Last weekend I visited the Swiss design fair in&out, in Aarau, Switzerland, which tags itself as "die grösste und wichtigste Trendmesse und Verkaufsausstellung für Schweizer Design" or "the largest and most important trend fair and sales venue for Swiss design." Founded in 2006, it takes place in a small but typically picturesque Swiss town. I kept my expectations in check, having been underwhelmed at previous design fairs, including some in New York; but what I found was quite impressive.
As it turns out, Aarau is about equidistant from three major cities, Basel, Bern, and Zurich. In this way, the positioning of the fair as a gathering place makes a lot of sense; and many of the designers hailed from these creative hot spots.
in&out proved to be a very notable venue, particularly for small independent labels and -- very exciting for me -- a place where sustainability was widely embraced. Moreover, there was a deep shared appreciation for craftsmanship and natural materials. What struck me as well, was the level of sophistication in terms of product and brand promotion: staging, literature, and presentation was clean and modern.
Products included hand-woven shawls and scarves, fashion and jewelry lines, handbags and small leather goods, furniture, and houseware items. Most of the designers and brand owners I spoke with were working with regionally sourced materials and either managing production on their own or managing it locally. The products were almost universally well-executed. I imagine credit for this goes in part to the founders and presumed curators, Brigitte Hürzeler and Maja Baumann, who started off as designers themselves.
An average consumer, used to mass-market purchases, might think the prices a bit steep. For example a color-blocked, hand-woven merino wool scarf from Beatrix Wyser that I found lovely, and am wearing in the photo at left, retailed for CHF 320 or about $350 USD. Considering the unusual amount of care that goes into production (and being intimately familiar with the time investment required for hand-made garments) I found costs for this and other items reasonable and in some cases potentially underpriced.
In an upcoming blog post, I hope to profile a couple of the fashion designers who stood out to me, wear-sode.ch and nundesamis.ch. Overall, I'm encouraged to see such vibrancy in the Swiss design world, and to know that emerging designers have clear priorities in terms of sustainability.