Looks from DEM Collective S/S10

Sweden is renowned for design, progressive politics and according to Sweden & Swedes (the welcome brochure that I received upon arrival in Stockholm) sex, sin and suicide. The country also stands at the forefront of sustainable fashion innovation. Its two-year-old Sustainable Fashion Academy draws designers and companies from around the world, educating them on a holistic ethical and ecological approach to production and design. At Beckman’s College of Design in Stockholm, these methods are communicated to the next generation of designers as an expectation, rather than exception. NICE (Nordic Fashion, Clean and Ethical) works to raise awareness within Northern European nations and demonstrate the potential of a more sustainable fashion cycle. Meanwhile, one of Sweden’s best-known brands, Fillipa K, has introduced the concept of a single-brand consignment boutique, a place where Fillipa K loyalists can exchange past purchases or gain credit towards a future acquisition.

In an effort to promote these practices beyond the nation’s borders, the Swedish Institute has curated Eco-Chic: Towards Sustainable Swedish Fashion, a traveling exhibition on now-August 21st at Manhattan’s Scandinavia House. The clothing on display is genuine “fashion,” boasting an inspiring ethos and even more impressive esthetic. Here are a few of them.

Shoes: Swedish Hasbeens

Marrying Ali MacGraw’s Jennifer Cavilleri with Olivia Newton John’s Sandra Dee, Swedish Hasbeens has resurrected the clog from its hippie heyday. The Stockholm-based company stripped the footwear of staid garden and commune connotations, and created a shoe that taps into today’s subliminal desire for a simpler time. The brand’s mission statement describes a nostalgia for an era when fashion “made us laugh and feel like a knockout,” and founder Emy Blixt confirms that, “We try to keep a ’70s philosophy of fighting for what you believe in.” The result of these ideals are all-natural toffl (the Swedish word for clogs) that have enraptured the fashion world. Styles range from classic Slip Ins to Jodhpur booties to basket-weave sandals, and aside from the metal staples holding them together, they are constructed exclusively of wood and vegetable-dyed leather.

In a nod to both tradition and ergological comfort, the company carves the soles from a single plank. This process is both expensive (three-times that of an industrial clog made from multiple parts) and lengthy (the wood can take up to five months to dry). As for the uppers, Blixt notes that 95% of leather shoes contain chrome, an allergenic that is also harmful to the environment. This, she says, makes an ethical choice easy and the difference profound. “It’s like sugar. It’s really cheap to get fat, and it’s cheap to have a lot of stuff, which is why a lot of shoes are similar and why [ours] are very different.”

Denim: Julian Red

Julian Red is the Swedish denim and ready-to-wear label that’s so cutting edge, you’ve probably never heard of it. Sharing a heritage with better-known brands Acne and Cheap Monday, the company’s aesthetic adeptly balances the sophistication of the former with the irreverence of the latter. The way co-founder and brand manager Piotr Zaleski tells it, Julian Red was the first to introduce the super-skinny “late-90s modern fit”—the one that Cheap Monday turned into an international signature. This may seem like boasting, but actually the opposite is true. Since founding the brand in 2003, Zaleski and head designer Mattijas Lind have purposefully flown under the radar, producing a mere two to 300 pieces per style and selling only to those who approach them, happy to grow at a manageable annual rate of 20%.

While Zaleski regards these small batches as “one of our most sustainable practices,” the company has skewed ethical and ecological since its inception. The distinction is rather that Julian Red is a fashion label first and fabric choices are about “organic for it’s own sake. [It] has always been a secondary position, listed in the fabric label but not played up.” The majority of the brand’s production is done on the island of Mauritius, which is ratified by the International Labor Organization and renowned for its environmental awareness. Additionally, they work with a Japanese factory that weaves adobe denim twill on 1940s looms and develops fabrics like recycled Gortex. They source Peruvian bio (free range) alpaca and continuously search for innovative ways to incorporate sustainability into advanced design. For example, instead of using chemical dyes to produce the saturated colors they desired for their F/W10 collection, they bought discarded scraps from a factory and wove them into vibrant heathered sweater dresses. The key to conscientious fashion, Zaleski maintains, lies in educating every part of the supply chain—from the factories to the sales people—integrating them so that they are invested in the end product.

