In recent times, we ’ve witnessed Braun Büffel steer towards a more contemporary and cultural direction. Case in point Its Spring/ Summer 2022 collection references Swiss- born, New York- grounded artist Ugo Rondinoneʼs corpus. immortalizing this vision, the leather goods purveyor enlisted the help of an NYC- grounded 3D artist, Steven Baltay, for the Braun Büffel Spring/ Summer 2023 crusade and collection, dubbed Inflate to Life.
Known for his narcotic work revolving around beautiful and complex 3D art that flutters between the spaces of familiar and surreal, logical and absurd, Baltay created a world that melds reality and virtual ‒ portraying individualities covering a surreal geography where putatively insensible objects inflate to life.
While dreamlike, it’s “ a incarnation of the design process( for this season) the coming- to- life of ideas with close consideration of Braun Büffelʼs brand pillars ‒ explore, experience, and evolve, ” Braun Büffel highlights.
Like the former Spring/ Summer collection, Inflate to Life takes alleviation from the pruned- down aesthetic and undulating lines of modern armature and interior forms, exploring the understanding between design and function in the timber.
The result is a curated collection of wearable art that also nods at the German Maisonʼs fidelity to exceptional artificer and superior leather. An ode to art and its heritage, the collection houses Meyer and Louche ‒ two classic, debonair series that come in colorful functional bag styles like briefcase, iPad sleeve, midriff poke, pack, runner bag and tote.
It boasts primary colour accentuations and architectural outlines paired against the formality of luxurious leathers including luxe ultrasoft leathers, formal box leathers and experimental texture leathers. The versatility and immediacy only emphasise a nouveau- luxe- design aesthetic while embodying a shift into experimental connoisseurship, down from eyeless consumption.