LONDON — Fashion designer Aitor Throup is gearing up for a return to fashion with Aitor Ultra, his first ready-to-wear brand envisioned as a multidisciplinary project, slated to roll out with a London exhibition in October at the Ambika P3 space with the Westminster Menswear Archive ahead of a full collection reveal in 2027.
In line with the designer’s well-documented obsession with grand narrative and world building, the label is billed as a self-contained “system” at the crossroads of fashion, fine art and product design. It aims to invite audiences to engage with prototypes, artworks and development material alongside finished collections.
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The Aitor Ultra exhibition this fall is set to showcase the brand’s conceptual architecture, with garment prototypes, new sculptural forms and a series of one-off drawings on display.
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“Since my very first days in the fashion industry, I dreamed of creating a fashion brand with its own self-contained system. I knew what aspects of the industry didn’t work for me, but it took me all these years to figure out a framework and a process that works for me,” Throup said of his new porject.
The designer said he originally announced the project as Anatomyland, which has since evolved into a separate, non-fashion venture.
“Aitor Ultra represents the unlocking of something deep within me that is finally allowing me to not only become a fashion designer, but to also become myself fully,” he added.
As for what exactly Throup will do with the codes and archetypes he has developed over the past two decades, that will stay under wraps until next year.
Born in Buenos Aires and raised in Burnley, England, Throup is known for a highly conceptual approach to menswear. A Royal College of Art graduate, he launched his New Object Research label in 2013 and has collaborated with Stone Island, C.P. Company and Umbro.
He served as executive creative director at G-Star from 2016 until 2019, overseeing mainline men’s and women’s collections and the Raw Research line.
In 2020 he introduced Anatomyland as an NFT-based sculptural project, using blockchain to retain creative control. That work also channeled his personal history and the identity struggles he faced as an Argentine immigrant in the U.K.