Carsten Höller’s restaurant Brutalisten teams up with Eytys on raw denim uniforms

Brutalisten, already one of Stockholm’s coolest restaurants, just got a bit cooler. This week, the staff served up their single-ingredient fare in workwear looks courtesy of beloved Swedish brand Eytys. It’s a collaboration born of a long-standing friendship between artist Carsten Höller, who started Brutalisten under his own limited-ingredient manifesto, and Eytys founder Max Schiller. “Max and I have had many dinners at Brutalisten, and the idea to make a collaboration around the restaurant was ignited during one of these dinners,” says Höller. “For obvious reasons, we settled on making a uniform. It was a great way to bring yet another element of brutalism into the restaurant.”

Related: What it’s like to eat at Brutalisten, Carsten Höller’s Stockholm restaurant the whole fashion industry is talking about

Driven by a mutual appreciation for Japanese workwear, the duo settled on a denim shirt and relaxed-fit denim trousers. “Functionality and mobility was of highest priority and achieved by creating a loose and well-cut silhouette,” says Schiller. To craft the look, he turned to a friend in Japan who comes from a family business of sake making that dates back to the 17th century. “Out of passion, he also works with denim with the same brutalist approach to sake making,” says Schiller.

Related: Eytys' SS24 campaign is a reminder to book your next sun-drenched vacation

It’s unsurprising that Schiller and Höller, two passion-driven creatives living in Stockholm, would become fast friends. “I first met Max over a delicious pasta he cooked. Next time in the forest picking mushrooms,” says Höller. “He says I told him to pick poisonous ones.” Schiller confirms that he and Höller became friends over a “shared passion for mushroom foraging”. It’s just the icing on the cake that the artist would happen to open the clothing designer’s favourite restaurant. “It’s a completely unique experience to sit under a Dan Flavin artwork eating asparagus or a grilled mackerel cooked to absolute perfection,” says Schiller. “I’m proud that we have a place like Brutalisten in Stockholm.”

Not only do the uniforms look nice, they just so happen to fall within the Brutalist manifesto, which stresses using as few ingredients as possible per dish. “The uniforms are made from raw denim, which reflects what we do at Brutalisten,” says Höller. “We construct something from one carefully picked, top quality, raw ingredient.”