lessmagazine #2

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Contributors list:

Pernille SandbergNicklas ThrysøeKristine Harper

Veronika DoroschevaEmil Christiansen

Andrea Holmsted KamperKatalin HorváthPhillip MongeDevin Hentz

Roxanne LærkesenJane Munch

Georgina TerragniSteffen ChristensenThomas Olafsson

Kristian Myliin Hindø-LingsEmil Monty Freddie

Victor Jones

Editors-in-chief:Martin Mitchell [email protected]

Pernille Mosbech [email protected]

Graphic Design:Amalie Helholm Zeevi

Proof Reading: Anna Di Laurenzio

Advertising:Synnøve Bahnson [email protected]

Legal:Christina Bay Palle [email protected]

C.E.O:Henriette Højlund [email protected]

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That rainy August day last summer will forever be an important day for us at Less Magazine. Not only was it the date of the release of our very first edition of Less

Magazine, it also sparked the start of a movement. This movement is Less Maga-zine and its peers. In the Less team we all have a deep connection to fashion and all of its aspects. One of the things that unite us is the goal of trying; with the little we can contribute, to make a change in this fast paced environment in which we

all live. We try to make people aware of not only the beautiful clothes that are being created, but also to make them appreciate things that might not catch the eye at first: a bobbin lace technique of Danish heritage, a hidden message addressed to

the viewer, or a feeling created with nothing but the aura that the garment radiates.

One of the essential values of Less Magazine is to maintain, but also develop, the legacy of fashion, not only of the industry, but fashion as a part of culture. There-

fore we set out to investigate the different perspectives in which legacy can be interpreted, keeping in mind that the present is a product of the past. In our “state-

ments on...” feature, we have asked different people how legacies have had an impact on their work, considering cultural backgrounds, personal visions, and the society. We discuss whether personal style is something we choose by free will

or if it is determined beforehand as a part of one’s legacy. Throughout the maga-zine you will find double spreads where various people interpret and visualize the

theme legacy in different ways.

We hope you will enjoy browsing through Less Magazine issue 02. And when you finish the last page, luckily you won’t have to wait another six months to read the next issue. In April a special edition will be out on the occasion of Youth Fashion

Summit - a solution oriented part of Copenhagen Fashion Summit 2014.

//Martin & Pernille

FOREWORD

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cOntEnts

Legacy 7 The Value of the “MADE IN” label 11 Visualization – Emil Monty 15 Interview: Freya Dalsjö 20 Freja & Freya 27 Moments and memories - By Mr. Monge : Who are you? 42 Magical Things 45 Interview: Bundgaard Nielsen 52 Visualization: Pernille Sandberg 59 Lost Souls 64 Free Will: The values of fashion in a determined world 76 Interview: Gaia Brandt 82 Background: Madame Grés 88 Visualization: Thomas Olafsson 93 Interview: Wali Mohammed Barrech 98 Visualization: Kristian Hindø 106

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lEgacyThe theme of the second issue of Less Magazine is

legacy and therefore we asked different people in the industry about just that to get off to a solid start

statEmEnts On...

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I believe that when we look back at this period in fashion history twenty to twenty-five years from now, what we will consider the legacy of this time will be how the fashion industry and consumers woke up from the materialist frenzy that has increased over decades and realized that this was not going to work. From collapsing factories in Bangladesh specifically, to climate changes generally, the fashion industry is finally realizing that it has to take responsibil-ity for its role in securing a positive future for our planet. This responsibility lies at several different levels, from developing more eco-friendly production systems, to influencing and steering behavior towards a slower more sustainable relationship between the consumer and fashion. This realization that fashion has to take respon-sibility will hopefully also be the beginning of a smaller fashion world in the sense both of volume - less is so much more - but also geographically in making produc-tion local to re-align design, production and consump-tion. Hope is one thing, action another. It won’t be easy, but there is no other way.

Maria Mackinney-Valentin, Associate Professor, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.

Private Photo

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“statements on: legacy

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Of course society and culture have an impact on my de-signs, Japanese tradition, peasants, Northern Europe, the Balkans, animals, woods, nature. I think if I always get back to these references it's because they reflect my childhood, my family and my memories. ButI believe that the only way to design something genuine and timeless isdigging in one's memories and the world and people one grew up with. Only in this way I personally am able to express this truly genuine vibe and aesthetic, only this way my designs are purely honest and remain coherent with time.I was born and raised in Germany, but my parents are Bosnian. I have always felt dragged between these two worlds, the first being Germany, which is quite distant, rational, quiet but innovative; and the other, Bosnia, which is alittle messy, superstitious, passionate, dramaticand especially poor.I guess I am lucky I have a crazy bosnian family, growing up in contradiction and paradox. In the end a complex past makes a complex human being.

Alisa Besirevic, Paris based fashion designer

Photo by Petros Giannakakis

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statements on: legacy

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As we observe our surroundings from a central sense of place, I believe cultural values are pivotal in our under-standing of design. To me, fashion is centered around in-teraction and the relationship between wearer and survey-or. It is a constant dialogue between functionality, art and culture. Therefore, a cultural legacy can yield an enormous power over how we experiencefashion. As a brand con-sultant, I need to be open to a wide variety of references, imagery and inspirations, which through my eclectic past, I am able to grasp. In my opinion, one should be allowed to explore visual identities without feeling sentiments of restraint. Furthermore, years of travelling and living in Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam and Copenhagen, have been most inspirational from a fashion and cultural point of view. The challenge is always to delineate such wide references into structured and focused strategies for each of the design-ersI work with. This is a most rewarding and dynamic pro-cess, allowing for much reflection and meaningful cultural interaction.

Marlo Saalmink, Art Director & Brand Consultant / marlosaalmink.com

Photo by Norman Morgan

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“statements on: legacy

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thE valuE OF thE“maDE In” laBEl

By Katalin horváth

Studies have shown that the most influential aspect when purchasing clothing is the name of the brand, but is there more to it than this? At present, the European Union does not require fashion brands to include a Country of Origin label on their products. However, a new proposal is under discussion in the European Parliament, shifting from voluntary to mandatory “MADE IN” labels. The reason behind this is the increasing sensitivity towards a more trans-parent labeling system providing accurate informa-tion, and a 2010 marketing survey which revealed that almost a third of European consumers check the Country of Origin label. The role of this shift would mean that companies would have to provide accu-rate information, not misleading statements, to the

customer. But why is this important? Because the fashion industry is currently able to give out mislead-ing information. A good example is the transferring of the production process to Asia, while still “tricking” the customer into believing that the item of clothing is “MADE IN ITALY”. How do fashion brands succeed in doing this? It is simple actually: Items of clothing are mostly produced in Asia and, as the European Union suggests, the country in which the final sub-stantial transformation added to the garment takes place can be described as the “Country of Origin”, which in most cases is Italy or France. This “last substantial transformation” could be the addition of buttons or lining.

Illustrations by georgina terragni

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What is misleading for the customer is that when they see a “MADE IN ITALY” label, this is preferable to a “MADE IN CHINA” label because the custom-er is aware of the disadvantages associated with transferring the production process to Asia, namely child labor, underpaid employees, and poor working conditions. The biggest challenge in turning the “MADE IN” label into an obligatory statement is the choice of the Country of Origin, as one piece of garment goes through several processes in several differ-ent locations. The question is how to decide which country can be considered the most accurate Country of Origin. In the case of a piece of clothing, this is much more complicated. The textile comes from one place, the sewing is done in another, and finally the lining is added in yet another. This is just a simple picture of it; in reality there are many more steps to the production process.

There are two possible approaches to this statement: On the one hand there are the cost-ef-fective-based businesses and on the other there are the heritage-driven businesses. In the cost-ef-fective-based business, cost takes priority over all decision-making processes and because of this, most of the production takes place in Asia, whereas in the heritage-driven business side of the industry, quality takes priority over everything, including the company’s heritage. This drives the fashion brands to ignore any cost-effective pres-sure coming from their competitors and to keep their production locally, where it has been since the company’s birth. One perfect example would be the French fashion brand, Hèrmes, whose heritage drives the company’s reputation, and whose pro-duction strives towards the highest quality possible by having their items produced in France.