General Ready-to-Wear

Camilla Norrback F/W10

Situated in an ancient monastery in Old Town Stockholm, Ekovaruhuset, which translates in English to House of Organic, contains the country’s best collection of ecological designer fashions. The wares are curated by owner Johanna Hofring, a self-described “crochet-addict” who became interested in ethical fashion when a friend showed her a documentary of a factory in India where Swedish companies produced. It was, in Hofring’s words, “nightmarish” and she believed that there had to be an alternative. Her own elaborate designs are evidence of this alternative, as are those of Anja Hynynen. Hynynen’s creations are a romantic take on classic shapes: puff-sleeved jackets, tailored trousers and angelic dresses produced in organic wool, hemp, linen, cotton and silk. Camilla Norrback’s clean, drapey designs similarly defy bland “eco” connotations and dispel any notion of compromising style for sustainability.

On the basics side, there is DEM Collective. An impressive label based out of Stockholm and Gothenburg, DEM started when Karin Stenmar, a DJ at the time, was looking to buy t-shirts to use for club promotions. Concerned about the implications of the meager price points she encountered (approximately $1 per shirt), she and Annika Axelsson created their own wholesale company. The brand’s name DEM stands for Don’t Eat Macaroni, an allusion to the world’s increasing reliance on a fast food, and similarly fast fashion. It is also an effort, Stenmar explains, “to not stand and preach, but rather give an alternative with a laugh.”

After failing to find a factory up to their ethical standards, the pair opened their own facility in Sri Lanka. They chose to produce in Asia because, as Stenmar says, “That’s where the problem is.” As opposed to an insufficient minimum wage, DEM pays workers a living wage that corresponds to the UN Declaration of Human Rights, works to promote gender equality through education and has recently planted its own organic cotton field. In the process, they have become a leading case study for truly sustainable and ethical fashion—and launched denim and ready-to-wear lines.

To learn more, visit Eco Chic: Towards Sustainable Swedish Fashion.
Now-August 21st at the Scandinavia House: 58 Park Avenue (between 38th and 39th Streets), New York.
Online, visit Sweden.Closettour.

Images by Jenni Avins

Skinny jeans, clogs and scarves: The essential elements of Swedish style.

A Place
Stockholm’s leading international designer boutique, A Place is deceptively located in Sweden’s oldest department store, Pub (Paul Urbanus Bergström), in the city center. The store-within-a-store has evolved from occupying a small corner to covering nearly the entire second floor with a number of Sweden and the world’s most avant-garde labels, including Resteröds, Anna-Sara Davik, Diana Orving, Bless, Raf by Raf, Opening Ceremony and many more. A Place’s buyer and co-founder Dan Jaget names Bauhaus-inspired The Local Firm as a personal favorite. Other offerings include Minimarket’s illustrated charity tees, NIKOLAJ d’Etoiles’ second line and the self-referential Three Sisters collection, produced by three sisters who are inspired by themselves.

Three by One
Situated in Stockholm’s commercial district, Three by One is a welcome diversion from its neighbors selling salted licorice and postcards of the royal couple. The just-opened shop and showroom—named after a denim weave—reflects the owners’ efforts to bring denim back to Sweden by stocking both hard-to-find brands (Denim Dream, Julian Red, Edwin, Indigofera) and classic international favorites (Levis, Acne, Wrangler). Beyond the comprehensive selection of jeans, the space offers a cerebral “true/fake” theme marked by cleverly painted oriental rugs, deceptive photo textures and faux wood paneling.

