Last week I got a nice email from Sandra Backlund that included beautiful pictures from her Spring/Summer 2010 collection.
Having followed her work for a while now on this blog and for other magazines, I always enjoy getting updates from Sandra since they show in which directions she has been developing her style, in which ways new projects such as the collaboration with the Italian knitwear company Maglificio Miles influenced her technique (and in which ways her technique influenced and amazed the people at Miles…) and where her knitting instincts are taking her.
What I like about Sandra's new collection is the fact that while it retains her style, it’s definitely more wearable, with less cumbersome, yet wonderfully sculptural pieces.
The collection features a body suit, a beige dress and top that I particularly like for the effects the material employed seem to produce creating a sort of soft shingle roof effect.
The collection also features a collage corset and armband made using leftover pieces of 60s wallpaper from Sandra’s hallway.
The more I looked at these pieces throughout the weekend, the more I kept on thinking about interior design and architecture.
The wallpaper collage pieces subvert interior design codes using a lifeless and flat material usually employed inside a house to create something almost three-dimensional used as a temporary armour to adorn one’s body.
The other pieces in the collection made me think about something else, an image of a house I had seen a few years ago.
In August 2003, Swedish architecture studio 24H-Architecture did a wonderful house covered in cedar wood shingles.
Designed by Maartje Lammers and Boris Zeisser, rather than a proper house, the Dragspelhuset, is actually an extension to an original cabin from the 1800s, located on the shore of the lake Övre Gla.
The main characteristic of this cabin is that it can evolve, adjusting to its environment depending on weather conditions, season and number of occupants.
The building can indeed change like a butterfly, assuming a cocooning shape characterised by a double skin in winter and unfolding its wings for extra shelter in summer.
Cedar wood shingles were used for the roofing: this natural material contributes to give a rather organic shape to the house and allows it to blend naturally into the setting of the forest.
The comparison between 24H-Architecture’s work and Sandra Backlund's designs came to my mind mainly for one reason: the former blends in a natural landscape very easily since with the time the cedar wood turns grey fitting itself smoothly in the forest landscape; though Backlund’s pieces look in some cases like armours, they seem to blend very easily with the body, almost giving it a different shape.
It’s easy to find connections between architecture and fashion, after all buildings protect and shelter human beings, while garments protect the human body.
I find the connection between modern architecture and contemporary fashion very intriguing as both these disciplines often try to experiment with shapes and silhouettes that can somehow create building or garments that can dynamically modify the environment or the human body.
I hope Sandra will keep on developing such inspiring techniques: it's only possible to write beautifully about fashion when you are inspired by truly amazing pieces.
All the pictures of Sandra Backlund’s S/S 2010 collection in this post courtesy of Sandra.
Credits:
Photo: Peter Gehrke/Adamsky
Styling: Naomi Itkes/Link Details
Hair: Peter Andersson/Mikas
Make Up: Anya De Tobon/Link Details
Model: Tilda L/Stockholmsgruppen
Art Direction: Sandberg & Timonen
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