This has been a great year for amazing fashion exhibitions in museums and 2009 promises to be full of not-to-be-missed fashion/art related events scattered a bit all over the world. An exhibition I can’t wait to see is “Swedish Fashion: Exploring a New Identity” that will open on 6th February at London’s Fashion & Textile Museum.
Running until May 2009, the exhibition will showcase work by 13 Swedish fashion designers, from London-based Ann-Sofie Backto Sandra Backlund, Helena Horstedtand Nakkna. The event will also feature accessories and jewels, so it promises to be rather intriguing. I’m indeed curious to see how the “identity” theme has been approached and how new designers have tried to challenge the stereotypes usually associated with Sweden, from the country’s taste for minimal design to the global phenomena generated by Ikea and H&M.
In the meantime, since I have already focused in previous posts on Backlund and Horstedt and since today I feel a bit "avant-garde", I will settle on exploring Nakkna’s universe. Based in Stockholm, this label, founded in 2003 by designers Camilla Sundin, Claes Berkes and Ella Soccorsi, produces both menswear and womenswear. Over just 5 years, Nakkna scooped quite a few design awards, and now sells throughout stores in America, Asia and Europe. The Nakkna designers have also diversified their experiences and worked for different fashion brands and trend institutes.
Nakkna's creations are characterised by a main dichotomy: they are wearable and functional, but they are sprinkled with a healthy dose of avant-garde. The results of this recipe are clean-cut garments with pure lines, featuring interesting details, geometries and draping.
In their Autumn/Winter 08 collection Nakkna explored fluidity: simple tunic dresses became studies in movement by adding a few waveshaped frills that allow volumes to expand and retract; a simple woollen coat assumed a lighter look, thanks to the addition of a few sculptural details on the shoulders while traditional men’s cardigans turned into soft, fluid and ample garments to be worn as long jackets.
The label launched their Spring/Summer 09 collection "In The Flesh" with a film presentation directed by Gösta Reiland. The opening scenes with close ups of a model wearing a Nakkna’s dress and delicately moving on the sand are rather poetical, but it’s the shots towards the end of the film that really mesmerise me as they remind me of Jacopo Pontormo's "Deposition from the Cross".
In Pontormo’s
painting the natural world disappears and the space is filled by his
figures. The same happens in Nakkna’s video, with the models filling
the screen with their movements and contortions. By setting themselves in a vortex-like sculptural congregation, the models seem to recreate Pontormo’s “Deposition", their ethereal dresses almost floating in the air replicating the folds, pleats and draping of the long garments worn by Pontormo’s characters. I wonder if there will be any new videos by Nakkna at the Fashion and Textile Museum exhibition. It would be interesting to see if the designers behind this label can bring that perfect fine art touch that is present in their collection and in the video "In The Flesh", also to other films.
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