6/5/4
When outfitting their surf-cum-café store in the bustling SoFo shopping district, Niklas Malmqvist and Johan Orrestedt were insistent that everything in the space “have a soul.” Looking to Ralph Lauren Rugby’s rustic character for inspiration, they bought old rugs, trunks and knickknacks, combining them with a streamlined Swedish sensibility for an eclectic Nordic look. The free-association theme is also present in the stock, which features Malmqvist’s Nord surf brand along with sportswear by Supreme Beings and Red Collar Project, fashion labels Carin Westin, Swedish Hasbeens, Rules by Mary and others. The backroom is dedicated to wetsuits and surfboards shaped in Spain especially for Swedish conditions. Then there is the café, where people come from all over Stockholm to sip coffee prepared by baristas who are trained for up to five months. During the summer musicians play in the space and evenings feature a revolving door of events. As Malmqvist explains, “Something should always happen here.”

Sivletto
Located in an old garage a few blocks from SoFo and discreetly marked, Sivletto is easy to miss. But despite its demure outer appearance, its inside offers a full-sensory immersion into a ’40s and ’50s rockabilly/tiki/hot-rod world. Apart from over 25 types of canned hair grease and old-school records, the store features a salon, café, homewares corner and new and vintage clothing ranging from old Swedish sailor shirts to house dresses to Formula One leather jackets. A rockabilly devotion to denim is also in full effect, with classic Levis and Wranglers resting among local favorites: Nudie Jeans, Edwin and Cheap Monday.

Ekovaruhuset “House of Organic”
Nestled in the city’s Old Town, Ekovaruhuset has served as both a monastery and a punk band’s rehearsal space. Now—courtesy of owner Johanna Hofring’s ecological-meets-fashion vision—it is a serene, whitewashed shop populated by turquoise mermaid statues and art installations along with Hofring’s intricate knits, romantic classics by Anya Hynenen and clean separates from Camilla Norrback. Basics come by way of baby soft organic cotton/silk Eco Boudoir undies, tees from DEM Collective and jeans from cult denim brands Kuyichi and Loomstate. Beyond clothing, accessories and baby clothes, there are beauty products from Dr. Hauschka and hard-to-find teas by Pukka.

Ekovaruhuset

A Place. Image courtesy of Sweden.Closettour.

Rules by Mary shoes at 6/5/4

Three by One

Designer Lars Andersson

There’s something mystical about knitwear designer Lars Andersson. Yes, it’s the dark, draped aesthetic of his women’s and menswear but it’s also a sense that the Swedish-born designer, who has called New York home for over a decade, has discovered his true calling: producing hand-loomed and often handmade, yet modern clothing out of his Brooklyn studio. Meanwhile, at his showroom in the Garment District, surrounded by racks of dark wool, cashmere and leather pieces from F/W10, we spoke to the designer about his past, future and surprisingly not-so-dark personality.

Deanne Yee: Who taught you how to knit?

Lars Andersson: My mother taught me how to knit around the age of six.

Deanne: You’ve said that the first piece you ever made was a sweater for your monkey doll that same year. What was your first “human-sized” piece?

Lars: [It was] a huge chunky, itchy sweater for myself when I was 17. I think it weighed five pounds.

Deanne: And I know you studied for some time at FIT before leaving to work on other projects…

Lars: I left FIT before finishing my degree, and for some time I worked on fetish-inspired fashion for drag queens on the New York nightlife scene. It was very dramatic and different from my design aesthetic now.

Deanne: I would say your design sense now is almost a 180-degree change from drag queen costumes!

Lars: Yes, well, it took me a while to get to this place. But I grew up knitting and it was a natural progression for me. I worked on bespoke knit pieces for friends and when I decided to launch my own line, I finally stopped worrying about trends and what other designers were doing. I would say my aesthetic now is very minimalist and intuitive.

Deanne: What about the craft inspires you, in comparison to tailoring?

Lars: I love being involved from start to finish. I actually get to make the fabric that I use to form my garments. I also see it as a connection to the past. I obviously respect tailors, but I not only have to imagine a collection, I have to think about how I am going to make the fabrics to make that collection.

Deanne: You mainly work with Japanese and Italian yarns; what are your preferred fibers?

