“Inspiration comes from everywhere and everything, simply because beauty can be found in everything and everywhere,” says Götz Offergeld, the founder of OOR Apparel.
“For OOR, youth cultures that impacted my aesthetics in my teenage years like the skateboarding scene, punks, poppers, and left-wing skinheads were a particular source of inspiration.”
Offergeld, who founded OOR – which stands for Off One's Rocker – with an aim of challenging traditional design standards, is speaking to Highsnobiety shortly after showing at Pitti Uomo, the biannual menswear trade show synonymous with tailoring and suiting.
In that sense, OOR, a brand inspired by rebellious subcultures, might not seem like a typical Pitti brand. And while this is arguably the case, it’s something that excited Offergeld even more.
“Pitti [Uomo] happened quite spontaneously,” he tells me. “A client from our creative agency connected us with the person behind the new format “Neudeutsch”, an initiative that functions as a design showcase for Germany-based creatives.
“We are very aware OOR Apparel is not a typical Pitti collection, but that makes it an interesting position to be in that surrounding. It’s something different and it’s a way for people who wouldn’t usually see what we are doing to see it.”
OOR hasn’t always been a fashion label having started out as a publishing house in 2009.
Since then, the brand, which is a collaborative project with art director Mirko Borsche from renowned Bureau Borsche, has dipped its toes into a plethora of different projects, but it wasn’t until more recently that it turned its attention to apparel.
“At some point we started creating stickers and other fun merchandise assets with playful motifs,” Offergeld recalls. “In the end what happened was: those turned out to become the starting point for OOR Apparel.
“I have been navigating the fashion world for over thirty-years as a stylist, consultant and publisher. With OOR Apparel, it’s a 360-degree approach to creativity and a full circle moment for me personally.”
OOR, which presented its Fall/Winter 2024 collection at Pitti, has garnered a reputation for its ability to fuse the unusual.
The brand often brings together creatives and designs from a multitude of disciplines which while at first glance may not seem to go together, blend seamlessly when applied by OOR.
This unique approach stands OOR apart from the rest, Offergeld tells me, something that also ensures the team don’t compare themselves to other brands, but instead carve their own alternate path in the industry.
Offergeld often combines straightforward silhouettes with humorous and fanciful graphics within each of his collections, a concoction he hopes highlights the brand's tongue-in-cheek demeanour, but also showcases its high-end designs.
“The brand and where it comes from creatively provides a unique point of view,” he said.
"I wanted to reinterpret the idea of feeling connected through fashion and, really, I wanted to make a statement with it.”
