Maybe you have heard of this event already? Otherwise if you’re in Gothenburg saturday May 9th, don’t miss out! The shows start at 13.00 and 16.00 and tickets are sold on site or can be bought in advance at ‘Emma & Malena’ on Vallgatan 4 orat Tillskärarakademin.
FashioFriend.se will attend packing cameras and lenses and images will be up on the site on monday. Check back!
//Peter Lindberg – Editor & photographer
Yes! You there, behind the keyboard! We want YOU to contribute to FashionFriend.se! Are you designing clothes or shoes or hats or… doing fashion photography or writing about fashion, maybe you are a stylist and want to your styling to be seen; make contact or send in stuff you already have. Also; take a look at the stuff already on the site to see what kind of level we want and what questions we want to answerred. The rules are simple; you and the people you work with are newcomers or small players in the industry. We don’t care about those who already made a name for themselves! They can afford to hire PR-people or an ad-agency. We are in for the underdogs! You reach us by e-mail: info[a]fashionfriend.se
See ya!
Peter Lindberg – Editor… and more.
This feature is of Michelle Urvall Nyrén, another of the designers that participated in this years Fresh Fish. Lets put it short and and let Michelle do the talking.. kinda’.
• Name
• Age: 23
• Hometown: Göteborg (Gothenburg, Sweden) Current location: Dals Långed, Sweeden (the site of her school, HDK Steneby)
• Education: Textile – Clothing – Design at HDK Steneby
• Goal : Fashion as art, wearable fashion and clothing
We asked Michelle some questions and here are her answers.
Q: What is fashion to you?
A: Fashion to me is culture, communication and storytelling.
Q: What inspires and what are your influences?
A: My inspiration differs, but I am always affected by what happens around me. I want to tell stories with my clothes. It is about creating characters and stories; making problems and solving them. I have many influences, Henrik Vibskov, Bernhard Willhelm, Rei Kawakubo for Comme des garçons and Yohji Yamamoto, to name some of them.
Q: When and where does your ideas show up/happen?
A: It does not follow a logical pattern. In cities, among people and buildings, in the forest or at the library. Ideas come from everywhere all the time.
Q: Do you sell your stuff somewhere?
A: Yes, at Tjallamalla in Stockholm.
Q: What is coming in the future? Any new collection?
A: I am currently doing my second year BFA at HDK Steneby, and I am going to do an internship in Paris next term. I have plenty of ideas and sketches for an autumn collection, but I am not sure yet.
Q: Where can we see more of your clothes/designs?
A: Some of them are to view at my schools homepage, It is under construction though.
Q: What is hot right now, and what’s not? 😉
A: I could not tell. Expressions as “hot”, “right” and “cool” are relative, and to me they are not interesting at all. It is about people and their personal expressions. To me, part of the fascination about fashion, is that it looks different on different people. There are no rights and wrongs..
Q: Is fashion necessary? Important? Explain!
A: Yes, it is. Fashion is modern history and popular culture, it is communication. It is an interesting phenomenon, and its importance will not weaken since it is one of our most significant ways of expressing ourselves. To me it is important on a personal level, it is about personal development, self fulfilment and most of all, it is my passion.
You can contact Michelle here:
• E-mail – michelleurvallnyren[a]gmail.com
• Phonenumber – +46(0)737415815
• Website – michelleurvall.blogspot.com
Photographs by Karin Granstrand, text-editing by Peter Lindberg
Finally it’s time for the feature on James Thompson and his Black Badger operation. We did a shoot to show some of the pieces he has made. Product-shots you can find on his homepage, BlackBadger.se. James put together a little presentation on himself and his work. Happy reading!
//Peter Lindberg – Editor
I am a 32 year old industrial design student orignally from Vancouver, Canada. I am currently studying in the design masters program at HDK (Högskolan För Design och Konstahantverk) design school here in Göteborg.
In addition to my studies, I own and run a small design company called Black Badger Advanced Composites (www.blackbadger.se) where I work as a composite materials specialist. The majority of my recent work has been in jewlery design, specifically using unconventional materials.
Titanium, carbon fiber, and kevlar-style composites are my specialty. Using industrial, even military, materials in modern jewlery design allows me to create highly innovative, unconventional forms, that would not be possible with other materials. Quite frankly, gold and silver has been done to death. However when working with these industrial materials, it is the design that makes them special. Once we abandon our traditional notions of what is beautiful, countless options arise.
I work primarily with fiber-reinforced composites, so that is everything from carbon fiber like you would find in a advanced aircraft, to Lance Armstrong’s bicycle frame. This amazing material has allowed me to create rings that are barely a single gram in weight, yet are amazingly sturdy.
G10 is my other material of choice. That is a composite based on more of a kevlar-style material, like would be found in bulletproof vests and missile components. Since it can be impregnated with color, it is impossible to scratch. The color 100% penetrates the material. This G10 composite is used primarily in aerospace / military applications, meaning that it is meant to withstand far greater abuse than you could imagine!
I use a playful, almosy childlike esthetic in my work. This creates a wonderful dialogue, as the ring looks like something that would be a prize in a gumball machine, yet is on-par with titanium in its strength. It’s amazingly liberating as a designer!
Most of the carbon fiber I feature in my rings is made from salvage from the motorsports and aerospace industry. This is an intentional effort to lower the carbon footprint (pardon the pun) of the production. It also adds to the appeal of the product if the ring you are wearing is made from a piece of a satellite or F1 race car.
I have also designed and produced a series of rings in pink-tinted G10 composite that I sold to raise money for the Rosa Bandet campaign here in Sweden.
James Thompson
Industrial designer and owner
Black Badger Advanced Composites
Photographs by Peter Lindberg, make-up by Martina Gustafsson, models Herman E and Anette
A video of the last catwalk show of saturday. Quality isn’t great but… Enjoy!
Video by FashionFriend.se, shot by Kerstin Sondén