13 posts tagged "Cheap Monday"
Stockholm Fashion Week Comes To A Close
Throughout Stockholm fashion week, blogger Columbine Smille will report back on the best and brightest shows. To view our complete coverage click here.
Day 3:
The final day of Stockholm fashion week began with AltewaiSaome, a young label designed by Natalia Altewai and Randa Saome. For Fall, the pair was inspired by a trip to New York and showed a luxe take on streetwear. Featuring embellished dresses, emerald-green hooded silk jackets, and relaxed silhouettes, their wearable urban collection had an easy, sporty tone.
J.Lindeberg’s Fall ’13 (above) was all about traditional tailoring with a modern twist. Inspired by the Stockholm City Library, the men’s collection was filled with well-cut suits and coats, as well as a few splashes of color and playful prints. For women, the brand (which is sold in more than thirty-five countries worldwide) offered sophisticated separates in black, navy, and olive.
Over at Diana Orving, there were earth tones, metallics and flowerlike sheer organza appliqués. A few dresses were shown in a script print, which the designer wrote in her own hand, but the long lace dress paired with a transparent off-the-shoulder cardigan was the highlight of the show.
Tiger of Sweden—which some have come to call the Burberry Prorsum of Stockholm—closed fashion week with a standout show (a show that, it should be noted, included model Kirstin Liljegren, pictured above). Tweed coats and caps were mixed with color-blocked silky looks in black, deep purple, and neon. The outerwear, however, was the crowd favorite—a big fuzzy fur coat made front-rowers look twice.
Stockholm fashion week may be finished, but the Swedes still have two more local brands to look forward to: Acne Studios will be showing in Paris this season (they formerly showed in London), and Rodebjer has recently started presenting their collection in New York. Indeed, we’re excited to see what they’ll bring to the international fashion stage.
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C’est Chic! Cheap Chic, That Is
Cheap Monday, the Swedish brand best known for its affordable second-skin unisex jeans, is headed to Paris. As part of the label’s long-term plan for retail expansion (it opened its first store in Copenhagen in 2009 and an outpost in London last year, pictured above), Cheap Monday will open a stand-alone Paris location in the Marais district in fall 2013. But this won’t be just any petite Paris boutique. In the spirit of Cheap Monday’s laid-back, urban approach to style, the 3,300-square-foot space—which will house womenswear, menswear, jeans, and beyond—will feature industrial chain-link fencing and broken particle board. Sounds good to us, but we still have one question: When are you coming to New York, Cheap Monday?
The Crowning Moments Of Stockholm Fashion Week
What a difference a few months make. It was only February this year that the original Lisbeth Salander, Noomi Rapace, opened Stockholm fashion week on a cold winter’s morning. This time around, it was none other than Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, who kicked off the Spring ’13 proceedings (as for the temperature on this summer’s morning, it felt only disputably higher)—it was an unexpected, stark contrast to the past season, indeed.
The first show of the season was couture by Dior and Lanvin alumnus Fadi el Khoury. From an elegant, pristine white trouser suit with a tame peplum to intricately detailed lace gowns, these were clothes perfect for a modern princess. It wasn’t until Stylein that we saw a collection word-perfect to what the Scandi-less among us think represents Scandinavian cool. Designed by Elin Nyström, these were easy separates in lemon, gray, and a small floral print, to bulk-buy and rely on. But if it’s the must-watch name you’re looking for, a safe bet could be placed with Altewaisaome, by designers Natalia Altewai and Randa Saome. They showed cocoon jackets, origami pleated skirts, and white wedges (all of which might be inspired by the Fall runways at Balenciaga, Proenza Schouler, and Céline), but there was more than enough here to warrant keeping tabs on them as they develop their line.
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Dragon Tattoo Leaves Its Mark On Stockholm Fashion Week
It was Stockholm’s unlikely style icon Lisbeth Salander, or rather the first actress to bring her to life in the original The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo film series, Noomi Rapace (pictured), who kicked off the city’s fashion week Monday morning with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Rapace attended shows throughout the week, and on Tuesday night, at the just-opened Burberry store, she told us she had just come from the Dagmar show, where Salander was cited as an inspiration (the modernist artist Sigrid Hjerten was the other) for the collection. The three Dagmar sisters are known for their knitwear, but this show brought their label to a new level. For every sweater in a deep plum, there were long silk dresses with high slits secured by zips, and right after the cream chunky Aran knit came a top and track-style pants in a black velvet devoré animal print that made everyone lean forward for a closer look. It appeared again on a dress and alongside the lace-effect knit patterns on a couple of short dresses at the end—Dagmar was the highlight of the day, if not the week. More than one editor placed a personal order after the show—we overheard one of them saying, “I want to be a Dagmar girl” at the end of the presentation.
The rest of the week flew by, perhaps a sign that when casual cool is your brand’s DNA, a full-on show may be a stretch. Then again, you could drive everyone to a hangar space outside the city and show bras on top of cutoff tees (à la Cheap Monday) or throw balloons, confetti, and winking models high-fiving each other on the runway (like Odd Molly), but perhaps that’s not advisable without a heavy dose of Meadham Kirchhoff irony. Jewelry designer Maria Nilsdotter put on a small presentation at the Story hotel for her Swedish folk tale-inspired collection of silver pieces with spikes, and Ida Sjöstedt showed her hand-stitched gowns in the Clock Suite of the Berns Hotel. These more intimate spaces turned out some of the most promising offerings. With that, Stockholm fashion week closed Wednesday night, as temperatures dropped to -13 degrees C (8 degrees F), just in time for everyone to hop over to Copenhagen to begin a new round of shows.
Just Another Manic Monday
Ann-Sofie Back was and wasn’t completely herself these past few days, showing two very different collections during Stockholm fashion week. On Monday, she presented her diffusion line, Back, in a shop basement: easygoing looks that included windbreaker-fabric pants and a beautiful lipstick-smudge floral print. (For a look at Back Spring 11, click below.) Much more hyped, though, was the first full collection she’s done for Cheap Monday (above) since being named creative director last summer, which showed on a rainy Tuesday evening under a tent on the Stockholm waterfront.
Back tapped into her flashier side for that one, citing (along with collaborator Örjan Andersson) Latin denim and L.A. celebrity trends as strong influences. “With Cheap Monday, I can actually somehow be freer, because it’s not me,” she explained backstage. The brand’s bigger client base means working with more restrictions. “It can’t be too clean; it has to be playful and a bit rough. There are certain things that have to be included in the collection, and that’s actually quite relaxing,” Back said. “With my own line, I get a bit more precious, and not always in a good way.”
There’s nothing that self-deprecating in Back’s extroverted, slightly exaggerated Cheap Monday looks. There are some overlaps, though: sheer tops, drawstrings, and glitter. As for her main line, Ann-Sofie Back, she’ll show it in London on September 20. After a contemplative pause, she said, “I’m pretty sure there’s no glitter in it.” Continue Reading “Just Another Manic Monday” »