In a previous post I confessed one of my favourite colours is black. Unfortunately, though, there are too many people who think black is a rather boring colour. So I have decided to dedicate this post to all those people who think that “black equals boring”. How am I going to do it? Simple, by focusing on an amazing Swedish designer, Helena Hörstedt. I was glad to hear from designer duo Mori & Mimosa, whom I recently interviewed
that Hörstedt is also their favourite Swedish designer. 
After graduating from the Beckmans School of Design in 2004, Helena Hörstedt launched her own label with four all-black collections, “No 2”, “No 3”, “The Black Whole” and the Autumn/Winter 2008-09 collection entitled “Broken Shadow”.
Her outfits are all characterised by an emphasis on structures and an incredible attention to details. 
Hörstedt often reuses in her dresses the hourglass silhouette, but constantly updates it, adding architecturally perfect details made with fabric that she obsessively folds and pleats. Plain one dimensional outfits become tri-dimensional sculptures in Hörstedt’s hands, while the different nuances and tones of black - because this colour does have different nuances - are created by using different natural fabrics, from silk to wool and leather. 
From faraway the details blend into each other and become barely visible, but, when you focus better on the garments, you realise the incredible amount of intricate details Hörstedt adds to her designs. The secret to this young designer’s creations is the dense coverage of surfaces, those clusters of loops that have become her trademark. 
Each dress, top or jacket becomes in Hörstedt’s hands a sort of amazing visual experience: the emphasis mainly remains on the body curves, thanks to the perfectly tailored cut of her garments, but the contours of the hips, shoulders and bust are usually exaggerated by adding details to them. At times it looks as if Hörstedt applied origami techniques to fabric, at others as if she mathematically studied each fold and pleat, making them with geometrical precision.
In her latest collection, entitled “Broken Shadows” cascades of fan-like ruches cover up a whole dress, from neck to knees; leather is gathered into cones as if it were fabric; perfectly symmetrical pompoms turn a coat and a bonnet into an armour for a futuristically stylish cyborg-like woman while pleated ruffles sewn onto the front panel of dresses add extra layers and volumes; rosettes of fabric arranged in curvilinear paths decorate some dresses in such a clever way that they seem to follow the movement of the wearer.
The features on the items from this collection create aggressive shadows, almost altering the body silhouette. Hörstedt was recently assigned the ”Unga Konsthantverkare” (Young Craftsmen) scholarship, awarded by the Nationalmusei vänner (Friend of the National Museum) and Bengt Julin’s fund and I hope she will use her grant to develop further her strikingly black collections.
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