Fashion & Beauty

Viktor & Rolf celebrate 20 years with perfume launch

Over the past two decades, princes of fashion Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren have become known for dancing the fine line between surrealism and femininity.

And this year, on the heels of their brand Viktor & Rolf’s anniversary, the Amsterdam-based designers celebrate with the launch of their latest fragrance, Bonbon, and the opening of their first Parisian flagship.

Viktor & Rolf’s new fragrance Bonbon.Handout

“It started with a friendship and a mutual ambition to really do something at the highest level possible,” Horsting says of the label’s creation in 1993.

Today, the duo has a growing list of A-list fans like Kate Mara and Olivia Munn, and they had editors chomping at the bit when they relaunched their couture label last summer after spending years focusing on ready-to-wear.

“For our 20th anniversary we thought, ‘Let’s not look back, let’s look forward,’ and starting couture again was logical because it is our big love,” Snoeren says. “We save the more conceptual, theatrical approach for couture.”

Kate Mara, Chloe Grace Moretz and Olivia Munn rocking Viktor & Rolf.Getty Images/WireImage/NBC

Theater is exactly what Viktor & Rolf achieved earlier this year with the Paris runway show for the new couture line. The designers cast members of the Dutch National Ballet and draped them in hand-painted, trompe l’oeil latex accoutrements.

“The model is covered in hand-painted bows so her skin becomes like a garment, but at the same time she is naked,” Horsting explains. “We wanted to try to blur the border between skin and clothing. That is why we chose latex.”

Viktor & Rolf Spring/Summer 2014 runway collection.Courtesy of Viktor & Rolf
Viktor & Rolf Spring/Summer 2014 runway collection.Courtesy of Viktor & Rolf

The familiar bow illustration on the smooth-as-skin smocks is the same shape as their new fragrance bottles — turning the runway show into the clever launch of their scent, Bonbon, which is available exclusively at Saks Fifth Avenue.

And as if a new fragrance and couture line weren’t enough, Viktor & Rolf opened their first Parisian flagship boutique in November on the bustling Rue Saint-Honoré.

Pourquoi Paris?

“For us, it is synonymous with fashion,” Horsting says of the City of Light — where they hosted their first-ever unauthorized fashion show in 1998. “Paris is our fashion home.”