“We Have to Elevate How We Make Clothes—Change That and You Can Change Fashion”—Lucas Ossendrijver on His New Theory Project

Despite his luxury credentials, Ossendrijver has always found much of his inspiration on the streets and in resale shops. “I love people watching, but what really got me into fashion was looking at clothes, how they are made.” His rosebud, if you will, was a 1920s jacket he bought at a flea market. “I kind of picked it apart and saw everything inside, but I didn’t understand at the time what it was there for—all these techniques, these stitchings, these hand-done things. And that actually drew me into fashion. I wanted to know how things are made.”

Ossendrijver keeps a large archive of clothes and, to this day, he’s very hands-on. “I like to be able to get into clothes and to use them as material,” he said. Instead of drawing, he’ll make collages and try things on the mannequin or a model, and after that comes the fun part: “then I start playing around and twisting.” Paging through these images, which were photographed by David Sims, he happily talked details. “The men’s jacket is completely unlined with a bit of stretch, so it’s like a cardigan when you wear it.” For women, there’s a t-shirt dress in silk whose sleeves are cut, somewhat unusually, in one piece with the body. “I really wanted ease,” he explained.