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How would the “MADE IN” label law affect the fashion industry? Firstly, it would embrace and motivate all parties towards more transparency and traceability. This is essential because the custom-ers would be able to trace the production location of their purchase and be aware of whether or not the company follows ethical and environmental standards. Secondly, this would also include the creation of demand, and pressure on the compa-nies to become more involved with their production factories. Finally, it would help to avoid tragedies that have already occurred in a number of factories in Asia. A recent incident is the collapse of a factory in Bangladesh, where over 1000 people lost their lives. Many issues stemming cheap labor, including underpaid and overworked employees, poor working conditions, child labor, and in the case of this par-ticular factory, the extension of the building, without consulting professionals. This tragedy was, hope-fully, a wake-up call for the industry, to make chang-es and to put safety before profit. The owner and designer of the “Honest By” fashion label, Bruno Pi-eters, states: “If you buy unsustainable fashion, you are telling the brands it is okay to be unsustainable”. This highlights the importance of the involvement of all parties, including the fact that the government can demand changes. Therefore, Brigitte Stepputtis, the Head of Couture at Vivienne Westwood, states: “Change is happening, but it is a process […] Sourc-ing ethically will be difficult until the governments legislate for that process”. Having a more trans-parent industry would represent the shift from just claiming that the companies have “nothing to hide”

to proactively showing and proving this statement, including of course the ethical and environmen-tal credentials. These credentials would improve safety in the production factories and reduce ex-treme poverty. Companies choose not to disclose information regarding their supply chain due to the strong competition dominating the industry. Since this industry is driven by profit, the idea behind this is to hide information about the production factories from your competitors, in order to keep the manu-facturer all to yourself. Although in most cases, a lot of companies do share the same producer, just as in the case of the collapsed Bangladeshi factory, which had clients such as United Colors of Benet-ton, Primark and Mango. The companies use the fact that the supply chain is too complicated as an excuse for not disclosing information. Nevertheless, transparency is becoming more and more a trend within the fashion industry, demanded mostly by the customers who wish to engage more with their clothing, want to learn about companies’ production circle, and more importantly wish to purchase cloth-ing with confidence.

One thing is certain: This industry involves everyone, from politicians to customers and from designers to producers. And yes, if the European Union does decide to make the Country of Origin label mandatory, it would boost a more transparent industry, especially for customers, but it is not only the government that has to act on it, it should be all of us working together.

However, one cannot see these two categories in black and white, as there are exceptions, as in every case. The main reason for companies transferring their production process to Asia is due to cheaper labor, yet this does not mean that you cannot pro-duce high-quality products there. Quite the opposite, I would say, that some materials, or even produc-tions, can result in high-quality products and in the case of materials, some can only be found in these countries. This significant example, which repre-sents another approach to this issue and the perfect explanation for my thought above, is how the Italian brand, Prada, managed this. The company recently launched four limited edition mini-collections as a

political statement, including ‘Made in Scotland’, ‘Made in Peru’, ‘Made in India’ and ‘Made in Japan’. All of these collections correctly state where the products have been produced, thereby disclosing accurate information to Prada customers. In addi-tion, the collection was completed using fully the resources of that specific country, like for example, in the ‘Made in India’ collection, a limited edition of handmade garments were produced in workshops that specialize in Chikan. The fashion brand’s Cre-ative Director, Miuccia Prada, made the following statement about her choice regarding the usage of the “MADE IN” labels stating: It’s taking away the hypocrisy”.

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visualization

It's what they, in the past thought the future would look like.Classic pieces created by young established designers like Stella McCartney and Peter

Jensen. Because of their ability to combine the know how of our past with the brightness of our future.

EmIlmOnty

visualizations are a recurrent feature in less magazine. We ask different creative people to visualize their interpretation of a given subject which has to do with the theme of the issue. In this case

legacy in the sense of something that binds together past, present and future.

“ “

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Dress Stella McCartneyhat Peter JensenBoots & Other Stories.

PhOtOgRaPhER: Emil monty Freddie / montygraf.dk

stylIst: Fadi morad

haIR anD maKE-uP: sam shimoun @ scoop artists

mODEl: shi @ 2Pm

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Dress Stella McCartney Knit & coat & Other Stories

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Dress Stella McCartneyEarpiece Ninna York.

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and the legacy behindBy nicklas thrysøe

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Freya Dalsjö is the woman behind the Danish brand with almost the same name "Freya Dalsjø" and through an interview with Freya, I will try to illustrate how the brand Freya Dalsjø is the result of Freya's cultural legacy and development process and how it is to identify yourself and find your own DNA and foothold as both Freya Dalsjø and us at Less Magazine try to, as new players on a market. Freya has de-signed womens wear in approx. 2 years and has been playing a lot with materials such as fur, leather, silk, neoprene and other experimental materials. Through her development process her clothes have become more wearable and she is among other things gone from using a thick leather in her first collection to use a very soft silk in her past. There has in the last period of time been more focus on getting the design in use while the quality still has to be the same.

When I enter the studio in the northwest quarter of Copenhagen I am first met by a lot of empty manne-quins and a relatively empty room. I called Freya and she opened a door further down the long corridor. She moved the studio, but thankfully not so far away. In the new studio a smiling and welcoming Freya greets me. She offered coffee and poured a cup for herself and me. We took a seat by one of the windows and started to talk about her cultural legacy, starting with her childhood.

Freya grew up in Denmark just outside Vejle in Jutland in a small town called Fakkegrav, located just near Vejle Fjord. Here she had “a perfectly normal childhood,” as she says with her own words. She was living with her mother, stepfather and sister, and she also often commuted to Aarhus to visit her father, who has also been a big part of her childhood and adolescence.

Through high school as Freya chose to spend in Vejle, her parents have also been very supportive and always helped and pressed lovingly on. Her father is a psychologist and her mother an architect. She de-scribes her parents’ professions and backgrounds both can be felt in her current work because psycholo-gy can get in over the many aspects of running a design business. Thoughts about the environment, other people, and design are among subjects where psychology can be involved and give a better understanding of a given situation, better cooperation among peers, as well as an overall approach to the design to be provided to different individuals. Also her mother’s background as an architect can be felt in Freya’s design because she thinks a lot about lines in her textiles and often are inspired by architecture.

Photo by Josephine Svane

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Through high school as Freya chose to spend in Vejle, her parents have also been very supportive and always helped and pressed lovingly on. Her father is a psychologist and her mother an architect. She describes her parents’ professions and backgrounds both can be felt in her current work because psychology can get in over the many aspects of running a design business. Thoughts about the environment, other people, and design are among subjects where psychology can be involved and give a better understanding of a given situation, better cooperation among peers, as well as an overall approach to the design to be provided to different individuals. Also her mother’s background as an architect can be felt in Freya’s design because she thinks a lot about lines in her textiles and often are inspired by archi-tecture.

After high school in Vejle Freya chose very spontaneously to move to Berlin without knowing the city particularly well. She had only visited the city with her family a few times before. Freya says that it was not the creativity that drew her, it was just the need for something new to happen, and for the Danish girl Copenhagen was not enough. "It has to be something more than just Copenhagen,” Freya said.After a weekend trip to Berlin, where she created some new friendships, a friend offered her that she could stay and live with her. Besides, Berlin was an easy city to get into. That helped to determine that it had to be Berlin. "It could have been any other city" Freya said, adding that it was a very spontaneous decision which in retrospect has developed her so much as a person.

I asked if the upbringing called for creativity or if she even knew where the interest in design could have occurred. Freya was hesitating a little, and then she mentioned that her mother always had painted and made jewelry and other creative things and that her moth-er’s work as an architect also was part creatively as she possibly could have inherited and by then "have the creativity in her blood.”

Freya can remember a lot of things that made her choose to work with design. “Now that there is a kind of success around the brand I can remember all sorts of things that might have made it. When I got accepted in Antwerp (Royal Academy of fine arts Antwerp ed.) it was quite true for me because I had also applied for the literature science because it had my interest as well, but I've always been interested in clothes and always made clothes by myself and always been very interested in design. The big question was just whether I should try to live by doing that."

Freya had an idea that Antwerp was the best school when it comes to design, so she really went for it.“I had an idea that if I were to make clothes I should study at that exact school. I had an idea that it was the best school and then I just went a little for it." Freya laughs and adds; "A bit much actually, or it was the only place I applied for, so I was very confident and was determined to get in." Freya got accepted the first time she applied and says that it was an intense process. After she applied, she had a month's preparation of a portfolio that almost had to be made from scratch. At this time Freya still lived in Berlin, but returned to Denmark in the final period to get quietness to get finished. After that she went to the school for two days of intensive entrance exam which among other things included an interview, and where they all at the end of the second day was to meet up in the large room where they all was called for acceptance or not.

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"The most important thing I have learned from Antwerp is that I have to teach myself everything. The school has given me much strength and has pushed me to push myself through very intensive courses, and exactly that, I have with no doubt taken with me." I asked if her parents have been pushing her in terms of education and choice of study, but Freya corresponds clearly that she has chosen the road she's gone by her self, but has always benefited from the support from her parents and their critical questions.

"I have learned a few basic sewing techniques and construction techniques etc., but the most important thing I have learned is how to build up a collection and how your design is perceived and how to find yourself in your design. At the school we worked a lot with finding our identity and make it even stronger, and constantly questioning everything and push the limits."

The DNA seen from the outside and the vision behind the brand is clear. Freya knows what kind of women she designs too and what she wants to do through her design."I want to try to push some boundaries. I think I play a lot with different materials and silhouettes and expressions. I want to express and represent a strong woman who does not doubt her self and kind of rests in her self with an inner peace and inner strength.I want to try to show something innovative that still fits the time frame. It needs to have an edge and create wondering questions. People need to be forced to questioning.”

