Hailing from New Zealand and Canada, respectively, Kyle Callanan and Jen Gilpin ended up in Berlin, where they met, discovered a shared aesthetic and founded the label Don’t Shoot the Messengers. “The name came from a long conversation about the label,” they say, “and how we wanted to look into things that were sort of unconscious and untouchable, like mercury. You can see it, but it moves away from your finger when you try to touch it. Also, by association, Mercury is the messenger figure [in Roman mythology], which is where Don’t Shoot the Messenger came from.”

Attitude is key and black dominates, with nude accents the only chromatic concession for fall, their second season. Darkly feminine, the collection—a mix of aggressively cut lamb leather and soft, shimmery silk—is at once elegant, sexy and raw. “We like the contrast of things, line and shape, always looking into geometry and its relation to the body. Leather and silk are our base notes, along with straight lines and curving forms, tailoring and draping.”

In short, don’t shoot the messenger because the messenger (who is not Shannon Doherty, by the way) brings good things.