Fusing Fashion, Culture, and Art: Highlights from Oslo Fushion Festival

September 16, 2021

Oslo Fushion Festival, which ran just a few weeks ago, kicked off by showcasing an eclectic conglomerate of almost 60 different Norwegian designers and fashion brands. The event, influenced by the last year spent logged in and locked in digitally, takes on a hybrid format, allowing for a multifaceted experience enriched by engaging video presentations, physical runway shows, press events, and exhibitions.

The week started with a bang, bringing back the live runway shows both audiences and designers alike had dearly missed for the past year and a half. Norwegian label Livid as well as designer Fam Irvoll both displayed shows that brought a smile to attendees’ faces with alluring designs and an optimistic atmosphere.

Text by Kayla Curtis-Evans
Photos by Anton Soggio, Michael Ray Vera Cruz, and Fredrick Austad

The live events coincided with digital presentations from brands Envelope1976, ESP - Elisabeth Stray Pederson, Avenue, Iben, Livid, Oleana, FWSS, New Movements, and SWIMS. A jewelry exhibition, in which eight of Norway’s leading jewelry designers flaunted new collections, additionally supplemented the hybrid shows. All in all, the week acted as a means by which Norwegian designers and creatives could connect and unite upon their common love for expression through art.

Check out office’s interview with the CEO of Oslo Fushion Festival, Elin Carlsen, as well as two of the festival’s featured designers, Fam Irvoll and Livid, below.

What is the meaning behind the wordplay “Fushion”?

Elin Carlsen: Oslo Runway merged with Collective Oslo in 2019 and initiated a new festival with the intentions of fusing fashion and art under the wordplay “Fushion.” Fashion, art, lifestyle, music, and technology all have strong influences on each other, and the word Fushion plays with how fashion merges with different genres. By fusing several expressions, we want to contribute to a fashion culture that goes beyond today's consumerism. We, as a society, must start looking at products as investment objects, something we must take care of and use for a long time. In this case, fashion has a lot to learn from art. We also introduced a new branch of the festival this year; the exhibition concept Sorgenfri Artwear which presents Norwegian designers working in the intersection of fashion and art, highlighting influential voices within slow fashion. Pursuing the fact that a garment can also be seen as an object of the arts.

Do you think Oslo Fushion Festival has been strengthened by the hybrid format, as this allows for more designers and creators to be included?

Elin Carlsen: By gathering and collaborating across platforms with several creative actors during the festival, we have been able to highlight a breadth of Norwegian designers both nationally and internationally, strengthened by the hybrid format. To be relevant as a platform, one must constantly evolve, and the digital format has for a long time been discussed by the fashion weeks. Fashion weeks are a lot about networking, being inspired, finding new brands. This is something everyone is doing digitally through social media today, so I think to stay relevant fashion weeks need to be present both physically and digitally. Growing Norwegian fashion brands have different needs; some wish to gain a stronger foothold here at home, while others are interested in increased exports. Some want to invest in a traditional runway, while others want to reach out through alternative formats. What we clearly see is that brands need to develop interesting digital content to get coverage in both national and international media. This year we included almost 60 designers and fashion brands and almost 30 artists, so this format definitely allows for more creators to be included!

How did you select the designers and fashion brands to be included in the festival?

Elin Carlsen: In terms of the special jewelry exhibition, there has been an enormous development in Norwegian jewelry design in recent years, and we are impressed with the high-level of many of the new jewelry brands. For the first time we invited a few jewelry brands that have already gained some attention, and who place great emphasis on sustainability through the use of recycled materials and jewelry that is made to order, as well as brands that have unique and clear design directions. The invited fashion brands have all gained recognition nationally and internationally, are ready to grow, and have a focus on designing long-lasting products. This year we also joined forces with Copenhagen Fashion Week to push the industry to accelerate sustainability efforts by implementing the CPHFW 2023 Sustainability Requirements. As a national fashion event we have an obligation to contribute to shape new mindsets and practices for a more inclusive, equal, and sustainable fashion culture. In our experiences working with sustainability, both in social and environmental aspects, the biggest impact is made through collaborative partnerships.