Lately there has occurred and grown more awareness of the fact that it’s clothes she's dealing with and not art. She wants her design to have a function, and as soon as an object or a design has a function, it will in most cases be more fashion than art.Previously, she was very interested in the artistic aspects in her design. She was also very interested in mood, showpieces, aesthetics and the overall idea where she recently has become more inter-ested in the fact that her design should be used in a functional way, and that moves more towards fashion and away from the art genre. This can be seen in her development process. Her collections have become increasingly more wearable for a wider audience and less experimental. Her first collections contained very stiff leather and later she showed a collection with neoprene, which also may be physically difficult to move around in.Freya wants her design to be wearable and that it should not only be beautiful in pictures."I believe that it is more appropriate to make something people can relate to. There has been a very exploding time in fashion where everything couldn’t be wild enough, but I feel that we are moving in a better direction in the fashion industry where the emphasis is more on function and sustainability".

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Freya uses very fine materials, and mentioned that she thinks a lot about what materials she choos-es to use. It has to be the best quality and only the best is good enough."I think it's much more interesting to work with slow clothing, and all the sustainable aspects of it, which we all are affected by one way or another. I think it is relevant to take into consideration that if you buy something in good quality and something you really appreciate and have for a long time and after use, sell or pass on, are helping in a sustainable way. I think there is a great value in that."

The business started up in Copenhagen, and it was not randomly and spontaneously that the choice was Copenhagen.

"I wanted to be in Copenhagen. I had some friends in Copenhagen and at the same time, the time and the desire to start something up, and then it was obvious that Copenhagen would form the framework for me. I quickly found a studio in Copenhagen and a lot of contacts in the context of having to set up a show. I think it has been good for me to start up in Copenhagen, as it’s a small still growing scene where they also are interested in helping new designers. I've seen a lot of sup-port from many in the industry - I think it's been really great to see, as I before I started had an idea that the industry could be very closed and difficult to enter. I think it has been a good process, and it would definitely have been different if I for example had chosen to start up in London, where the scene is much bigger and the competition much harder. It would have been much harder to be heard as a newly graduated designer. Copenhagen is a good base, but I would not rule out moving in the future. I would not lock myself to stay in Copenhagen forever."

Given the fact that Freya would like to design functional design, the economy is also a factor that should be included and which markets to design to and operate in. Freya says that she’s not think-ing that her design is specifically Scandinavian or Danish, but that it turns to many different cultures. There is a certain community and interest in fashion at a global level and Freya has been aware of the interest from several different countries and cultures. She believes it is irrelevant where you are located, as there is still time before it dawns to you where your biggest customer group is located. It's better to catch the big magazines attention so you can be discovered globally.

Freya doesn’t feel that she has to compromise on her creativity as she is becoming more commer-cial.

“I certainly do not mean I have to compromise, but I feel it as a good thing and a natural thing that I trace myself more and more into my true identity. There is a big difference between the work you do at a school and the work you’re doing when you come out and start up as an independent designer. The school is about how to show what you can and be very experimental and make the design wild-er and wilder, wherein when starting up a business it is important to be focused and concentrated and aware of that you design for a customer, who have to be able to use it. I do not feel that my cre-ativity is ignored or downgraded; it is just suited to my brand. It is a natural part of the process that we have more things to consider, for example, whether these pants can be washed at 30 degrees or other functional and ethical issues. I feel it’s more fun to do experiments that has to be used.”

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"I think a lot about if my latest collections must match the other previous collections and whether it sets the limits for me. For example if I try an idea of it can be quite skewed from my previous collections. There is also some times where I would like to use some materials and components where it’s just a no go. I don’t see it as a limitation, but again as a natural part of my development. It’s just leading me more into finding my own DNA. I also think about what I have worked with in the past collections and would like to try to implement some materials from previous collections. I think a lot about what I was doing the last time and how I can create an inspiration flow in my views. It is kind of the same things that inspires me, it’s the same basic shape, substituted by new interests and sources of inspiration for each collection."

In the future Freya sees herself being in Copenhagen and still designing womenswear as it looks like now. She had several times considered making designs for men, but has ignored it in order to keep a clean line as a new designer and new business. In the near future she would like to do some collabora-tions with other designers, and work to get everything up and running with the sales agency, showroom and sales channels. Besides that, she generally hopes that the brand will grow and get a better foothold.

"I often think about the frames that I follow, which is set from the Danish fashion industry, but it's a little something you have to follow, as this is where there are buyers and press in the city. I have in a long time thought that it might be fun to make a webshop with the things that are made outside of the collections, as I often do experiments, and by that break the boundaries a little. Besides that, it could be conceivable that I made some kind of viewing outside the fashion weeks, but it would be in a different form and not as a replacement to showcase during fashion week. It would be fun to break the frames, but it should also have a function, otherwise I don’t see a reason to do it. "

The details in the shows are something Freya considers very much, as she can differentiate herself by doing that and also break the stated limits a little. "I think a lot about how my design will look when it should appear and less on how it sells. The show has a great significance and in the future I would love to spend more time on setup and space, but it is very time demanding and capital demanding. The music is also very important to me and I don’t understand designers who choose to play a more or less randomly hit."

A big part of Freya’s inspiration comes from her self, because she would like to give a sense of herself to the customer. The winter collection last year was wild and the music was wild, it was set to a level that people reached out after, with dark tones and powerful girls. The inspiration was from feelings at that time and experimental play with the body and silhouettes. She describes it as a very intuitive process.

In addition to drawing inspiration from others to her design, I asked Freya if she saw herself as an inspi-ration to others. She mentioned an episode where she raced around the city looking for a specific mate-rial that was not to be found in any shops, and after she had used it in her design it was suddenly availa-ble in many stores, as many design schools had some tasks with this material. It could be a coincidence, but it could also be the inspiration.

All these values that have helped to create what is value packed for Freya and her brand Freya Dalsjø, is a mix of elements from her long development process. Freya is now establishing herself on the market and may in future even be one of the great designers who many people will draw inspiration from and by that she can help to create many other people's identities in the future of legacy.

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Hair by HerlitschekSalon Kushi

Dybbølsgade 701721 København V

+45 22 27 44 56

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freYa & freJa

In this image series we have tried to illustrate freya Dalsjös’ DNa with inspira-tion drawn from the previous interview. The images are inspired by architecture

and psychology, as they both are elements that can be felt in her design.There is also inspiration drawn from being artistic, while knowing there is a con-sumer at the other end. We have visualized the essence of combining the abstract

with something that fits the frame.

The following two quotations by freya served as main inspiration for the series:

“The winter collection last year was wild, and the music was wild with dark tones and powerful girls.”

“I want to express and represent a strong woman who does not doubt herself and kind of rests in herself with an inner peace and inner strength.”

The image series includes designs from all of freya’s previous collections, mixed together to represent freya’s development, and ask questions, and provide inspira-tion. There’s a lot of play with proportions and angles, as freya spends much time

experimenting with the body and silhouettes.

Let the pictures inspire you and give insight into freya & freja from our point of view.

/Nicklas

PhOTOgraPher: Malou Bumbum STYLIST: Nicklas Thrysøe

MakeuP & haIr: Lisanne kotkiewicz henriksenMODeL: freja / 2PM Model Management

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moments & memories

Who are you?By Phillip monge

I grew up in the suburbs of Copenhagen. It wasn’t alongside Richie Rich, Scrooge McDuck or Mitt Rom-ney in the north, neither next door to semi-suitable soccer moms from the south coast and I was defi-nitely not rubbing elbows with the inbreeded island-ers of the east. No, I grew up in the western suburbs of Copenhagen, where we boast of having the largest neon lights in Northern Europe, have a dialect that is equal to an average mumbling, and serve the piz-zas with salad and döner kebab topped with crème fraiche dressing, Always. Colloquially, it is called a “No. 0”, and it’ll get served in a box even though you “eat-in”.

In the beginning of ground school, no fresh block-kid cared about being the steeziest motherfucker of the 3rd grade. All you ever wished for back then was the attention from ‘em girls and the respect in the schoolyard. Most obvious manifested, when you got your quarterly pair of new kicks and your comrades looked at them the only thing they would ever ask was, if they could make you run faster than Speedy Gonzales or even The Road Runner. Hell yeah, they could! Always. And of course, the girls were im-pressed hereby.

Life as a 3rd grader was simple. If your parents were teachers, you’d look like a geek and be the kid everyone took advantage of, and if your parents were president and 1st lady of the local motorcycle club, you’d look like a douchebag and be the kid no one would ever dare to point their fingers at. I am not praising social inheritance and stereotyping, but in

that time of your life, where you didn’t know how to express, who you “really” were, your personality was the clearest to everyone else.

The time went by, and as the girls’ lounges grew bigger the amount of effort you had to make to impress those, whom could push up their bra the most, increased proportionally. It was time to bring your a-game. Or actually, to bring someone else’s a-game. Because, you didn’t have any yet, so you had to find one who had. And where was the number one spot for soul-searching? Yep, New York City.

