Simon Cracker presented the Slow collection during the latest edition of Lineapelle Designers Edition (26–28 February), proving itself to be much more than just a brand. It is an evolving universe, a space brimming with people, energy and hands that are turning the concept of deadstock on its head and reinventing it. Simone Botte founded it in 2010 as an instinctive gesture: breaking down materials, dismantling them, and recreating them in new forms. Today, he tells us about his project
by Domenico Casoria
A raw, almost primitive approach, which over the years has transformed into a creative hub inhabited by photographers, illustrators and artists united by a shared vision. A crew, a small tribe that lives together and dresses people as a natural, everyday, essential act. The new collection by Simon Cracker, alias Simone Botte, emerges as the final chapter in a story that tells the brand’s story from the inside. A story whose common thread is a revised and refined vision of the concept of deadstock.
The Simon Cracker method
Even whilst showing on the official Camera Moda calendar, Botte feels the need to return to his roots, to realign what defines Simon Cracker: slowness, irony, freedom. In January, he had shown the calm side of the process, that ‘counting to ten’ that belongs to those who follow the project with dedication. The latest show at Lineapelle Designers Edition was a collective endeavour. A reminder of why one chooses this incredibly fortunate profession. In a world where twenty-somethings panic at the sight of a seam, he prefers to remember that clothes are made.
And that whole life revolves around clothes. That is why he chose his aunts as the inspiration and dedication for this collection. Because they are pivotal figures in his life, with the clothes that have always accompanied them and that have sparked his imagination. Amidst the folds of those family wardrobes, leather emerges as a material that endures, that transcends time.
Choosing the imperfect
An approach the designer has always pursued. By touching it, observing it. And a philosophy: choosing the imperfect, delving into deadstock and unsold stock, accepting the risk of losing control. At Lineapelle, he experimented with weights and thicknesses that turned his volumes on their head. He transformed leathers that were too light, as he always does: taking what others discard. One of a kind, certainly, but with patterns that allow for imperfect reproducibility. A lesson in desire: to love things more, to free them from the compulsion of easy order. Leather regenerates endlessly, and the collection features pieces from 2018 re-dyed with electric shades, graffiti that shifts in tone just as people do.
The dirty side
And when we ask him for an image to describe Simon Cracker, he tells us “interestingly grungy”. In other words, the stain that becomes a pattern, the flaw that transforms into a motif, the hole that becomes a story. His background as a graphic designer resurfaces in the screws, in the cable ties he uses to hold the lapels of a jacket together, in a raw approach that glues and assembles. It is the crack in the cracker: the fracture that opens up possibilities. Having been in fashion for years, Botte continues to champion slowness.
Without the pretence of pleasing at first glance. And then the more intimate side. Long known for his graffiti, his style changed following an accident involving his hand. Harsher, denser, more personal. Drawings that look one thing from a distance and another up close. He used to graffiti clothes to create movement; now he graffiti the models’ legs directly before they step onto the catwalk. A more mature vision of creativity. Through which he has returned to the essence: telling his own stories, of the people he meets, of the streets he walks. Grimy, DIY fairy tales. Because that is what Simon Cracker is: a place where the discarded becomes destiny, where fragility becomes strength. The revenge of the freaks.
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