Designers' Nest 2020 Show at CPHFW
During the show, models were carrying mannequins, wearing eyeless masks and dressed up in butterfly-pupae looking gala dresses—needless to say, the audience was alert. Scanning the crowd, one could see a full spectrum of emotion—frowning, laughing, and jeering, to name a few. Interested? We got you covered. office asked the ten designers who were represented at the show how they have been inspired for their collection below.
AMINA SAADA
What inspired you to make this collection?
I wanted to find a new way of making clothes with a visual concept of "ugly" brides. I got inspired by transition, 60s bridal wear, cocoons and sculpting with clay. Somehow, it all came together poetically forming wearable sculptures.
Use three words to describe your designs.
Bold, timeless, and artistic.
COURTNEY MAKINS
What inspired you to make this collection?
My inspiration came from a want to evolve garments. To remove the body from them and allow them to be able to speak on their own. Changing the perception of what a garment could become, so they could then develop their own personalities.
Use three words to describe your designs.
Sculpturistic, artistic, and innovative
ELLEN HODAKOVA LARSSON
What inspired you to make this collection?
The inspiration comes with the concept of rethinking, where I have deconstructed old clothes with my framework from the equestrian sport that I grew up in, to create a balance between abstract and applied in a sustainable way.
Use three words to describe your designs.
Smart, sophisticated, and playful.
FREDRIK MÖLLER
What inspired you to make this collection?
People go to work, and people come home from work. People play roles in their lives, going in and out of character. We create our own characters depending on where we are and with whom. My goal is to explore strict dress codes and their boundaries within the business world—adding a bit of humor by digging deeper into the "Casual Friday" theme.
Use three words to describe your designs.
Innovative, detailed, and experimental.
ISHARA JAYATHILAKE
What inspired you to make this collection?
I’m drawn continuously into social, political, and cultural issues. Ultimately through knowledge and belief, people reconstruct and recreate a shared system that we call culture. Therefore, self-identity, in the broadest sense, is more central to most social issues than I had ever thought. Imagine that there was no more religion, no more country, no more politics? Thus, My work has been heavily influenced by my own cultural experience, exploring ideas of cross-cultural heritage and the creation of hybrid identity, influenced both by the aesthetics of colonialism and postcolonialism in Sri Lanka. Although my project aims at demonstrating an interpretative understanding of sartorial trends owing to postcolonialism in Sri Lanka, I also hope it will have broader significance for the recognition of the fusion of hybrid cultural identity between East and West.
Use three words to describe your designs.
Political, cross-cultural identity, and colonial influences.
JON ALLENSTEN
What inspired you to make this collection?
With this collection, “Within," I wanted to capture how my struggle between the expected life choice. In my case, a career in economics versus the dream of a creative life could be visualized. I wanted to take business wear and make it evolve into something else—less of a uniform or a shelter where your personality and feelings can hide behind. As much as I wanted to portray my inner struggle, the dare to listen to my inner voice, this collection is also for men who dare to show their fragility and what exists within—something which is often hidden and diminished behind images of what’s masculine and what’s not. My vision is to create menswear that enables men to show a faceted range of their personalities—from the fragile hidden depth to external faces. It's a modern image of masculinity.
Use three words to describe your designs.
Poetic, new masculinity, and suits.
JENNIFER JÖNSSON LUNDEDAL
What inspired you to make this collection?
My greatest inspiration was to show that fashion is more than a flat photo—it is deep; it is art. I wanted to explore and expose all dimensions of what dress is and re-define what it could be.
Use three words to describe your designs.
Knit, experimental, and dimensions.
MICHELLE BRANDSTRUP
What inspired you to make this collection?
The #MeToo Movement significantly raised public debate about sexual harassment and assault in 2017, and since then, the topic has been debated in the media. This inspired me to explore how I could create more body-covering and loose-fit clothing, while still giving women the possibility to express their sexuality and appear attractive. I wanted to move the center of attention from the actual body to spaces around it. Working with an element of curiosity, creating a two-layer flickering moiré print, in alignment with references to the female body shape, this being the center of attention eventually could create curiosity of the body underneath the garment.
Use three words to describe your designs.
Objectification, loose-fit, and female sexuality.
MILKA SEPPÄNEN
What inspired you to make this collection?
My bachelor’s thesis collection was inspired by numerous micro and subcultures that fall somewhere in between ’70s punk, ’80s contemporary fashion, and pre-grunge. My aim was to create a wardrobe that captures the spirit of the era, but regardless of nostalgia, have it also work in a modern context. I constructed my research material focusing mainly on a personal footage and archive material of my mother and her friends in Helsinki’s underground scene during the 1980s. Also, by examining how these subcultures diversified along the way even to the most rural parts of Finland, I wanted to portray a feeling of teenage idolization, small-town idleness and a certain home-made aesthetic as a clumsy interpretation of your idol’s style. I tried to capture the authenticity of the era by manufacturing the pieces with a DIY ethos, largely out of recycled materials to achieve an impression of ”Fleamarket of My Dreams”—a wardrobe credible for an individual of a certain era and subculture.
Use three words to describe your designs.
Unpolished, coincidental, and ambivalent (reminiscent).
OLIVER OPPERMANN
What inspired you to make this collection?
The collection is inspired by the way my generation has been pushed to perform academically and strive to become something fantastic. This has created a lot of pressure for my generation, and we are all getting sick with various mental illnesses. It is a sultry blessing—the freedom our parents and grand parents have been fighting to get us. Complete freedom can be claustrophobic and confusing. Maybe we need to evaluate how we aspire in life. Maybe careers and education aren't the only factors that can determine success. I think we need to look into people and see who they are more than what they do or have done. The collection is a visual and technical interpretation of these various storylines and concepts regarding the life young people live. Every garment in the collection represents a small fraction of the biggest issue—a single concept, a critic or a description.
Use three words to describe your designs.
Critical, personal, and beautiful.