Somehow the American metropolitan once was the solution to any problem regarding lack of coolness, which consequently and obviously led to missing attention from the girls. You were guaranteed at least one boob-grab, if you were able to show just a single note in your report book saying some bullshit like this:

“To whom it may concern,Phillip will accompany his parents on a getaway to the Empire State, which is why he will not be able to attend any of the courses the following week. So, please, do not give a fuck, when he doesn’t show up. He will be crib-walkin’ trhough the Harlem streets, BMFin’ (blowin’ money fast) in SoHo and dodging bullets in Bronx.Sincerely…”

Illustration by georgina terragni

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A trip to New York could last for a lifetime; or at least for a whole year as a 9th grader. All you should do to get laid - or probably more likely just a kiss on the cheek - was to say “yeah, I saw the World Trade Cen-tre once…” although no one ever asked and you never actually went to see it, because you got stuck eating M&Ms at Times Square.

Though, the time brought changes. Along came high school, which introduced us to the technological era. Still, New York City was the Mecca of #menswear, #streetwear and whatever kind of #wear that could get your dick hard. It was the place to find inspira-tion, amusement and excitement, but something was about to take out the patented “forward-thinking-ness” of the city. That something was the Internet. The Internet brought inspiration, amusement and excitement to every shack in all small towns with a broadband network.

Along came web shops, street style and picture books with an instant change in official guidance of “what the fuck to do”. The Internet offered you a new a-game in only one week, and you could easily get a whole new one the next week again, if you ended up regretting your newly acquired personal expression.

The Internet suddenly did, what New York previously had done. Namely, inspire you to improve your inner self. The Internet became the new New York. Simply put. But, The City That Felt Asleep was a tough place to be, and - now - so is the Internet, which conse-quently is the one suffering from insomnia. The

virtual world is a fast pacing environment, where it is easy to get lost from one another.

Back in the days, you would’ve been able to impress even the maddest chicks by telling ‘em cool stories that you’ve heard in the alleys of New York. And you’ll probably expect the same reaction now, when you quote anonymous idiots’ life experiences from the comment section on YouTube; but let me be honest with you, brotha: It won’t happen.

Shut down the Internet and go find yourself; and the best place to start looking will always be the place that you call “home”.

I grew up in the western suburbs of Copenhagen into a dysfunctional family influenced by parental figures comparable to Gary Gadget, Hillary Clinton, Daisy Duck and Steve Irwin. The first record I ever bought myself was Æn Ee Ar Dee’s “In Search Off…”, which inspired me to snatch my best friend’s BMX bike so that I could imitate the scene from the musicvideo of “Provider”. Eight years later that exact track were blowing through my speakers during my maiden voyage in my inherited car. It even was the song, which almost made me deaf on my travel to where I am now. Presently, I have a bachelor degree in com-mercial law and economics, live in London and know absolutely nothing, but who I am.

Even though the opportunities of the Internet can be tempting, do not forget who you were, who you are and who you will become.

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t h i n g smagical

Some things are special, magical, au-ratic. The pendant that you inherited from your grandmother containing an old photo of your grandfather; your boyfriend’s worn-out tee shirt that always feels and smells a little bit like him; your black jeans that fit per-fectly, because they have been worn out in exactly the right way and that you would hate to have to replace with a new pair (it would never be the same); the scarf your best friend bought for you on a journey – made from warm soft cashmere wool - which makes her feel close every time you wear it; and the sweater knitted by your mother that gives you a comforting, tactile, almost infantile, experience when you put it on. Mag-ical things are things that have a sig-

nificant, emotional and tactile effect on you, unlike all the other “ordinary” or insignificant things we surround ourselves with. Magical things might even seem to be a part of you, espe-cially if we are talking about clothes; they can be described as a kind of second skin. When you are close to them, or when you touch or wear them, you feel calm, content or es-thetically pleased.

Magical things have a radiating aura that makes them almost sacred, and at the same time they provide you with a delightful, sensual experience. Magical things are pleasing to the eye, again and again, even though they perhaps aren’t beautiful in the classical sense of the word; they

by kristine harper

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might be worn out or crooked or un-balanced. In fact, it often seems to be the worn, the weathered, the hand-made and the imperfect things that fall into this category.

Magical things are interesting for a number of reasons, not least because they contain qualities that make them durable or long lasting; they are more or less irreplaceable, and in that sense esthetically sustainable or durable. They are so important to their owners that they are willing to make an effort to maintain and repair them. The look of things with auratic qualities seems to be a long-lasting look, which from a fashion perspec-tive is highly interesting, because “the lasting look” is an obvious antithesis to the shifting trends that the fash-ion industry is usually governed by. Trend is, in other words, insignificant in relation to objects that fall into the category “magical”.

Magical things contain emotional value in the sense that they have the ability to awaken strong emotions in their owner - emotions that are very often connected to memories (physical or mental, tactile or cog-nitive). Through the awakening of

fond, intimate memories the thing is given humanlike qualities by its own-er. Like a dear friend or a lover, it is almost impossible to replace. Unlike “ordinary” things, magical things are noticed and appreciated, perhaps on a daily basis.

The emotional bond between an object and an individual caused by memories is highly interesting, but not necessarily enough to keep and maintain an object for years. As men-tioned, I find that esthetics also plays an important role, when dealing with magical things. The look of the object must in some way or another appeal to the owner! The object must be esthetically sustainable in the sense that its appearance continues to be pleasing and interesting, especially if the magical thing in question is a piece of clothing, which in this case it is.

What are the components of magical things? How can you describe their ongoing or durable appeal? Can you, as a designer, implement a strategy in your design process that will en-able you to incorporate the possibility for magic to occur? Since the afore-mentioned magical aura-experience

Photo by malthe s. Rye thomsen Photo by malthe s. Rye thomsen

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is closely connected to sentimental value and intimacy, is it then possible to create new objects that can pro-vide the user with the described sen-suous delight? If pressing the “sentimental value button” is possible when designing clothing, maybe you can change the way consumers act when they shop for and “consume” clothes, and thereby slow down consumption. Since consumers, in general, are willing to pay more for products that contain emotional value or stories that they can relate to, slowing down consumption doesn’t have to mean eliminating or even reducing earning possibilities for designers and the fashion industry. It merely means re-thinking and reforming consumption.

“When from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, but with more vitality, more unsubstan-tial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping

for their moment, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection.” (Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time: Swann’s Way, 1913)

As discussed, the things that are dear to us, or magical, often have senti-mental value and are often heirlooms, i.e. things that have been inherited or passed down through generations. These things are “ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their mo-ment”, as expressed in the above quote. But what characterizes things with sentimental value? Heirlooms are characterized by being carriers of time; they momentarily create a passage between the “has been” and the “here and now” – and by doing so, they become storytellers. The stitched-up pieces, replaced buttons and worn-out patches of an inherited object tell a story of the use of it and the love for it; it has been continu-ously repaired, and passed on by a person that loved it, and thereby also of its owners. A great part of the ob-

Photo by malthe s. Rye thomsen

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ject’s sentimental value comes from its wear and tear. However, from an esthetic point of view, another great value of heir-looms lies in their appearance and therefore partly, in their materials. I say partly since the crafts behind the object as well as its fitting, when we are talking about clothing, are also of great importance. Heirlooms are often, by definition, esthetically appealing; objects that are passed down through family members, and continuously kept and maintained, are most often objects made of good, long-lasting, often natural materials. Materials that age with beauty. Ma-terials that might even become more beautiful or develop a greater appeal with age and wear, like leather, wool, wood or sometimes cotton; the wear can give cotton a softness that in turn gives it a dusty, pastel look, as well as a silk like feeling. Materials that hold sensual, tactile qualities and offer a satisfyingly uneven, distinctive experience to the fingers that touch them. To design garments that hold heir-loom characteristics – or have the potential of becoming heirlooms, i.e. of being taken care of, repaired, and

handed on to others for them to wear and love – using materials that age with beauty and hold sensual tactile qualities is of great importance.

The love of vintage clothes and the vintage look is a way of celebrating the time that leaves traces in prod-ucts, and thereby the beauty of de-cay. Vintage clothes have memories, experiences and stories stored in their fibers. They carry tales; walking through a vintage store and letting your fingers run through the rows of garments makes you wonder about the people that used to own and wear the dresses, trousers, jackets and shirts, especially the items that are worn out, but still attractive. Who were these people? And why did they get rid of these items of clothing, even though it’s clear they have been worn and taken care of? Are they dead, or have they just moved onto a phase of their lives that didn’t fit with the look and the feel of this specific dress or shirt? And what are/were they like? What dreams and experi-ences did they have, wearing these specific items of clothing?

Photo by susanne guldager

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More importantly, how can you, as a designer, integrate the auratic qual-ities that some of the dresses, jack-ets and shirts carry that make them magical, into new products?

To sum up the above: A magical thing is unique, a carrier of time, and esthetically sustainable, i.e. it has a somewhat lasting look.

