The 2000s collaborations you may have forgotten The four-handed collections that made their mark

Brand collaborations are by now a constant in the fashion industry, with an increasing number of projects joining forces of two or more very different realities. The main aim of these collabs, in addition to a commercial success well hoped for, is for each respective brand or designer to reap benefits such as a broadening of its target audience and the expansion to a different audience. This trend has spread so much that it has also involved luxury brands; just think of the collections of Gucci and Balenciaga, Fendi and Versace, or again, albeit in a more subtle way and without major announcements, Dries Van Noten and Christian Lacroix. But many creative unions go back many years, when although they had great commercial success, they had not been so publicised as to go completely unnoticed by the general public. The examples are numerous, as is the dutiful distinction between cases that have seen their fame grow exponentially and those that, on the other hand, have interested only a very few insiders and true enthusiasts.

In closing this collection of "collabs before collabs", a reflection is in order. Looking at all these examples with the awareness that we have today, the idea that two or more brands might have chosen to join creative forces for a four-handed collection may seem almost obvious, but if instead we pause to consider the temporal context in which this took place, the obviousness is no longer so obvious. In those years this type of move was absolutely strategic and allowed the various brands to impress their audience thanks to the uniqueness that accompanied these launches, despite the fact that back then the hype phenomenon was yet to present itself to the same degree we are witnessing it now, when collaborations has become an almost seasonal, if not monthly, practice.