Conversation with Albert Kriemler

Akris is based in St. Gallen – a small city of Switzerland with a great tradition of embroidery. How does this affect Akris today?

“I work intensively with St. Gallen’s embroidery. St. Gallen is still the city of world-renowned embroidery, and to be able to work with these archives is a great advantage”

The St. Gallen embroidery is definitely a trademark of our own collections. Switzerland is known for its craftsmanship and quality, but I think it’s very important to realize that quality alone is not enough. The fact that we are Swiss was decided by our grandmother who founded our company here in St. Gallen. I’m very proud to be Swiss and I think it’s great that we market our collections out of St. Gallen and to the whole world; but it really is something like a family accident! Nowadays people don’t ask anymore where you come from, but rather what you do. This is today’s advantage.

You dedicated an entire collection to the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron. What inspired you?

“Surface has been a big theme for Herzog & de Meuron for years. When you work on a surface, things get quickly heavy, chunky, and voluminous; nobody wants that today”

We need to create a surface in another way. Herzog & de Meuron are fabulous architects, and their facades are very important in their creative process. They’ve worked on facades in an important way over the last ten years. There are a lot of highly interesting constructions and super positions but also great visual impressions that were inspiring in the fabric development of that season. It has been a major collection for us.

What is your relationship with Zurich?

“As a small city, Zurich is one of the most cosmopolitan, German-speaking cities in Europe”

It has an excellent culture and a high standard of life. Akris has a strong relationship with this city: we have about 86 people working in our atelier in Zurich. Many of my collections are there. All the important evening dresses, double face jackets and coats; the leathers, and cashmeres; as well as nearly all dresses are developed in Zurich. I love to go there.