Lars: My absolute favorite is linen. I also love silk and wool. For me, it has to be natural and it has to feel good on the body.

Deanne: Do your designs evolve organically, or do you project the patterns prior to beginning a piece?

Lars: The absolute first step is designing the fabric. Then I do organically form shapes through draping and experimenting. By the time it reaches my showroom, it has been transferred to a pattern for production purposes.

Deanne: Looking at your collections, it seems that many of your pieces could be considered unisex—the capes, scarves and sweaters, for instance. Do you think of your aesthetic as unisex?

Lars: Well I think about half the menswear collection can be worn by women. So, to a certain extent you could say menswear can be worn in a unisex way. But the menswear and womenswear collections each have their own distinct identity.

Deanne: Do you work from inspirations for your collections?

Lars: It always starts with a mood for me. For the S/S10 collection, I was inspired by a mix of Vikings (you can see this in the detail of the raw seaming of some pieces), a very natural palette and feel, but at the same time, the collection was urban and sophisticated. For F/W10, I was drawn to tribal wear, such as the those worn by African tribes, and then the mystical mood of Odd Nerdrum, a painter who uses traditional, old world techniques. I was obsessed with hats from Nerdrum paintings. That translated into some pieces in the men’s collection. I’m also very inspired by music.

Deanne: Your lookbooks, the recent video you did for your F/W10 collection (below) and designs all have dark undertones, and your bio describes you as a “dark urban hippie”. Tell us more about the “hippie” aspect of your personality. You’re a vegetarian, yes?

Lars’ F/W10 collection video

Lars: No, I am not a vegetarian, ha! Don’t make fun of me, but that “hippie” trait comes out in believing that everyone should have a happy, loving, optimistic outlook on life. The aesthetic of the clothing is affected by this “hippiness” in the sense that it is completely handcrafted. The collections are free in spirit. The idea is to be unrestrained, and to support the notion of individuality.

Deanne: Describe the darker aspects of your personality?

Lars: I suppose, like everyone else, that I am very self-critical. I also struggle with self-esteem issues, probably like most of the world does. I have an appreciation for “dark” cultural movements in art and music. I also love the aesthetics associated with the early ’80s Goth movement—and bands like Bauhaus.

Deanne: What types of music that inspire you?

Lars: Well there are so many kinds, but offhand, at the moment: Fleetwood Mac, trance music and music from the gay rock-and-roll scene in Europe.

Deanne: You have also said that you are influenced by New York’s downtown, underground culture. What are some of the places/things within this culture that inspire you?

Lars: I became very involved in the gay rock-and-roll movement that was happening in New York when I first moved here. I was entranced with the dark, glam-rock appeal of those seedy NY clubs. We didn’t have anything like that in Sweden. Before I knew it, I was go-go dancing at clubs like SqueezeBox. It was decadent, all very dramatic….and glamorous.

Deanne: How does the creative environment in New York compare to that of Sweden?

Lars: I mean, I haven’t lived in Sweden for 15 years, so it really wasn’t that cool when I left. Unfortunately, I haven’t been there to experience the cultural renaissance that the country has gone through. From fashion to music to art, Sweden is a much different place now. I love New York City though! I thrive off of the city’s energy, and it is definitely a place that is undoubtedly inspiring. It is also a city that you can find at least one person to be interested in whatever you are doing…no matter what it is.

Deanne: So tell us a bit about what you are working on now.

Lars: Well, we are working on production for spring. And after that, I’m working on the next spring collection. For the menswear, we’re making a limited-edition collection of lace and cashmere underwear inspired by a gay Arab in Paris. And the next spring collection of womenswear will be lighter, more romantic in feeling. The inspirations include Stevie Nicks and gypsies, so there will be lots of lace and linens. I’m heading to a friend’s country house in upstate New York for the summer, and I’m glad about that. The forest is a mystical place for me. Marianne Frederiksson was a Swedish author who wrote mystical stories about the forest. I’m inspired by her stories.

Lars Andersson F/W10. www.larsandersson.net.

