Fashion interview: Russian brand pps team on how to make gender neutral fashion in Russia

In modern realities, import substitution is everything to us. In the last six months, local brands have rapidly gained momentum, weight and importance. Almost every week, new players with big ambitions and obvious talents appear on the fashion scene. We always follow such projects closely and introduce the most promising ones.

Today, the hero of our fashion interview was the post-scriptum brand team, which in just two years not only managed to attract the attention of the entire domestic fashion community, but also popularized the trend towards gender neutrality. You’ve probably seen futuristic lace-up tops, slit dresses, bony bodysuits with accents under the bust, and pant suits with silicone patches on social networks – so it’s all the work of the pps team.

We invite you to dive into the world of non-binary fashion for a few minutes and learn a little more about the most daring players in the industry.

“In a world where forms are already invented and written, we will drop our post post scriptum. Because we have something to say”, – the manifesto of the Russian post post scriptum brand begins with these words. According to the team, they were stuck in a binary framework, so they decided to get rid of them and reframe the norms to their own standards. This is how clothes appeared that do not prevent you from being yourself and give freedom from any formality.

“By the way, we got the first sample of this under glass t-shirt with manifesto in our office. It all started with him,” the children say.

By the way, we don’t just focus on the team. The fact is that the names of the founder and the entire design department were not disclosed. After such a statement, thoughts arise about a connection with the work of the legendary Martin Margiela. The first question was about this, and pps’ response was a pleasant surprise: “We do not advocate the anonymity of the team and the maximum privacy of the founder. We are passionate about the idea of ​​creative equity: every stylist and every designer makes a significant contribution to the development of the brand and helps build the history of the open post scriptum community.”

“It all started with the idea of ​​creating an affordable and comfortable everyday wardrobe for yourself and your friends. And from a manifesto proclaiming the values ​​of the brand and how the physical object connects to each item.” The rest, as they say, is history. A whole agency community quickly formed around the brand, made up of gender-neutral agents committed to shared values. Despite the fact that the creative directors of fashion houses have long begun to erase gender boundaries, this trend reached Russia only a few years ago. And this is the value of post scriptum.

The Russian brand was indeed one of the first to support the trend towards gender neutrality. “We defend the right to be yourself. The choice of identity – like the choice of clothes, we must be cool in our “social attire”. And we see that position responding,” the men say. Both boys and girls are filmed in the navigation books of the new collections. Moreover, the images are clear both in this and in others.

They answer our age-old question, “What is the future of fashion?” quite accurately: “Gender boundaries will be completely erased. Fashion is also the mood of society. Women run large companies, men can go on maternity leave and vice versa – the world has long changed its views on patriarchal foundations. It’s the same for fashion: man/woman – what’s the difference, the main thing is the inner feeling of yourself and your style.”

For the past few seasons, the design studio’s collective unconscious has been thrusting us even deeper into a fantasy world where sex appears many times (if not dozens) times more than life. This widespread trend is endorsed by both big brands and local brands. The accents in the PPS collections are arranged accordingly – corset skirts, dresses with slits, catchy details in the form of suspenders and futuristic tops with a good word. All these meet today’s needs. But children do not plan to mindlessly follow current trends.

“First of all, you need to feel the time and be in full sync with the team. Inclusive design, diverse creative expression, and the desire to engage in constant dialogue are of paramount importance in today’s pps development. We observe trends, we understand them, but we never follow them blindly,” the team shares.

“Our team is quite small, but is slowly being replenished with new faces. We appreciate everyone’s contribution – stylists, managers, models. A valuable asset is our lab tailors, designers and technologists who bring sketches to life in the experimental workshop,” he says. Here the question arises, how to avoid employee burnout. How to properly organize the creative environment for. The secret turned out to be simple: “It is important for us to create conditions for creativity. For example, the DJ booth in the office inspires our stylists when they come to group meetings. Creative people often do several things at once – professional among those who create pps There are DJs, musicians and artists.

“We believe in the development of digital fashion, a new fashion cycle in the Metaverse – without massive production and environmental pollution. You can wear any outfit (and take any shape) with the help of AR glasses in augmented reality. Physical enhancements can be replaced with digital enhancements with personalized avatars. Advertising campaigns and fashion shows will be held with digital models and influencers.” This is how the pps team thinks about the fashion of the future.

Where do they plan to go next? As befits a brand with big ambitions, they have the right plans. First of all, of course, this is the launch of the creative space of the brand, where you can not only buy things, but also listen to DJ sets, watch the work of artists and participate in the creative process yourself. “We want to express a more complete vision of the brand manifesto. It’s important for us to make visible the creative process behind the products and design.” They plan to expand to other cities and countries and then to the metaverse. That’s where the think big principle is at work.