What do you hope people will take away from the festival experience?

Elin Carlsen: The theme of this year’s festival is “From maker to change maker.” In the midst of the disruptive forces driven by the global pandemic, climate change, and social and political movements, we wanted to lift forward the creatives contributing to shape new mindsets and practices for more inclusive, equal, and sustainable fashion cultures. We hope that people have explored fashion as something more than just the latest trends and this years’ so-called must-have style or color. I would say that fashion is becoming more political and socially engaged. Fashion has always been an effective means for conveying and expressing contemporary society and societal issues, but in today’s climate it is ever more important to take a stance, for both consumers and brands. What we find really exciting now, is that most newly established fashion brands implement sustainability as a starting point for choices of material, design aesthetics, and business models. It’s not acceptable to launch a new fashion brand in Norway if it is not rooted in sustainable values.

Your designs all take on a playful, vibrant spirit — what inspired this creativity throughout the runway designs?

Fam Irvoll: I have been inspired by the 60s, Edie Sedwick, and the Factory’s aesthetic. I’m a very political person and I never do any shows without them being political in a way. This show is an “After War” show. After every war it shows in fashion — vibrant colors and happy clothes. The same goes for me. The world has been, and currently still is, surrounded by extreme right wing politics and it scares the shit out of me. So this is my political statement. I want something different for the world. I don’t want racism, poverty, “the rich get it all”, etc. That’s darkness to me, so this collection is the opposite.

Do you think this liveliness carried through in the atmosphere of the audience and the show? What I gathered from the photos and video is that it looked like an amazing and engaging presentation!

Fam Irvoll: I have done fashion shows since 2006, and they have, for the most part, been like this. I always want to make it into something more than just models walking down the catwalk looking angry or sad. I want the models to express themselves. Sometimes they just start dancing or do fun things with the audience and I love that. It makes it more fun and lively. I usually always have some kind of entertainment that matches the show too.

All of the looks in the SS22 Presentation are sleek and elegant, yet beautifully simple. What is the main vision behind this collection?

Livid: We wanted to unite lightness and texture in our materials, and in our silhouettes, we wanted to combine both elegance and carefreeness. This was a transitional collection in many ways for us, departing from the old world of stability, structure, and preconceived notions of elegance, into an unpredictable future where nothing and everything seems both possible and impossible at the same time. Standing in the ruins of this old world, we have tried to build a new spirit, and in this spirit lies the notion of beauty in disruption.

How did it feel to be able to present your designs on a runway once again?

Livid: This was actually our first ever live presentation of our men's and women's collections, and it was an amazing experience for us. We collaborated with architect Maria Wyller on producing a site-specific version of her master thesis “Tailored to Time,” a project which unites robotics and textiles, to form modular walls that can be steered manually by bespoke robots. It really set the ambiance for our show and gave us the sensation of this eerie impermanence that we are all trying to accept as the new normality.

You can watch all of the press events and digital/live runway presentations at oslofushionfestival.com. Photos from the Fam Irvoll and Livid Runway shows can be viewed below.

Fashion

From Prince Street to East 4th, a Ride With Rapha

April 29, 2024

To celebrate the coolest (and finest) cycle-centric brand Rapha's latest drop, we kept the party going after its New York Clubhouse launch with dinner and drinks at Ella Funt.

With a first campaign shot in New York, capturing riders through the lens of street photographers Sarah van Rij and David van der Leeuw, Rapha Performance Sportswear strikes the perfect balance between style and functionality, tailored for life in motion. Just in time for prime sunny weather here in New York, the collection is a perfect choice, both on and off the bike. "For someone like myself who lives in Amsterdam and commutes by bike daily," says Fayrouz Salem, Rapha Head of Lifestyle, "this is a dream come true. We've created pieces that work on the bike without having to compromise on style."

Shop the collection at rapha.cc and in select Clubhouses.

Photography by Anderson Martinez

Fashion

Happy 424 Day!

Simon Rasmussen — What's going on?

Guillermo Andrade — Right now we're just setting everything up.

So, what are you doing, is it a party?

