes dark colours, mixed with red, yellow, colours we find in all apocalyptic images. The final stage stands for the new beginning. Although there is a positive connotation in the last stage, with birds flying around in happier, brighter environments, it is mainly man-free. It seems as Bollag thinks we will not make it to the last stage.