In the essay ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, German philosopher and essayist Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) intro-duces the term aura, which is used in the above paragraphs as a synonym to magical. An aura experience is an esthetic experience and esthetic experiences, when described and discussed in philosophical writings, provide some sort of insight. The aura experience can, according to Benjamin, be described as a sudden experience of fusion between past and present, or between closeness and distance. The “has been” and the ”here and now” are momentarily one. A passage is created between “then” and “now”. Such experiences may lead to an insight in events from past as well as present states of mind.

Alternatively, they might give you a sudden “at home in the world” feeling, i.e. a feeling of being in a harmonic state of mind here and now and of being surrounded by beauty.

Integrating the auratic qualities con-nected to heirlooms or vintage cloth-ing into the design of new products can be done by pushing buttons like “the delicate lace-button”, or “the pa-tinated leather-button”, or “the heavy woolen tweed- button”, i.e. by imi-tating typical vintage characteristics. By doing so, you can perhaps trigger the “the vast structure of recollection” (Proust) in the experiencing subject.

Heirlooms and vintage object are, as explained, “carriers of time”. As a carrier of time, an object contains traces of time; in the case of vintage and heirlooms this is typically the time that has passed by, but as a designer you could also work with creating “carriers of time” by integrat-ing the creation time into the object, or perhaps you could even work with a combination of these two time fac-tors. Integrating “worn out” patches (i.e. tactile experiences created by material manipulations) can create


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an illusion of the time passed by. The integration of the creation time into the look of the object, on the other hand, is a matter of letting the de-sign process become visible in the object, and thereby giving it a hand-made feel, which has the advantage of adding a degree of uniqueness to the object, as well as charging it with time and with the story of how it was made. The latter could have the benefit of creating a bond between the hands behind it (the creator/ the designer) and the hands experiencing the product (the owner/ the buyer of the object).

As earlier described, wear and tear can add value to a jacket, dress or shirt, but what about pieces of cloth-ing that have been loved but have become too worn out or simply too discolored to wear? Is there a way you can give clothes that have been “worn to pieces”, or are made of ma-terials, like cotton for example, that can’t last forever, new life or upcycle them?

Danish fashion designer Susanne

Guldager has recently worked with the traditional Japanese patchwork technique ‘Boro’ to utilize and up-cycle worn-to-pieces-clothes, i.e. to give them new life and update them as well as maintain the stories they carry.

‘Boro’ means something torn or repaired, and the Boro technique demonstrates respect for available resources, labor and everyday ob-jects, as well as an ability to value the magic and uniqueness of things. Boro therefore represents a counter-point to the consumer-driven society. Traditional Japanese Boro garments can be described as generational storybooks; they have been lovingly repaired and patched up with what-ever fabric was available, and have thereby become unique patchworks or collages telling the story of the time passed by and of the hands be-hind the stitches. Susanne Guldager states to Less Magazine: “I have ap-plied this sustainable way of thinking into a contemporary design method by using existing materials from old pieces of clothing that are of such


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poor quality that they cannot be sold in charity shops. To ensure a high quality of these outdated and fragile materials I have, with reference to the Boro technique, used stitching to re-inforce the material and make it more durable. Originally in Boro this was done by hand, but I have transformed the technique into consisting both of hand sewn and sewing-machine stitches.”

“Boro textiles represent some es-sential principles of traditional Jap-anese ethics and esthetics such as the favoring of the sober and modest (shibui); imperfections expressed by irregularity, incompleteness, raw-ness and simplicity (wabi-sabi); and, of course, regret about any waste (motttainai).”

One of the basic ideas of Boro is to work with random stitches; a princi-ple that Susanne Guldager has em-braced in her jacket “My Family”. The randomness of the stitches creates a unique, handmade expression and tells a story of the creation of the gar-

ment. The Boro technique, in other words, allows both the time passed by and the creation time to be inte-grated into the creation of new ob-jects. “My family” is the story of the technique used, the hands behind the jacket, as well as the previous owners of the garments used; garments that were favored and worn to pieces.

As a designer you can seek to imple-ment the auratic qualities of magical things in garments, and thereby cre-ate clothing with durable value, by celebrating time; i.e. by working with materials that age with beauty, by allowing the creation time and tech-niques to be visible in the final prod-uct, or by imitating the characteristics of heirlooms. Auratic qualities in objects – and in this case, in clothing - have the po-tential to create an emotional bond between the object and the expe-riencing subject; a bond which is triggered by esthetics , and which is of great importance when seeking to slow down consumption and to slow down fashion.

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Interview

BunDgaaRD

nIElsEn Bringing handicrafts into a new millennium

By andrea kamperPhotos by Victor Jones

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It is with equal excitement and trepidation that I stand before the new studio of Mette Julie Bundgaard-Nielsen ahead of our interview. I have the privilege of meeting her in her own sur-roundings, which beats a café chat over a cup of coffee anytime. As I reach the upper floor I am met by the stunning view of a penthouse. It has old, charming windows, and a beautiful light enters the room. Mette Julie smilingly awaits me in the entrance hall and politely shows me her amazing workplace in the former fashion house, Fonnesbech’s old restaurant, which was also used to exhibit their collections. Her desk is situated in a big rectangular room of

classical style with a glass roof reaching high above my head. Huge, almost panoramic, win-dows reveal the skyline of some of the most beautiful roofs in Copenhagen. A smaller sewing

room next to the rectangular room reveals the real workplace, where two of her tailors are ironing and sewing her design. Sketches and materials hang on a mood board opposite the breathtaking view of old, architectural rooftops. Here the windows let in the last sunshine of the evening, which gives the room a dim, soft light. With this view in reach there is no doubt

that creative ideas may flourish in one’s mind.

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Mette Julie has a long history of creativity in her life. Her work has a certain focus on the older handicrafts like knitting and bobbin lacing, which have been an interest of hers since she was a child:

”It goes way back to my childhood, when my grandmother actually taught me how to sew on a sewing machine with a crank handle, and to crochet, bobbin lace and knit - ac-tually all of the old handicrafts. She was a needlework teacher, so it was a natural thing for her to teach my sister and me these dif-ferent types of handicrafts.

I have always been creatively inspired. I thought it was fun and I have spent a lot of time on it. That is why there wasn’t such a big gap between that (being creative) and choosing a creative education.”

This led her to pursue her interest in dif-ferent creative educations and she took a course in Fashion/Apparel Design in 1999-2000 followed by a master’s in fashion at the great fashion academy, Designskolen

Kolding, where she graduated in 2007. Two couture collections were subsequently born: the first was Mirage SS13, and the second was Kubik from 2013.

During the tour of her sewing room, she pulls out one of her amazing bobbinlace creations. It looks like a cape, just a very delicate one that has a stiff shoulder-fitted shape, and a hand sewn leather bustier that fits underneath. It displays a great contrast between the feminine bobbin lace and the sexy leather that lies underneath. The great contrast in the cape between sweet and sexy suddenly brings bobbin lacing, this ancient handicraft, back into people’s con-sciousness. There is no doubt that she has a very clear idea of what she thinks about fashion and the way she wants to deal with it, because it is important to her that there is thought behind every apparel she makes:

“There is no reason to create more clothing in this world if you don’t have a certain story or a special circumspection behind it.”

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Part of the story behind her clothing and in-spiration is bringing classic handicrafts back into our consciousness. A very great cir-cumspection as many handicrafts are slow-ly and sadly becoming extinct in the fashion industry. The cape for instance, is a part of the aforementioned before mentioned cou-ture collection, Kubik. The interesting part about the Kubik collection is the full focus on the older Danish bobbin lacing technique.

“When I began working on the Kubik collec-tion, I had for a long time been thinking that I wanted to do more than just a collection. I wanted to bring something into this world that might also make a difference to Danish culture, in relation to the history of Danish craftsmanship and cultural legacy.

So I contacted bobbinlacing organizations in Denmark, where I learned that they had a declining number of members. Less people were attending, because the people who know how to bobbin lace are now very old, and there are no new members joining. I thought that this was such a shame as it is such a delicate handicraft. It became clear to me that I had to make a couture collec-tion, where I could use bobbin lace for a different purpose than as a table runner or a table center. We don’t have a lot of haute couture in Denmark, but we do actually have a history of handicrafts, which enables us to carry out the idea. We do have some design-ers who want to do it, but there isn’t such a big market for it. That is why I thought to myself that I wanted to try to make a col-lection around bobbin lacing worthy of ex-hibition, where you are able to focus on one of the many handicrafts that can be made. This way it can contribute as an inspiration to people who go to see it, to modernise a handicraft and to create a platform for Dan-ish couture. ”

However, taking a handicraft from the Dan-

ish heritage doesn’t mean that esthetics should be forgotten. It is still important to Mette Julie that the handicrafts can be ap-plied to our millennium: the silhouette and methods have been adjusted so the form is minimalistic, and the bobbinlacing doesn’t resemble flowers on a table center, but rath-er a more geometric style.

