ANTIK BATIK - 30 NEVER LOOKED SO GOOD

Autumn 1992 - September 2022, ANTIK BATIK is celebrating its 30th anniversary with an exclusive, limited edition capsule collection designed especially by founder and Creative Director of Antik Batik, Gabriella Cortese. She has delved deep into the brand’s wardrobe and reimagined the Maison’s iconic pieces: the Afghan gilet, the sequinned dresses, embroidered tunics and jackets, quilted two-pieces, all mixed and matched. Flowers, sequins, and sheer fabrics are the signature style of this brand renowned since 1992 for its hippy chic style. To celebrate this birthday, 10 new pieces will be available to purchase online from September onwards at antikbatik.com and in the Paris boutique at number 19, Rue des Minimes in the very Parisian area of the Marais.

Antik Batik has skipped delicately through the decades, dancing to the rhythm of brand Creative Director Gabriella Cortese. Gabriella, from Turin, was quick to leave her hometown Turin for Paris, where she became a dancer at the very well-known Paris cabaret The Crazy Horse under the name of “Drama Tanagra”. She then made her way to the East. Following in the footsteps of Alexandra David-Neel, the Beatles, Bruce Chatwin and Hermann Hesse, she discovered Nepal, Afghanistan, and Tibet before settling in India. Gripped by the whirlwind of vital, invigorating activity in the towns and villages, she met artists who had huge enthusiasm for crafting by hand and using their know-how to adapt, transform, and invent. As the 90s dawned she left for Bali and took to wearing Balinese pareos. She then reinvented them as evening dresses decorated with brooches and gold belts. Gabriella decided to draw them and design them, so she could bring them back to our shores. They became a huge trend. The fashion world went wild; women loved them immediately. This was the first chapter of Antik Batik’s story. It was 1992.

Embroidered pieces and sequinned and sheer prints followed in their wake, all hand-made in collaboration with arti- sans in India, Bulgaria and Peru. As she always used the same collaborators, over time Gabriella became both friends and partners with them.

Gabriella’s credo: Her style and her way of working are rooted in her history and what it comprises: travel and its promise of uncharted faraway lands, and skilled crafting. Gabriella trusts her intuition and believes in her capacity to bring those things into her world, to remain constantly curious, and forever shake things up. See you in September!