Good things always come in twos, like Tim Tams and hot tea or Viktor & Rolf designers, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren.
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The duo behind the high-fashion label are testament to the power of two.
For 23 years they have produced some of the most thought-provoking looks ever seen on a runway, while concocting one of the world's best selling perfumes.
Since its creation 11 years ago, Viktor & Rolf's Flower Bomb has ranked among the top fragrances around the world. In Australia it is now the third best-selling scent among our department store's 300-strong offering.
Horsting and Snoeren are in Australia to mark two milestones: the continual success of their perfume, a heady bouquet of florals boasting bergamot, freesia, patchouli; and the opening of Viktor & Rolf: Fashion Artists at Melbourne's National Gallery of Victoria, an exhibition that showcases three decades of their artistic highlights.
The two are renowned for their strong point of view and liberal use of controversial elements to highlight their creative vision.
The 2001 autumn-winter collection featured an entire cast of models with painted-on black faces.
"Our work is very sculptural and we were always interested in silhouettes, for us the black faces were as if you only see silhouettes on the catwalk and nothing else, just a shadow," Horsting said of the collection that was inspired by black holes.
In 2008, before retiring their ready-to-wear collections in 2015, they created an entire show based on the word "no".
"It was a season when we felt overwhelmed by the deadlines and we just didn't want to do it. We were both sketching 'no' all the time so we started sketching clothes around the word 'no', it was very literal, and then after that season, we got rid of it, like therapy," he said.
The isolation of our island nation resonates with the pair, who moved back to their homeland of the Netherlands from Paris several years ago to escape the "fashion world", which they feel is a "distraction" when creating new couture looks and creations for their latest endeavour, a line of wedding gowns.
"We go nowhere. We just sit at a desk, the two of us with the door closed, and it needs to be silent, then we just start sketching and talking. That's how ideas pop up for us. It's like a ping pong game," Horsting said.