Lovisa Burfitt, photo by Alec Friedman

The first presentation we went to this morning was for the brand Hope. The brand is designed by Ann Ringstrand and Stefan Söderberg, who showed their first womenswear collection in 2002 and started doing menswear in 2005. The theme of the collection was Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, and the presentation was held in the National Theatre, his old stomping ground. The incredible, frescoed room was set up with breakfast tables, each place set with food from the island of Faro, where the film was shot: smoked whitefish, sheep’s milk cheese and dewberry jam, cured lamb on black rye toast, gute tea.

In keeping with the salon-style setup, the designers came out before the show started and took seats at the front of the room, narrating the collection as each model walked out. They explained their design process from beginning to end, talking about how each piece related back to the film and to the rest of the collection—how the patchwork pattern on a shirt came from the scene of Death playing chess, or how a fisherman’s sweater was something the men in the region would wear. I love hearing anyone talk about something they’re passionate about, and not coming from a background in fashion history, it really helped me understand and appreciate what they were trying to accomplish. I enjoyed it so much that I’m not really able to separate my opinion of the collection from my experience of the show. Everything about the presentation was so thoughtful and impeccably put together, and that’s also the impression that stays with me of the clothes.

Like most of the shows we’ve seen here, Hope had a certain pragmatism to it; it was clothes designed for people to wear, but with such care and reflection. My favorite piece was a crinkled wool coat with a dramatic lambswool collar. It was done in both a men’s and women’s version. Both were beautiful, both were related, and yet they were respectively very masculine and very feminine. It’s a difficult balance to pull off and they did it again and again throughout the collection.

Hope

The Beckman’s School of Design put on their senior show in the Mercedes Benz tent, and there we saw some serious runway fashion (and a lot of fashion that could only exist on a runway). I love student shows. It’s fashion totally unhinged from the imperatives of the market, imaginations gone wild (though it must be said there was a lot of McQueen going on). Some of my personal highlights were jackets and pants covered in shards of broken glass by Alexander Krantz, a braided spine on a leather jacket by Marie Jenjé Lunqvist, and a four person caterpillar, each outfit connected to the next, by Naim Josefi, and a soccer ball purse by Marie Jersild Viltoft.

Marie Jersild Viltoft

Madeleine Vintback, photo by Alec Friedman

Naim Josefi, photo by Alec Friedman

Our night ended with Lovisa Burfitt, this year’s Max Factor Award winner. Paris-based, native Swede Burfitt, who is an illustrator as well as a designer, has been creating collections for ten years, since her graduation from Beckmans. Her show rocked. The collection was inspired by Claude Cahun and Seraphine de Senlis, and it had a romantic, belle-epoque feel. The models, with feathers in their hair and graphic, asymmetrical bangs, sashayed down the runway to Edith Piaf, pausing periodically, hands on hips, to model at the crowds. And the clothes – the clothes were this incredible mix of baroque and hippie and dominatrix – long velvet dresses with leather laces up the back, tight black corsets, long velvet dresses distressed with bleach. Burfitt created such a complete universe that aside from wanting almost every dress in the collection, even more so, I wanted to live in the time and place where I could wear those dresses every day.

Lovisa Burfitt, photo by Alec Friedman

Arriving in Stockholm in the morning for fashion week, seeing all the snow, I wondered what kind of shoes the fashion editors would be wearing to the shows. (Side note: In our cab from the airport, the driver told us that the traffic was so bad because the big commuter train was out of service after hitting a reindeer). The answer to the shoes (not the reindeer) is kind of the same as the overlying aesthetic here: chic but practical, lots of black, slightly androgynous and a little tough. People are armored to face the cold winter. Consequently, there are lots of men’s boots, some studs and heavy jewelry: LA meets goth, with dark pants in avant-garde, tailored shapes—some of the baggy sort that you have to be very tall and slim hipped to wear well (e.g., Swedish). We also noticed a lot of fur coats and big necklaces. Obviously all of it is worn by girls with blonde, blonde hair.

