LIKE HONEY AND TROMBONES

Jenny Grettve and Ravishing Mad had a showroom far away from the center and in that showroom, on the 2nd floor of an apartment building, I met with them and spoke to them about their collections for S/S 12. So, I went into the elevator

up the stairs

and down the proverbial rabbit hole.

Jenny Grettve is both an architect and a fashion designer, a fact which comes through in her sculptural pieces. She's got something interesting to say about eco-friendly fashion which stuck with me: "Make fashion you can wear for a lifetime."

So true - why don't we just get it right the first time?! If you produce quality, well-made and classic pieces, then people will love them for years and won't need to buy more or waste the ones they have already. Right on, Jenny! Her pieces stand up to the rhetoric; have a peek at some of my favourites (including the perfect wide-legged trousers she's wearing herself):

Also, have a look at an art video she produced of the entire collection below:

Anna from Ravishing Mad was an exercise in contrasts. Her style is irreverent and her ideas are complicated - when describing her denim she said "I intentionally do everything the denim world tells you not to do." I could see what she meant - instead of distressing her jeans, she paints directly on the fabric. Her creations have high waists and ample thighs, and she even uses denim to create sculptural haute couture pieces inspired by evolved skeletons and and rorshag tests. I only wish I'd gotten a picture of the amazing 3/4 length navy silk jersey dress she embellished - with burn marks.

My favourite piece of denim from her S/S 12 collection below:

And a few more pieces from the same collection which I found on her website:

   

A great fashion collaboration made in Malmö (pronounced "malm-oh"), the 2nd city of Sweden, which these girls hope to make as much of a fashion hub as Stockholm. They may just be on to something.

{title: From Anis Mojgani's poem "These things are how you make me feel" - like honey and trombones! This is the very first of his poems I ever heard, and still one of the most beautiful. Video above.}

HOW LONG IS NOW?

I wandered into lots of different retail stores during my time in Sweden, at most of which I knew what to expect. However, when I happened upon the Zoe store (with a giant "sale" sign in the window) I got a nice surprise.

The management was kind enough to let me add some photos of my favourite styles. 

I'd never heard of the brands: I spoke with the saleswoman, and many of them are available in the UK and internationally, so I've included links to all the brands' websites I could find: Sixty Seven, BDK, Moheda, Vagabond, Shoe Biz, Gardenia, 67 and Ten Points.

So much joy. My joy is your joy. Enjoy. 


Also enjoy today's poem, which I found on the Aisle 16 website. Aisle 16 are a 3-person London performance poetry collective with an amazing spoken word night once a month. "Our love was a conspiracy so powerful it never could have existed." O-KAY!

{poem: Ross Sutherland "The Love Conspiracy"}

THIS WAS DUE TO AN ERROR IN THE SPACE TIME CONTINUUM

I questioned what I was doing at the Boutique Frash Exhibition as I wandered past the guy getting a tattoo. 

Then I saw this beauty.

It stopped me in my tracks as I thought, this is giving me California! Spoke more to the guys at the stand and indeed, my intutition was right, as this line (OBEY) was born in LA - the brainchild of Shepard Fairey who was already an established graffiti artist (you might also know his work from Obama's 2008 Hope campaign) here's his manifesto:

"The Obey campaign can be explained as an experiment in Phenomenology.
The first aim of Phenomenology is to reawaken a sense of wonder about one's environment.
The Obey campaign attempts to stimulate curiosity and bring people to question both the campaign and their relationship with their surroundings.

Because people are not used to seeing advertisements or propaganda for which the motive is not obvious, frequent and novel encounters with Obey propaganda provoke thought and possible frustration, never the less revitalizing the viewer's perception and attention to detail."

They didn't want me to take too many pics (I don't think a lot of fashion bloggers came through there, though I'm really glad I did) so I got a couple, then did some more research on the brand on the internet, and got more images from karmaloop.com, obeyclothing.co.uk, urbanindustry.co.uk. I looked in the men's sections for a lot of the items, since a lot of the pieces seem quite unisex to me. 

Cool huh? Also, besides selling clothing they have an annual cause to which they donate 100% of the proceeds for a special line of t-shirts to a deserving charity. AND, they are proponents of street art and most recently completed a wall on Copenhagen called the 69 Wall, which reads "Never forgive, never forget".

   

I hate to leave this until last because it's so incredible... but it's 5am so I need to wrap this post up. I've been listening to a lot of performance poetry podcasts on indiefeed.com and I came across the incredible Anis Mojgani. Several hours of YouTube later, and I find this beauty, called "the tree branches are full and these orchards heavy." Just... listen.

{poem: Anis Mojgani "the tree branches are full and these orchards heavy"}
{title: From a poem by Ross Sutherland called "The Three Stigmata of PacMan. View his YouTube channel here.}

EVIDENTLY, I DON'T EXPERIENCE THINGS AS RATIONALLY AS YOU DO

Another huge hilight of Stockholm for me was the Stylein show, which began with dance video art as the show was inspired by dance and movement. 


Now that I look again at the color palette, it's incredibly sophisticated - neutrals, dusky earth tones, pastels and a gentle floral, with subtle metallic accents - which means that every woman can find something to complement her skin tone. It's easy elegance; I kept thinking, it must be so easy for the models to slip into these pieces on backstage. 


I especially loved the hair and makeup - a soft smokey eye and a high messy bun. I can see this look working for just about everyone. 


OK enough talking from me, pics below - some taken by me, mixed in with images from http://www.mercedesbenzfashionweek.se.

The garments were just as incredible from the back:

Detail shots:

Later I went backstage to take some pics of the Max Factor makeup area. Heaven!

Want more? Visit the Stylein website here.

{title: From the poem "Hurling crowbirds at mockingbars" by Buddy Wakefield}