Well, I kind of felt universally forced, right? Because 4/24/24, I was just like, I don’t really have a choice here. The stars also just kind of aligned, so to be honest, I got this settlement that came with a bunch of clothes so I had this idea to give back to the kids who fuck with us by allowing them to buy our shit first. Not handing stuff out for free, but to do it in a way where we could skip the middleman of the industry, so to speak, and not allow clothes to disappear into the abyss of Farfetch or whatever else. So what we’re going to do is a sort of warehouse sale, which we’ve never done before so that was really exciting for me. I didn’t want to do just another warehouse sale, so it’s like a sample sale turns rager. We teamed up with Adidas and a couple of other sponsors, then drinks, DJs, and a performance.

Sick, I love it.

Yeah. My dream sample sale. Also, it’s not just hoodies and t-shirts here in there, it’s proper collections from the past three seasons. I’m also not picking and choosing, trying to make it accessible, like this was the only way I could afford to buy shit when I was a kid, bro. Sample sales were the thing I looked forward to the most.

I feel you. In New York, there's the annual CDG sale, which is when I used to cop all my CDG.

The only time I could afford Rick. I flew to New York once for a Rick sample sale and I was like, Wow, I can't believe I got invited. And it was mental. I still have those pieces. I will never sell them. Not even because I got 'em cheap. It was also just really fun. Even on the flight to New York, I was like, I can't believe I'm going to New York for a sample sale, what a fucking loser I am. But it was like the adult version of when I was a kid and I was like, Wow, I can't believe I'm 20-something and I'm still doing the thing I was doing in high school. So I hope we can create moments like that for kids here in LA.

Yeah. I love that. It’s important to connect with them; they’re essentially creating the brand. If you don't have them, good luck.

I mean, yeah. Fuck, bro. It's cool that we've been around for this long. I mean, it got a little rocky there for a second I think, for all of us. So coming out of it, tomorrow is a celebration. And it’s like an odd day of the week. It's a Wednesday, super random. And now that we've set it up, the homies are all like, Yo, I'm coming. I'm coming. Let me jump on stage, let me do this, and that's really what it's always been about. It's not some other strategy to get likes on the internet.

That’s how the best things happen, you just couldn’t help yourself. It was intuitive.

Yeah, it all came together in a really nice way.

Would you say that’s how 424 started as well? I remember we met in like 2010 on Fairfax and I was visiting with Rasmus…

Oh bro, it’s probably the time when I started the branch… do you remember Cecilia from Black Dakini? She’s the one that introduced me to CIFF and honestly, I didn’t even care what she was doing, I was just like, I’m coming, I’ll go with you. She said she’d give me half of her booth and I said, Awesome count me in. At the time, I had just gotten my green card and I wasn't allowed to ever leave America, so Copenhagen was one of the first cities I went to when I could finally travel. I mean, you see what we did at CIFF bro? It became our fucking hub for half a decade.

That was a moment for sure.

I remember the first account I got was Antonioli, and he came super gangster, being like, You're going to sell me these clothes. And I was like, bro, I didn't come to sell clothes. I'm just kind of catching a vibe with my homie and I made these things. And he's like, No, you're going to sell it to me. And then I was like, Oh my god that’s Claudio Antonioli. So then I went home, I googled wholesale, and figured that shit out. [laughs]

[Laughs]

Like you said, I couldn't help myself, but I didn't just make t-shirts and hoodies either. I was really on my Rick wave, so I made my version of the Rick things. It was that meets like The Boondock Saints, because I'm still a little bit of a Cali bro, sort of rock kid, but not really. I like hip-hop, but I like the way the rock stars look. I like the contrast. I thought it was cool. After that, I just never stopped.

It was clear to me when I first met you that you were onto your own thing in LA. It made a lot of sense, and it was so cool. It was before 424 was its own brand; you just had the store and this really cool curation.

It was all my shit, bro. I was very, very invested in sharing all of these things that I was finding from all over the world, like Astrid Anderson. She was one of those designers at the time, so important to 424. The connection to Copenhagen specifically for me was huge. I had a big fan base there. It was incredible. And then here in LA, we were sharing the things that we were a part of and finding; it was still the early days of Fear of God, Rhude, Martine Rose. A lot of these brands, we were the first store to ever sell it — we were selling Hood By Air on the West Coast.