“The silhouette, the esthetics, the bobbin lace pattern have all differed and I have been working on every kind of model. There have been some principles of randomness, which I have been working with and I have thus used different methods in the project (Kubik) to give it a more modern expression.”

For example, she has worked with fully fashion. This is a knitting or bobbin lac-ing method where the design is knitted or bobbinlaced into shape from the outset, not cut into the desired shape afterwards. The method requires that you work out the exact shape you want the outcome to look like before you start on the handicraft. That way you don’t waste material by cutting off unnecessary fabric to get the right shape afterwards. It is a long process, but in the end the outcome is preferable because there aren’t as many noticeable seams, and the designs lasts longer. They last longer because the seams are basically knitted or bobbin laced together, rather than sewn, which in turn reduces the risk of the seams unravelling. Furthermore, to make one of her haute couture creations, a bobbinlace cape with a leather collar, she used 200 pieces of geometric triangular bobbinlaced modules (pieces). These pieces were handmade by ten Danish women, who did twenty modules each. A handicraft has to be done right and she prefers it to be made by locals. Like she says:

“Craftsmanship takes the time that crafts-manship takes.”

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This is just one example of how much time is spent on her couture collections. But it is not only the legacy of Danish handicrafts that is important to her. When she describes what is important to her as a designer, her signature so to speak, she has clear de-mands: Her clothes must never just end up in the closet, because to her new clothing is not something the world is short of. That is why special details that catch the eye are important to her. It can be a certain line or cut that makes the difference, or flexibility in the material that allows the piece to be used in different ways. Furthermore, she has a very curious approach to both good quality and new technology that can be used, as long as the materials can make the apparel

stronger and make it last longer.

“I am actually very open-minded towards many different materials. There are different ways of using the earth’s natural resourc-es responsibly – which I am very aware of. Polyester can be reused for example, and plastic bottles can be recycled into clothing. I find sporting materials, antibacterial mate-rials, even regenerated materials, and biode-gradable materials really interesting”

Her chosen materials are picked carefully and naturally to have a kinder effect on the environment. Polyester for example, is a very solid material that keeps the shape of the apparel; it doesn’t shrink and it has a long lifespan. Melted plastic bottles can become

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a new polyester material. The sporting materials used are different types of neo-prene that has an antibacterial effect. This means that the apparel doesn’t need to be washed as often, which of course benefits the environment. Regenerated materials can be recycled: denim, for example, that is made into thread again. It helps decrease the usage of the earth’s natural resources. Biodegradable materials, in particular, have caught her attention:

”The materials that I find very interesting are biodegradables. If we can obtain ma-terials that can decompose in the earth and do not have a big impact on the envi-ronment, this would clearly be preferable .” Biodegradables are a good way of solving the big problem of garbage piling up in the world as there are no waste issues and

they can be reused time and again. That is why she very much hopes for a move-ment whereby consumers throw less of the products out into the garbage, and the products can instead be reused or ab-sorbed into the earth again.

There is no doubt that her thoughts also include the consumers. They are just as big a part of the fashion industry as the designers and the production process. Her wish is that the consumers are more aware of what they buy, and that they buy good, long lasting quality.

“I really want to be involved in pushing fashion in relation to how the consum-ers behave. wouldn’t mind if you can get people to buy clothes that are a little more expensive but last a little longer.

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The material is only one aspect. The specific chain of values from the beginning to the end of the production process and the end result in the shops is equally important. One must also consider the social awareness of the production process and how the prod-ucts are distributed: Do you have surplus stock, that just sits there, or is there flexibil-ity in the production process that results in having limited waste? How can you deliver a zero-waste production process, or is this even possible to achieve, realistically?”

Currently Mette Julie is the Head of Design for the Danish fashion brand, Fonnesbech, to launch the brand. Here she will be doing a more commercial line of apparel, and still she will be bringing her own signatures into the new collaboration. This means that the love for good craftsmanship, her contrasts between the feminine and masculine, and good quality will not be pushed aside. Luck-

ily both the Fonnesbech fashion house and Mette Julie share the same passion for good craftsmanship and quality.

“Quality, foresight and responsibility are some of the qualities that I devote a lot of attention to now”

Despite the exclusive workplace and her great accomplishments, Mette Julie doesn’t appear to be in the least affected by these facts. Really she just seems like a very down-to-earth and modest person with great ideas thoughts behind every piece of clothing she produces. This can only be de-scribed as a very pleasant first impression of the former graduate from the Designsko-len Kolding. We can’t wait to see more of her designs in the future.

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visualization

visualizations are a recurrent feature in less magazine. We ask different creative people to visualize their interpretation of a given subject which has to do with the theme of the issue. In this case

legacy in the sense of something that binds together past, present and future.

PERnIllEsanDBERg

We are always told that we need to know ourselves, the fascinating innermost, and when we finally know ourselves, we can become the extraordinary complete and retrospective people. Per-fection and comfortability creates the modern human. Therefore the modern human never suffers,

because the perfect retrospective excludes the suffering.

Suffering is not comfortable, and suffering will always be a sign of something incomplete. If we really want to know ourselves, we have to embrace the imperfection and suffering of our past. Make it beautiful and wicked. equalise love, disgust and happiness. acknowledge the unsolved

legacy, because it will never be complete, and therefore it is a curious movement. kitschy, but it is a more true beauty. Let’s try to tell that as the tale of our past.

unsolved legacy

“

“

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Pants vintage

PhOtOgRaPhy: Pernille sandberg

stylIng: caroline gudmandsen

mODEl: nina Peony, heartbreak management

WRItER: asker Bryld staunæs

cO-EDItOR: steffen Wendt andréa

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Earrings Nellynecklace with pendan Bjørg

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lEFt Fur models own,

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In places around the world people live under less fortunate conditions. In a lot of casesit has nothing to do with the person being stupid or lazy but simply their social legacy and the environment in which they grew up. you make the best out of what you have got. We all start from nothing and are

all born as pure, innocent children. how we turn out and what we grow up to be might not always be up to us but is a question of your societal back-

ground and the legacy put upon you.

“

“

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art Directors: Pernille Secher Mosbech & Martin Mitchell

Photographer: Steffen Christensen

stylist: Julie Silfvander

make-up: Iram ali

models: Niels B, Le Management, Jakob S, heartbreak Management, Pernille L, Diva models

Blouse fallwinterspringsummer Jacket filippa k

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leather Jacket Nelly leather Blouse MuubaPants Weekday

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Pants Cheap MondayBlose fred PerryJacket Soulland

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guy #1:

Jacket WoodWood shirt fred PerryPants Cheap Monday

guy #2:

shirt filippa kshorts Weekday

girl:

Jacket WoodWood

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Jacket WoodWood shirt fred PerryPants Cheap Monday

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Jacket and Pants Marc by Marc JacobsBlouse filippa k

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Jacket SoullandBlouse Weekday

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Blouse and skirt fallwinterspringsummerJacket Marc by Marc Jacobs

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FREE WIllthe values of fashion in a determined world

Illustration by roxanne LærkesenBy emil Christiansen

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I just woke up and I open my closet. Right there I meet the first problem of the day: The dilemma of what to wear! This decision can, at times, be the most unmanageable and time-consuming event of the day. Everyone knows the dilemma, perhaps especially the reader of this magazine. Personally, I am not very interested in clothes; I even make it a virtue to oppose the fashion industry but in the end an anti-fashion state-ment is itself a fashion statement. In this article I will discuss what makes us wear what we do. You might think it is your own choice, but if you think a little further as I intend to do here, a lot of factors play a role in the way we dress.Why are clothes so important to us? I maintain that clothing has at least two essential functions for human beings: First, it keeps us warm, thereby prevent-ing death. Second, it visually expresses who we are as humans and what we stand for.The first statement represents of course the primary function, at least in the colder parts of the world, but in our postmodern society the expressionis-tic value of clothing has become just as important. When wearing specific clothes, we are expressing our own val-ues and what we stand for visually. This is especially apparent in the value we project onto brands and the heightened attention to quality and material. People are willing to pay lots and lots of money to get that set of clothes; you may even go so far as to say that some people buy expensive designer clothing mainly because it is expensive. In this way we express ourselves through clothes and the way we choose to wear it.Clothing is an extra layer of skin which we can choose ourselves. It adds an

extra layer of meaning to our bodies, thereby representing our external iden-tity to the world visually. The body does of course also reflect one’s identity, but with clothing we can form our social identity in our own way. That’s why I say that clothes are an extra layer of skin as it’s the visual expression of our personality that we show to the world, and therefore the meaning that we our-selves identify with externally.The point is clear: Clothing is, besides being a tool for survival, the bearer of human identity before a world of oth-er people’s judgments – a statement already made clear by the article “how we use clothing to express identity” in the last issue of Less Magazine. It is our identity in the social and cultural world that we express when we are conscious about our choice of clothing and visual appearance.As it is clear that the wearer seeks to express his identity we must ask the question: What makes the identity that we try to form and communicate through fashion? We need to consider what we are expressing before it can be fully expressed. The immediate, and maybe a little dramatic, answer is free will. By this I mean the will, and thereby the possibility, to express oneself, i.e. I choose these clothes rather than those because I have the power to choose; I choose my clothes to express the values I want to be associated with. If it is possible to choose one’s own visual expression it demands the possibility to act freely.