The Dagmar show opened the week. Started five years ago by sisters Kristina Tjäder, Karin Söderlind and Sofia Malm, and inspired by their grandmother, the line has received various accolades, including the Swedish Fashion Council’s Rookie of the Year Award in 2005, Swedish Elle’s pick for Best New Designer of the Year in 2006 and show sponsorship from Gen Art-NY at New York Fashion Week. The brand is known for its prints and knits, and this show was at its best when it focused on these strengths. A long, embellished belted sweater belted stood out, and my guess would be that it was knitted and detailed by hand. The line is clearly focused on craftsmanship, and they get extra points for a commitment to sustainability. Slicked back hair and muted, matte makeup was androgynous, which I thought complemented the femininity of the clothes.

Dagmar

I think that the collection could have been improved by better styling, and also had the feeling—with all the shows I saw today, really—that as much as I would buy these clothes in a store (and many of them I would love to own and wear), they lack some of the fantasy you want to see on a runway. But all of that is completely overwritten by the DIY element of fashion week here, which I found to be such a refreshing contrast to the slickness of Paris or New York. When I’m at a show in New York, I feel the industry pulsing all around me. I spend as much time looking at the crowd, the handlers, and the celebrities as I do at the clothing. At the Dagmar show, I spotted a baby and strangers talking to one another, and the designers came out to take their bow at the end. It really felt like you had just seen something they themselves had made, not manufactured.

Filippa K

The Filippa K show was held in the building that, come May, will house the new photography museum. For the moment it is unfinished, unheated and quite raw. The steps going up to the building were lined with fire pits, and I liked the contrast of the fashionistas huddled around them for warmth, like homeless people did over trash cans when I was a kid in New York. The bonus was the smell of wood smoke in the cold night. The show itself was accompanied by a woman playing a grand piano and singing at the entrance of the runway. We thought at first it might be Cat Power, her voice was that rough and that good, but it was a young Swedish artist named Hajen, who you would have heard of already if she lived in New York. Filippa K is one of the largest fashion labels in Stockholm after H&M, but her show still had that same lack of pretension that I found so enthralling at Dagmar. The clothes were understated and beautiful: menswear fabrics paired with good tailoring and clean, feminine lines. The show was opened and closed by Frida Gustavsson, who I recently had the pleasure of shooting and who can make anything look desirable. However, the long blue dress shown for the finale was amazing, Frida or not. It had the kind of discrete detailing that you can’t put your finger on but that makes a dress hang just so. The menswear felt a little Phillip Lim: sweaters, cozy prints—all eminently wearable but still compelling enough to hold your interest as they went down the runway.

Frida aside, I have not been able to shake how thin so many of the models are here. Runway models are thin no matter where you go, but I saw some girls today whose skinny legs made me cringe.

Cheap Monday

The last show of the day was Cheap Monday. Founded in 2000 as a second-hand clothing store in the suburbs of Stockholm, this denim company has become eponymous with skinny, cheap jeans. Since H&M acquired a 60% stake in the brand in 2006, it seems that they have been trying to step up their game and expand into a proper fashion line. They tapped Ann-Sofie Back as their head designer and this was her second season.

The show was held in a big warehouse and it was a Scene with a capital S. We arrived to a line extending easily two avenue blocks from the door. (Luckily there was a press entrance, or I wouldn’t have very much to tell.) After we entered, they let the crowd in, but held them behind a barricade. When they lifted the barricade it sounded like a gunshot, after which there was a literal stampede to get into the standing room section. Think Walmart the day after Christmas, maybe? I couldn’t believe it at a fashion show.

As for the show, the womenswear was covetable. Lots of jeans (of course), paired with oversized blazers, simple shorts and one hooded sweatshirt that I really wanted to take home with me (and I don’t think I’ve ever said that about a sweatshirt). Very well done. The menswear, however, I didn’t like at all. Especially in contrast to the excellent womenswear, it felt dated—enough with the ’80s already—and disappointing.

Stay tuned for more updates tomorrow…