You had Rick as well, I remember.

Oh yeah. It took me a long time. But I got Rick, bro. By the time I had to close the store on Fairfax, I already had a Raf Simons account. I had reached my ultimate dream. It was really all the stuff I wanted to wear at the time. It was dope. The best of the best.

We had an office magazine newsstand in there as well.

Oh yeah, we did! I came to visit the one you had, and I was like, Yo, I got to bring this whole fucking thing over here. But yeah, in LA, after two days people forget you exist, but everyone’s been super supportive. We’re all 10 years older now. We've been around forever at this point.

It can be dangerous to take those breaks when you’re figuring shit out, but there’s something very genuine to this comeback you’re having.

Thank you, thank you. We’ve been in and out of those fucking showrooms in Paris for long enough. I've been in and out of these factories for the past 10 years of my life. We had to figure something out. And I think now really diving in, being in Italy full time and being there to develop these products over time, I think that the whole thing just really shows the suppliers respect you more. The people who are making your goods understand why you're making them. And I think now I finally got to the place where I'm not making Italian things, I’m making my clothes, I'm making Cali-centric shit, but with that European technicality and execution. With this Fall / Winter collection, it clicked.

So what’s the vision for the next year? What are you manifesting?

I'm just fucking relentless, bro. This is the way I want to live my life. Now that we are more aligned, more prepared, and have more experience, moving forward it is just more of becoming a fully functioning company that can provide and create opportunities for all of the people around me. We’ve been operating just on instinct for a long time.

Sustaining a business is scary, trust me I know.

Scary as fuck, dog. I just opened a store next to Bottega, bro, and it’s like what am I even doing? You have to just believe in the thing you're doing more than anybody else.

100%, and it seems like that’s what you’re doing.

And fashion’s kind of a competitive sport, as much as people don’t think it is. We can reach a certain level without losing ourselves. My biggest ambition at the moment is to create something that, when you leave one of our neighbors you come into our place you don’t feel that the level has been sacrificed at all. And it’s not easy.

Definitely. I wish I could be there tomorrow.

Thank you, bro. 10 years now. You’ve always shown me so much love. We have to do a booth or have the office part of the next 424 day. Shit let’s do a 424 day in New York.

That would be sick. Let's do it. I'm here. Let’s catch up soon.

Next season’s right around the corner so I’ll see you in Paris.

Yes, see you in Paris and Happy 424 day!

Fashion

Luis De Javier's PUTA Takeover

April 25, 2024

Last night with Luis De Javier, guests were overheard confirming this generation's most vital conundrum: “If I’m cunt, I can still be pussy.” “And if you’re pussy, you can still be cunt.” This sentiment echoed throughout the night as we celebrated De Javier’s first-ever streetwear collection, "PUTA". We spent seven hours at Ella Funt at a dinner turned party that only he could’ve thrown (co-hosted by emcee). It was too dark for even the most aspiring-to-look-mysterious of us to wear sunglasses inside. Under the semi-oppressive flash of party photographers, we danced as much as the space would allow, drank tequila out of teacups and kissed each other on the cheeks with a vaguely European intimacy. “I’m doing streetwear!” De Javier could be heard exclaiming — whether it be in disbelief or excitement, we couldn’t tell you.

Words and photos by Izzy Capulong

The Spanish-born London-based designer has been well-loved for his genderless tailoring, latex mastery, and overall message of empowerment. Dressing everyone from ravers to A-listers, De Javier’s latest drop pushes his design repertoire to a new level. “While designing for my celebrity clientele and showcasing my creations on the runway has always been my dream,” he notes, “It’s equally important to me that my brand resonates with a wider, more diverse audience.” While this collection’s medium has shifted from corsets to sweatshirts, the classic LDJ avant-garde sensibilities remain. Bikinis and booty shorts are shamelessly emblazoned with “PUTA,” blazers are constructed with ample shoulder padding, and I had my eye on the cheekily-named “Faguette Bag.”