Conservation or Conservative Fashion? It’s Stockholm Fashion Week
By
February 2, 2010
The ninth edition of Fashion Week by Berns in Stockholm was officially inaugurated earlier today when the Swedish Prime Minister’s wife, Filippa Reinfeldt, cut the blue and yellow ribbon. In her speech, she addressed the well-known Swedish inclination for forward-thinking mentality (which has yet to enduringly penetrate high fashion circles). She hopes that will change, as this Stockholm Fashion Week has achieved more international press attention than ever before—and this is not the era of the free press trip.
In an early show, the Swedish sisters Kristina Tjäder, Karin Söderlind and Sofia Malm of House of Dagmar presented a collection “Seven Veils,” their interpretation of La Belle Epoque, envisioned in the spirit of Russian ballerina Ida Rubinstein. The models were “make-downed” using makeup in a white-shading palette that contrasted starkly with the soft silks and velvet featured in the collection. Other contrasts included short and long silhouettes, trendy rectangular shoulders with draped skirts and dresses. What might have played as conservatism elsewhere here reads as conservation, which is trendier and more visible than in the United States. That trickles down to the schwag, here a fabric goody bag with the printed words “Organic Shopping Bag” visible on it. Sustainable branding, or high fashion? Not both.
