Fashion Week Stockholm got a reboot for the Fall 2018 season. Filippa Knutsson, who returned to the label she founded in 1993, set the pace with a great show on streamlined classics, which she presented on a stellar cast in a design gallery. Totême and House of Dagmar also chose locations that linked Scandinavian design to Swedish fashion. The region’s cold climate inspired neck-warming scarves and great outerwear, some made with recycled down, but the look of the season was a faux fur teddy bear coat.
Also adding heat to the week were shows by emerging designers, some of which were presented as part of a group outing (Swedish Fashion Talents), sponsored by the Swedish Fashion Council. It was at these presentations that issues of gender, sustainability, and activism were addressed most directly. Per Götesson and PRLE’s Andreas Danielsson proposed poetic takes on menswear, the former playing with proportions and deconstruction, the latter with a ’70s-inflected bohemianism. Fifteen-year-old Ingrid Berg presented a collection of painted denim that put a millennial spin on the DIY aesthetic, while the team at K-ourage took a stand for inclusion and human rights by sending their creative and activist brand ambassadors down the runway alongside their models. Making a different kind of bold statement were Ingy Stockholm’s outsize earrings, which were shown in a group accessory show and seen gilding the globes of one of the many Norwegian bloggers in attendance. Rave Review, which uses only upcycled materials, and Hi on Life, a brand that supports traditional tailoring in Ghana, where their clothes are made, were both focused on sustainability, an issue that is of growing concern in the industry and among nature-loving Swedes.
Here, the most forward-looking collections shown in Stockholm.
Brand: Rave Review
Designers: Josephine Bergqvist and Livia Schück
Founded: 2017, Stockholm
The look: Upcycled couture
This design duo studied together at Beckmans School of Design and launched their line last season in Paris. Bergqvist and Schück are women on a mission. Leveraging the industry’s growing interest in sustainability, their aim is “to work with recycling progressively” and show that sustainable fashion can look high-end. So far the pair are sourcing their materials at secondhand shops and online, and as they grow they plan to work with recycling companies abroad. Though their Fall inspiration was witches, there was nothing dark or spooky about their innovative collection, which opened with a lacy white dress and included deconstructed leather coats with blanket inserts. “For us,” the designers explain, “the witch theme stands for feminism—being powerful and mysterious, sexual and provocative, all the features that we want to highlight and also what is characteristic for our brand.”
Brand: PRLE
Designer: Andreas Danielsson
Founded: 2013, Malmö
The look: 1970s adrogynous
Danielsson studied patternmaking and sewing at Tillskärarakademin Malmö and interned with CMMN SWDN before launching his own label five years ago. Pronounced “par-lay,” the name is derived from the French parlé (“to speak”), and indeed Danielsson’s voice is unique and his message considered. He waited four years after going solo to start showing, owing to “the long learning process of finding my aesthetics and ‘reason for being.’” There’s an inward sense to Danielsson’s designs, which this season combined such disparate elements as velvet ribbon, baseball shirts, and corduroy. “My main inspiration,” he says, “comes from my romanticized image of the ’70s, the freedom revolution, and its progressive and androgynous aesthetic.”
Brand: K-ourage
Team: Anna Blomquist, Jacob Bernhardtz, Magnus Klahr
Founded: 2016, Stockholm
The look: Woke
This brand was born out of a chance meeting between industry veterans on the subway. The team—Blomquist, designer; Bernhardtz, e-commerce expert; and Klahr, art director—is united in their desire to use their creativity to promote positive change in the world. “We think there is a longing among people to show they care,” explains Blomquist, “and we are hopefully a way to help them do that; to consume according to their beliefs.” Ideology doesn’t interfere with the clean-lined fashions the company is creating. Rather than lean on slogans, K-ourage works with ambassadors who embody the brand values, like 42-year-old Tess Asplund, who faced down 300 neo-Nazis at a rally in Sweden. One of the ways that Blomquist has found to express bravery sartorially is by incorporating elements of medical corsetry into the collections; these are not conceived as constraints but exist to help women “in a comfortable way to proudly stretch their backs with their heads up,” says the designer.
Brand: Per Götesson
Designer: Per Götesson
Founded: 2016, London
The look: Menswear pulled into new proportions
After presenting his Fall 2018 collection in London, Götesson traveled to Stockholm to participate in the Swedish Fashion Talents show, where he elected to show looks from each of his four collections. These included items turned inside-out, pajamas as daywear, a vest made of bottle tops, and dramatic jeans with the volume of a ball skirt. Götesson, who worked with Ann-Sofie Back and is a graduate of London’s Royal College of Art menswear course, says his starting point is his own wardrobe and by “skewing proportions I am playing with new silhouettes in menswear.” Though not a proponent of Scandi minimalism, the designer’s heritage is an influence on his work. “Growing up in a small place [Vimmerby],” Götesson explains, “has somewhat influenced my liking toward the very ordinary and everyday.”
Brand: Hi on Life
Designer: Malin Busck
Founded: 2009, Malmö/Accra
The look: Streetwear that crosses cultures
Busck marries African tailoring and textiles with street silhouettes. During Fashion Week Stockholm, where streetwear is underrepresented, the designer staged an off-schedule pop-up featuring a performance by Belgrade-born Swedish rapper Gnucci (Ana Rab). While a DJ cranked out tunes, Busck photographed friends in her new collection, which had a rave-club feel.
Brand: Iggy Jeans
Designer: Ingrid Berg
Founded: 2017, Stockholm
The look: Millennial DIY
“I started painting vintage jeans to create something fun and unique,” says Berg, who is the youngest designer ever to show at Fashion Week Stockholm. The 15-year-old was discovered last year by Cheap Monday founder Örjan Andersson while wearing her own painted denim at his boutique, Från Ö Till A. He has carried her designs since then. “I have always loved dressing up, mixing and matching clothes, and driving my parents [Boo.com cofounder Kasja Leander and noted art director Joel Berg] nuts,” the teenager says. “Lucky for them, I went to a school where uniforms were a requirement.” Though limited in range, Berg’s “kooky” pieces and matching philosophy appeal to her fellow millennials. “I don’t have one aesthetic,” she says. “Also, I don’t take myself too seriously; everything just ends up being too boring then. I love bright colors and prints, and I like to think of my style as my own. I love fashion for all of the joy and fun it can bring to your day.”
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Brand: Ingy Stockholm
Designer: Ingela Klementz Farago
Founded: 2017, Stockholm
The look: Softened and Midas-touched Brutalism
Late last year Klemetz-Farago launched her label, a line of statement jewelry she hopes will encourage women “to be inspired and to dare.” Bold statements certainly suit Klemetz-Farago, a statuesque beauty with a penchant for Comme des Garçons and a hunger for the new. “It’s wonderful to create, and this has been important to me as long as I can remember,” says the multitasking Swede, who also works as a photographer, curator, and publisher of fashion books with her husband, Peter Farago. Nature informs the designer’s jewelry, which is made of gilded wood that is treated to be light as a feather. Like the couple’s photography, Klemetz-Farago’s pieces exist somewhere between fashion and art.