Osklen

The fashion world is in constant change, brands and designers come and go, there is a search for the new, beautiful and contemporary. Something old can become new again and sometimes there is a breeze, providing a fresh look. This phenomena came from South America, and its named Osklen.

Oskar Metsavaht is the creator and head of the brand since its creation in 1989. Born in Caxias do Sul, south of Brazil, in a family of doctors, he followed the same path. In his early twenties, Oskar moved to Rio de Janeiro, the country’s most famous landscape.

Rio has a unique lifestyle, people go to the beach after work, practice sports and so on.

He was easily adapted to that kind of life.

Passionate for adventure, in 1986 he was invited to go on a climbing expedition to the Aconcagua, America’s highest mountain. The group realized there weren’t athletic clothing in Brazil for that kind of environment, so Metsavaht created the Storm Tech System, a fabric permeable to transpiration, very resistant to the cold and a couple of jackets were made. When he came back, he made a few others for friends, but the brand would only be born three years later, when Oskar came back from another climbing trip, this time to Mont Blanc.

He got in touch with some French designers, and decided to enter the fashion world. Osklen’s first store was opened in Buzios, Rio de Janeiro, offering a winter sportswear collection. It seemed like a strange idea to open a snow coats store in a place full of beaches but he realized that the people who visited that part of the country was the same who traveled abroad to places with snow. There was a gap in the market.

The success of the store in Buzios led to the opening of a second one in 1991 in Sao Conrado, also in Rio de Janeiro. This time the collection was inspired by snowboarding, with textiles of high technology. After winning Rio Sul Award for best sportswear brand, Osklen gained notoriety with Brazilian journalists and fashionistas.

The first surf wear collection was made and throughout the 1990’s there were several expeditions to places like the Amazon, Alasca, Nepal and Africa; and events promoted by the brand and Metsavaht, formulating what would become Osklen’s DNA.

He was invited by Chrysler to design a limited Osklen edition of the Jeep Cherokee, and he introduced a women’s ready-to-wear collection in 1997.

The Brazilian Soul concept was created in 2001 when Oskar was invited by Coca-Cola Company and Andy Warhol’s Foundation to reinterpretate some of the artist’s famous Pop Art work. He was free to interfere with images, introducing some elements of Brazilian culture, such as flowers, coconut tree and waves.

Two years later the brand became a part of Sao Paulo Fashion Week, with the presentation of the collection Surfing the Mountains. The first store out of Brazil was opened in that same year in Portugal and the brand continued to grow.

When people think about Osklen, they think about Brazil, and that’s why it’s a phenomena. It’s the ability not only to create, but inspire something new and innovating. Colors, shapes, materials, ropes, stripes and Ipanema sidewalk, all together showing not only a lifestyle, but a choice of life. It’s a mirror for what people want to be, the kind of life they want to pursue.

The brand is also very aware of the environment and is always searching for organic and recycled materials. Osklen has showrooms and stores in the main cities of Brazil and they are also represented in Portugal, Italy, France, Spain, USA, Japan, Greece and Switzerland.

It’s the perfect mix of casual, comfort and easiness, with sophistication, chic and cool.

The man behind the brand

Oskar hasn’t studied fashion and he says his inspiration comes from a scene, or a story, or something that he has lived. From that atmosphere he creates a mind movie, and the clothing is the costume for that movie. He isn’t afraid of changing and playing with shapes, drawings and deconstructing the body’s silhouette.

He has the lifestyle the brand represents, surfs in Ipanema, climbs in the Alpes, develops the fashion collections and travels to the Amazon. He is always connected to the city, nature, sports and experimentation.