Text by Susie Bubble
Susie Bubble didn't make it to Stockholm Fashion Week this season but we did have to follow up on the only non commercial show on the schedule, the Beckmans College of Design show. As opposed to a graduate show, it actually showcases the work of second year fashion students, to mark the middle of their bachelor's studies. This season, fourteen students presented collections of 3-5 outfits focused on knitwear. Perhaps it's no coincidence either that Beckman's recent and impressiv expert also happens to be knitwear extraordinaire Sandra Backlund.
We profile a selection of the students and ask about their views on knitwear and Swedish fashion in general.
Emilie Steele
What was the concept behind your collection for the show?
My idea was based both on ordinary people looking just the same, and on the old-style architecture in the city. When you look at the roofs and towers you can easily see the similarity of knitted materials. “Would you be one of the many rooftops, or would you choose to be a tower -standing out?”
Did you have any preconceptions about knitwear that you had to overcome?
I didn’t really, but a lot of people take for granted that it’s a fall/winter collection if it’s knitted, and some have said that they couldn’t see the typical knitted material in my collection.
How would you like to see Swedish fashion develop in the future?
I’d like to see the Swedish fashion become more daring and “unsafe” with its designs. Too many labels look just the same to me.
Maria Melinder
What was the concept behind your collection for the show?
The concept behind my collection is based on the comparative game being played in everyday life. The desire of displaying a fancy front - true or false - deliberately decorated with coded symbols of prestige. With a wide variety of status references randomly picked from there original context, from different parts of the world, mixed together in prints, structures and colours.
How would you like to see Swedish fashion develop in the future?
Well I really think it needs to get away from this melancholic, clean, safe, greyscale thing that has been going on for ages. I'm hoping for a lighter less serious mood!
Fanny Ollas
What was the concept behind your collection for the show?
My collection “Are you going foxhunting, dear?” is about traditions and rules and how we carry them with us weather we now about it or not. It’s about men and traditional men’s clothing. It’s about devoting lots of energy to details and old values, making you disregard the true and honest picture of someone.
How would you like to see Swedish fashion develop in the future?
Swedish fashion is in some way so commercial and very much adjusted to the trendy people at the streets of Stockholm. It’s the same things all over again and a lot of the designers seem afraid to do anything that won’t sell. I think there is a new generation of Swedish designers who don’t want to conform to the ideal of “Scandinavian minimalism”. I hope that people in the future will be more open to that fashion can be a lot of things like art and more non-commercial projects and that you don’t only have to dress in black, grey and dark blue. I never understood that, here, where it is so dark, here you need colour and humour in your clothes, but few people seem to agree…
Carina Sahlin
What was the concept behind your collection for the show?
With this collection, I have experimented with different ways of enclosing the body and with the concept of membranes. My inspirations have been Christo, claustrophobia and the insides of the human body.
Did you have any preconceptions about knitwear that you had to overcome?
I didn't really have any preconceptions about knits, but I did know I wanted to steer clear of cozy wool sweaters and tedious tricot.
What would be your dream job after graduating?
If Mr. Margiela hasn't done his last show, I'd love to work at the Maison. In the future - my own brand of course.
Matilda Sandstrom
What was the concept behind your collection for the show?
In short I call the collection MVP, and I've used games and sports references as a metaphor for the word that summarizes it; borderline. The no man's land between the childish and rough and dramatic grown-up. To love and hate attention, to hide behind the sensational.
Did you have any preconceptions about knitwear that you had to overcome?
Yes, most definitely. I've done a fair deal of course knitting before. The show could easily have turned out in many different ways. But in order to avoid getting stuck in techniques I focused on concepts; placed prints, a combination of primary colors and simplified shapes. I've also evolved a lot through the contact with new technology like the knitting machines. I'm actually a bit surprised by the results myself. I haven't quite digested it all, which feels quite comforting.
What would be your dream job after graduating?
It doesn't matter so much what I do, as long as I feel free, inspired, and in control of the situation, that I can stand up for what I'm doing, and of course to make money off of it.
Ilona Rius
What was the concept behind your collection for the show?
It's about building up something new onto something broken and fractured, about how you want something to protect you from insecurities and thought flaws. The braided parts act like new membrane slowly covering the holes. All of the plaited outfits are made from one piece, a basic braid, that can be unraveled and extended, depending on your mood.
But in the end, the concept can and will be however you interpret it.
Did you have any preconceptions about knitwear that you had to overcome?
No, not really. I have been knitting since I was 10 years old, my grandmother Elma taught me, and I really enjoy it. It's therapy for me, like riding horses. You can just fly away in your thoughts.
How would you like to see Swedish fashion develop in the future?
I would like the Swedish brand H&M to go all the way, exclusively using ecological fabrics, and thereby setting the trend for the whole fashion industry.
Josefin Arnell
What was the concept behind your collection for the show?
My collection is like a naive fairy tale which contain both horror and cotton candy. Its basically based on my fears from the darkness, about the thin border between craziness and physical madness, that I always feel watched by something I don´t know if I can see or if it is created in my head. Im surrounded by monsters.
How would you like to see Swedish fashion develop in the future?
I which everyone would have a pair of my cloudpainted platform shooes, even if they just are gonna wear them buying some cookies at the nearest bakery. There are no rules in fashion, people have just made up this boring borders.
What would be your dream job after graduating?
I think I’m too restless to have "a job", I want to be involved in all kinds of different projects, where I can mix all kinds of media, and where there is enough time to finish stuff. I also want to build big things in exotic countries
Disa Treutiger
What was the concept behind your collection for the show?
The concept was answering the question “Who are you?”. Trying to answer that question through different methods I was confronted with my origin and my heritage and integrated that in to my design process.
Did you have any preconceptions about knitwear that you had to overcome?
Innovative knitwear is nearly equal with Sandra Backlund here in Sweden and we had her as a mentor on our knitwear project. Even though Sandra's designs are stunning it felt very important to do something far away from her design.
What would be your dream job after graduating?
My dream job would be a job where fashion is not distributed as any other good, but is seen as pieces of art. I think that would be good for our fastconsuming society.
Heidi Nilausen
What was the concept behind your collection for the show?
As old cultures become a part of the global system, ancestral traditions get extinct. The collection has developed gradually, in a way as you make your own doll. It is almost as if the clothes are dolls, or rather the final user of the clothes becomes its own protecting dolls.
How would you like to see Swedish fashion develop in the future?
I hope that the Swedish fashion scene in the future will get brighter and more colorful and more personal.
What would be your dream job after graduating?
My dream job after graduating school is a job where I have the opportunity to travel all year round ... research about different cultures and work in different projects....
Maria Melinder
Emilie Steele
Fanny Ollas
Carina Sahlin
Matilda Sandstrom
Josefin Arnell
Ilona Rius
Disa Treutiger
Heidi Nilausen
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