Lou de Bètoly: Upcycling as an Art Form

During Berlin Fashion Week, the Berlin-based label opened its showroom as a curated installation with garments, accessories, and handcrafted objects in the same space. Rather than separating fashion from art, the presentation allowed them to exist within one visual language. Alongside the ready-to-wear collection, visitors discovered sculptural accessories and textile objects that reflected the brand's fascination with experimentation, craftsmanship, and reclaimed materials.

Among the highlights was a bridal-inspired couture piece displayed inside a glass case,  sheer lace layered with delicate floral details, presented almost as an artefact rather than simply a garment. It perfectly captured the brand's balance between fragility, precision, and artistic expression.

The presentation naturally continued the ideas introduced during Lou de Bètoly's FW26 showcase at Berlin Fashion Week earlier this year, staged inside the historic Rathaus Schöneberg.

That collection explored repetition as a creative method. Instead of constantly searching for new materials, designer Odély Teboul returned to the same vocabulary she has been building for years: vintage lingerie, lace, knitwear, hosiery, leather, forgotten accessories, and countless flea market finds. Each collection revisits familiar materials, deconstructing and rebuilding them from another perspective.

Broken stockings became delicate surfaces. Hair colour sample cards were transformed into decorative trims. Antique handbags found new life as embellishments. Thousands of buttons collected throughout the designer's childhood, and later sorted with the help of her young daughter, were crocheted into sculptural garments through painstaking handwork.

The previous life of each material remains visible. A worn stocking, an old button, or a piece of lace is never disguised as something new. Instead, every stitch adds another layer to its story, allowing the original object to coexist with its contemporary form.

This is also where Lou de Bètoly expands the conversation around upcycling. Rather than presenting reuse simply as a sustainability statement, reclaimed materials become part of the design language itself. Their imperfections, history, and familiarity are precisely what give the garments their character.

It's perhaps no surprise that artists including Beyoncé, Rosalía, Dua Lipa, and Charli XCX have all worn the label. Yet the appeal goes far beyond celebrity dressing. The longer you look, the more details reveal themselves. Every garment invites a slower kind of viewing.

In an industry driven by constant novelty, Lou de Bètoly reminds us that originality doesn't always begin with new materials. Sometimes it begins by looking at familiar ones differently.