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Surprisingly, philosophy treats free will as a problem because it isn’t that easy to prove. We all experience what we think is free will, but the fact that we experience free will isn’t a guarantee that there is free will, according to philiophy. We can also expe-rience illusions without them being real. That’s why we must examine the basis for a free will – a guarantee for the individu-al’s ability to act and express freely. If our individualism, where everybody is a unique independent person who dresses as he wants, is going to live on, then we must ex-amine our free will. I will mainly do this by examining its counterpart: Determinism.Determinism is the belief that all our actions are predetermined. In respect of human beings, this means that we will never have the opportunity to act freely and there will always be factors before the action that determine how we act. As such we can consider every facet of our lives as a prelude to our actions in the “now”; due to genetics, education, and social rela-tions throughout life, your current actions and choices couldn’t be any different to what they are – there are no choices even though you might feel like it. Thus every-body’s behaviour is imprisoned in a closed system of cause and effect. According to this point of view you are wearing what you wear today because of factors like this, and you didn’t have a choice, even though you might feel like you chose freely.One can talk about natural and social determinism. Natural determinism enables us to make natural science; that action equals reaction, that an effect always has a cause. Because of this we can make natural laws which describe how objects move in space and time. Through laws we can predict forthcoming events. For example, if Ball 1 hits Ball 2, we can be quite sure that Ball 2 will roll away upon

impact. Some will even say that if we knew every natural law, it would be possible to predict history; to predict how people will act in different situations because after all human beings are natural objects with brains, limbs and nervous systems which are all affected by the world. This of course also means that dressing and personal style would be determined.However, natural determinism cannot alone explain the determination of human beings since humans are natural objects, but also a “special” kind of object. An object with conscious concepts of culture, language, social interaction and fashion. This is how we transcend animals and where the idea of a free will is born. We can’t really claim that animals have a free will or at least we can conclude (as far as we know) that animals themselves don’t have a concept of free will. But human beings have this concept in terms of lan-guage and the developed brain. That’s why we live in societies together with other hu-mans where we can interact and partake in complex social structures – we know how to act in specific situations and we know how to fit into the social norms by the way we dress for instance. It’s at this stage that fashion is born; at first as a movement that shows our affiliation to the social struc-ture but second as a countermovement to the overall structure. We start to dress in a different way than the mainstream, and by doing so we partake in subcultures instead. In this way, individualism rises; we aren’t just ants in a big social system but independent individuals with an individual identity.

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Is it at all possible to express “ourselves” within the concept of social determinism? Could there be some truth in the idea that your upbringing and social influences form who you are and thereby define how you will act in the social and cultural spheres? The question is really whether the social and the natural determinism can be com-bined in a single determinism that accounts for every one of our acts throughout life.The point I am trying to make is that the function of clothing as a freely chosen identity propagator loses its reality if the individual isn’t free. Instead, the individual is a product of its social heritage, its nature and other possible but unknown factors. What is expressed through fashion is in this sense the opposite of individuality namely a determinism that makes the choice of identity impossible. Maybe this can explain how fashion can relate to a specific time. Everybody has a concept of 1990’s fashion, some still love it while others think it is rub-bish, nevertheless we all conceive 1990’s fashion as something different than fashion today. Why does fashion change and go off in different mainstreams if it expresses a free will? Part of the explanation could be social determinism, which through society

determines our “taste” throughout time.The dilemma is now fully exposed: Either we have freedom of choice, which guaran-tees the value of choices for the individual, thereby the value of clothing, or we are determined from the start, and thereby we aren’t expressing anything other than what the individual was already determined to.Deep down, most people believe in free will but more and more people are accept-ing determinism in one form or another. That’s why we have seen a middle ground between determinism and free will in the globalized world, a position represent-ed by sociologists and the media. As an example, let’s take a look at the concept of “social heritage”. In this concept we find the idea that the individual is in some way socially determined to act and live like its social background. But we also know that we can break free of our social heritage. This shows us that we can believe in the importance of social heritage but at the same time deny that it should be absolutely determining.

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However, when you look closer at heritage, a problem arises since free will isn’t the only way to explain people’s departure from their strong heritage; social deter-minism can do this as well, maybe even better than free will. To take an example: A child may come from a high-class home with a strong tradition and certain norms. Throughout its upraising the parents are always making the child wear expensive and formal clothing that fit the social norms. By always buying the same kind of clothing it becomes the standard for the child. If the child is only in contact with its parents throughout life it would be rea-sonable to claim that the child will adopt the same norms and shopping habits. Nonetheless, parents aren’t the only social relations a child has; friends and media also affect the child and determine how the child will dress in the future. Under-stood this way; all the social inputs that we get throughout life will determine us in a way that may be different from our family background. In this way we can explain why the child started to be interested in another way of dressing and thereby broke off with the formal social heritage – not because of a free choice, but because of social influences from outside the family that determined the child to be different.A natural and social determinism looks like a real possibility after all. It has some gruesome consequences; fashion as a free expression of oneself becomes an illu-sion. In a bigger perspective it would also destroy the concept of morality. If every-thing is predetermined we can’t talk about

morality, since it would be impossible to morally judge a person who can’t control his/her own actions. Thereby personal responsibility for one’s actions vanishes. You may ask why morality is related to fashion as a subject, and it isn’t necessar-ily. But when talking about determinism it would be ignorant not to have such a crucial consequence in mind. Determinism would problematize not only fashion but our whole conception of the human beings as social and morally free individuals.So what is the conclusion? We have seen some perspectives on determinism and how it will destruct much of fashion’s abili-ty to freely express the bearer.What you believe in with the intellect, but not the heart, you don’t believe at all. It’s now up to the reader to continue the dis-cussion further. I have simply introduced the idea of determinism and there is so much more to be discussed. Determinism is nothing but an exciting alternative to free will. Yet, we all feel that we experience free will, therefore I don’t expect people to dismiss either fashion or moral respon-sibility after reading this. Instead I hope that people will discuss the deterministic thought: What are the consequences of this for fashion and humankind? How does it affect our individualistic understanding of humans? Can we prove it wrong? I be-lieve that everybody can find an answer to this if you just look, so start looking!

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gaiaBrandttext and Photos by Pernille Sandberg

Interview

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Gaia Brandt was one of the first de-signers that sprung to mind as Less magazine was brainstorming for this edition of the magazine. The 38-year-old independent designer represents the true essence of the philosophy behind Less Magazine: Sustainability, an envi-ronmentally awareness along with the highest quality of design and production. Gaia Brandt does both collections and series of one-off pieces. Less Magazine met up with the slightly shy, tall, fairy-looking woman with the long, blond hair in her apartment on a quiet road in the center of Copenhagen. This apartment also houses her de-sign studio and oozes Gaia Brandt with mood boards, research material, quirky photographs, a vast collection of para-phernalia and plants. At once one sens-es this is the home and workspace of an intelligent, creative individual. As we discussed her ideas of life as a designer, her thoughts about consumer culture as well as her sustainable design process, the bright afternoon gradually turned into dark evening.

“When designing my one-off pieces I definitely think about sustainability. Do-ing it this way is very me. I have always

been aware of sustainability. I think the most interesting thing is to hold an old sweater in my hands. I travel around Denmark and visit all the vintage shops, where you can find a lot of nice piec-es, especially in the suburbs. Working with pieces that have already lived and turning them into my own… It’s a very special process and I love the crafts-manship that I put into it. I don’t want to stop doing that.”

Gaia Brandt works with ‘cut & sew’ which is basically a term for clothes that have been customized or altered.

“I often find myself working on the same piece for up to six days which is an elab-orate process that is time consuming as well as necessary. To make ends meet I also work as an interior designer on the side.”

CONSUMERISM

One of the things that drew Gaia Brandt into designing special and customized one-off pieces is the concern she feels towards the consumer culture.

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“The production phase is chal-lenging for smaller companies like mine. It’s a logistic puzzle and it’s very difficult these days, as people don’t buy as much as they used to. Also the road from the initial concept of an idea to the display of the physical item in a shop is long. Another aspect of the production is the fabrics. Cotton can for instance be grown in one country, then dyed in another before it hits the facto-ries in a third. I really don’t think this is at all appealing.”

Smaller companies are becoming increasingly rare, which makes Gaia Brandt contemplate the future of the fashion business in ten or fifteen years’ time.

“What will a store look like? Will there be small, individual stores? That’s something they have main-tained in Paris. There are many butchers and bakeries there. The Parisians or Italians often buy quality. In Copenhagen you can

only find two or three fishmongers and it’s all because of our extreme culture of consumerism. It’s such a shame that everything is concen-trated in massive centers. There are however great examples of smaller stores in Copenhagen.”

