Bite Studios - AW23

“This collection is 98.7 per cent made of ecological materials,” says Bite Studios co-founder William Lundgren, proudly, while presenting the brand’s autumn/winter 2023 collection within the white walls of Stockholm’s GSA Gallery. What was the percentage last collection? A still-impressive 96 per cent.

As is always the case with Bite, materials drive the design process and sustainability is at the heart of the beast. “We’re sort of limited with our material library a bit,” says Veronika Kant, Lundgren’s co-founder and partner. “We start quite often with the materials,” adds Lundgren. “It’s an iterative process, rather than starting with the sketch.” Decadent wools, plissé and, for the first time, jersey lace jacquard, all in a palette of black, cream, burgundy and a gorgeous dusty green serve as the building blocks for the collection. “It can be quite hard on the design team,” admits Kant. “We can be very far down the line and then we realise that we can’t do something in the most sustainable way and we sort of have to start over.”

As the garments reveal, constraints can yield the loveliest results. And while this is a collection squarely in Bite’s wheelhouse – clean lines from top-to-toe, considered suiting, a certain juxtaposition between sheer and opaque – there’s a subtle femininity nestled in the borrowed-from-the-boys aesthetic. A sharp-shouldered black blazer, for instance, is cinched with an asymmetric petal belt; a sculptural detail mimicked on a coat’s lapel. Elsewhere, a plissé shirt and pant set in muted green offers delicate texture. And then there’s that aforementioned jersey lace jacquard, which comes by way of body hugging leggings and a turtlenecked dress, both of which can be cleverly layered with heavier pieces.

These are quietly covetable clothes with a booming purpose. “It’s about adding different values into the industry, basically,” says Kant. “That’s a huge ambition.”

See the full collection below: