The day Wonderland meets Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren begins with the kind of room so grand you’d feel within your rights to enquire about wedding receptions, and concludes with Horsting hacking at a woman’s frock, Girlboss style at the bar of the Rijksmuseum’s restaurant. The former is, actually, part of the pair’s Dutch atelier (about as chic as they come), while the woman in question is a willing participant and the dress of Viktor & Rolf’s own design.

The whole scenario has been orchestrated to introduce a new collaboration between the designers and the German brand Zalando, which sees them explore ideas of recycling and sustainability within the fashion industry: formally announced this week (our highlights showcased here), the full 17-piece line-up drops IRL on 1st February.

“It was kind of our initiative to see how the conscious design of everything we are working on each season could be translated into a rare option,” they explain. “And then we were thinking of how we could reuse stock.” It’s an objective proposed previously by the duo, whose haute couture collections of late – think Vagabonds for AW16 and SS17’s Boulevard of Broken Dreams – have similarly pulled from the archive in a way that goes beyond aesthetics.

“Two collections ago we decided to take stock of everything that we had,” they note, “so we started using our own stock of fabrics to create something new. That’s when we started to work on this idea.” With Re:Cycle, as the project has been titled, they’ve swapped theirs for Zalando’s overstock – presumably a much wider offering – resulting in a collection that comprises tees and dresses, shirts and skirts.

Using fabrics like net, satin and cotton, the collection focuses predominantly on applique, with Viktor & Rolf’s signature bows common throughout and diamond shaped pieces brought together to create all over patterns; scalloped and crisscross pieces elsewhere shine, with said details elevating simple sweatshirts and plain white shirts, each in a similar vein to the pair’s mainline style. Feminine but contemporary.

The biggest surprise of hooking up with Zalando? “That it was so easy,” they exclaim, “the whole project was made in a very easy way.” And their favourite aspect of the process? “It was great that the ideas that we put forward are available to a bigger audience. That was the aim.” Recycling for all? Makes sense, count us in.