The consumer culture pulls Gaia Brandt in two different directions: She feels disgusted by it, yet at the same time, it motivates her. She explains it as her drive.

“I get inspired really quickly. Look-ing at a piece of material can give me ideas. It’s an ongoing thing that I have tried to turn into a business. I might not make money but it satisfies me. I know a lot of people with bigger companies who are hiring people and have offices and so on and for now I’m content with being part of all the intricacies of my own design process.”

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LONDON

Gaia Brandt’s strength and courage to do what she does, does not come out of no-where. In 2006 she graduated from Central Saint Martins with a degree in Fashion Design with Knitwear. This course gave her invaluable knowledge of the importance of being independent and true to your own DNA.

“The school has a great reputation and it toughens you. The teaching method itself makes you a fighter. It’s a very personal thing to be passionate about your work. I think you learn that at Cen-tral Saint Martins. It’s a top college and I think that living

in a country other than Den-mark is essential. Leaving the parish-pump makes you think that everything is possible. I learned how to be disciplined. I went to London after I fin-ished my training as a tailor in Copenhagen so that I could work in both worlds – tailoring and knitwear. What is special about Central Saint Martins is that they push you so much, make you persevere and remember why you’re special. What is it inside of you that you can contribute? I think it was here that I found out what kind of designer I wanted to be.”

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RAZZLE DAZZLE

Gaia lights a slim lady-cigarette and picks up some sweaters from a collection she did where she used details from belts as decoration.

“These knits are decorated with copper details from vintage belts. I have disas-sembled all of the belts and sewed them onto the knits. The whole collection is about those belts. This is a good example of something I do. I work very intuitively. I never make a drawing first; I usually find my garments and materials before I start designing. I put most of my energy into the one-off pieces. I think this one of the most interesting parts of the process. I work as an artist, with a research phase, a produc-tive phase where pieces are put together as an advanced fabric assemblage, finally the result is a piece of art that you can wear, a one off with for instance an art his-torical reference such as Kurt Schwitters for S/S 12 or the Trompe L’oeil effect that saturates most of my design. One summer collection was all based on razzle dazzle

camouflage from World War I. I’m exceed-ingly interested in optical illusions and tricking the eye of the beholder.”

FUTURE

Currently Gaia Brandt is working on a new project for the Danish Royal Theatre as a costume maker and designer. She says that this is one of the best things about be-ing a designer– every day is different and sometimes completely new things happen.

“I think that being a creative person is the same as being a constantly changing individual. Also I aim to develop the GAIA universe and identity in a fresh and clear way, to underline the unmistakable look of the brand. In addition to that outreach and interaction with our buyers, press, and stores are crucial for GAIA. We aim to have a pleasant modus operandi inspired by an organic, sustainable, and respectful production process working toward a solid foundation to make GAIA grow internation-ally in the future.”

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RICK OWENS - MAX TAN - KNOMADIKSONS OF WILLIAM - MAIKEL TAWADROS.ECT.

NAG STOREPILESTRÆDE 47nagpeople.com

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madame grés

spirit of minimalismBy Veronika Doroscheva

Background

Illustrations by Jane Munch

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Chanel’s biographer Edmonde Charles-Roux once remarked that Madame Grès was “a dictator disguised as a mouse”. The term “dictator” refers to Madame Grès’ undeniable impact on the fashion industry, her groundbreaking visionary designs and innovations that influenced many genera-tions of fashion makers. The term “mouse” refers to her discreet attitude, workaholic lifestyle and an almost monastic approach to work. She used to work in complete solitude and she never indulged in a luxu-rious life, allowing herself only a few luxury items like her blue Jaguar with mink-lined seats. Edmonde Charles-Roux’ expression illustrates very clearly the paradoxical and mysterious aura that surrounded Madame Grès all her life. She was one of the most influential people in fashion at the begin-ning of the twentieth century, the Grande Dame of Haute Couture and an inspiration for many designers of her time. Among her devotees were such grand masters of fashion like Hubert de Givenchy, Pierre Car-din and Yves Saint Laurent, yet even they did not know much about Madame Grès’ private life.Madame Grès’ real name was Germaine Emilie Krebs and she was born in 1903 in Paris. When she started working in fashion she changed her name to Alix Barton and finally to Grès after her marriage to the Russian oil painter, Serge Czerefkow, who used to sign his paintings with the partial anagram of his first name: Grès. Her unconventional designs quickly be-came very popular among Hollywood stars and artists such as Greta Garbo, Vivien Leigh, Dolores del Rio, Yvonne Printemps, Arletty, and Silvana Mangano, to name but a few. In spite of so much adoration and respect, she died at the age of nine-ty, lonely and impoverished in are care home, where her daughter Anne brought her. Anne kept her mother’s death a secret for more than a year until an investigative

journalist discovered it.Unlike Madame Grès’ contemporaries, the Haute Couture designers Dior, Balenciaga, and Elsa Schiaparelli, her name doesn’t appear very often in fashion books and glossy magazines, and the bygone glory doesn’t shine as brightly as it used to. In the late 80’s, ,still alive and in business, she wasn’t at the forefront of fashion, not because she couldn’t get enough recog-nition for her work, but rather due to her personality and character. Modest and a hard worker, she preferred to spend time in her atelier working on meticulously-cut robes instead of being in the limelight and the target of media attention.It might sound quite unusual for a fashion designer, if not even paradoxical, but she was often quoted as saying: “I don’t know how to sew”. However this didn’t stop her from creating beautiful and elegant gar-ments. Why bother with sewing techniques and pattern-making? Madame Grès used scissors and pins instead of a sewing machine; she cut straight onto the material and draped the cascades of fabric directly against the body of the models using pins. Scissors and pins became Madame Grès’ basic working tools and her technique of draping and pleating became known as ‘Madame Grès’ technique’ that is still taught at the Paris American Academy in Paris.Surprisingly, fashion wasn’t Madame Grès’ first choice. She studied sculpture prior to becoming a fashion designer. She later translated her experience of working with natural materials, molds and shapes into the technique of shaping a garment. The Ancient Greek robes as seen on the sculp-tures of Gods and Goddesses made by Greek masters became a source of inspira-tion for her fabulous pleating and draping techniques.

the mysterious and the Paradoxical

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the Innovator

Madame Grès was the first to use silk jersey, the fabric that symbolizes freedom of movement, light-ness and ease. She never used corsets or padded shoulders, creating instead extremely light, supple and unstructured garments.She designed impressive robes and gowns with beautiful arrangement of folds cut from almost weightless silk jersey fabric. One single dress could take from thirteen to twenty-one meters of fabric once Madame Grès would apply her drapery tech-nique to it. And Madame Grès’ pleating technique could reduce three meters of fabric to ten centim-eters. This required endless hours of meticulous and precise work that resulted in thousands of carefully-composed folds in the best tradition of French artisanal craftsmanship. The many layers of the fabric resembled the structure of a mille-feu-ille pastry; puffed, flaky layers of delicious dough, a masterpiece of confectionary art. The taste of puff pastry depends on the number of layers: the more layers, the richer the taste. The layers mingle togeth-er into a crisp delicious body of cake and it would be impossible to count those layers. The same effect of layering and pleating applies to Madame Grès’ creations: Hundreds of folds build a strong founda-tion for draped bodycon dresses cut from light silk jersey falling in swirls to the ground. Madame Grès

celebrated beauty in simplicity and lightness. Her full-length pleated dresses would never feel heavy on the body, billowing and floating with every single movement.The generous use of fabric and the complexity of construction due to sophisticated draping, pleating, twisting, braiding and billowing techniques were well balanced by simplicity and minimalism of silhouettes and shapes. Madame Grès didn’t use much embel-lishment or luscious details and she dreamed about the creation of seamless garments.

Simple cuts, minimalist shapes, neoclassic and elegant silhouettes, monochrome color palettes with the prevalence of white and pearl gray were the hall-marks of Madame Grès’ oeuvre.This is why she is considered a forerunner of mini-malism in fashion that is nowadays popularized by contemporary luxury fashion labels such as Céline, Jil Sander and many others.It’s remarkable how courageous, forward-thinking and productive she was. She was the first to intro-duce the cut-outs and asymmetrical necklines which reveal the back or the shoulders, thereby highlighting the beauty of the female body and turning it into the body of a goddess.

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She never followed trends, only her own principles and visions. This way she earned a great deal of respect from many contemporary fashion profes-sionals. Indeed, not only did she earn respect, but also a high position in the fashion industry. In 1972 she received the position of Honorary President of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, the highest governing organization of the French fashion industry. In July 1976 she won the Golden Thimble of French Haute Couture for her AW 1976 collection, the highest honor awarded in the fashion industry.Madame Grès’ achievements and innovations including minimalist and simple yet refined design, and sophisticated draping and pleating techniques made an enormous contribution to the development of contemporary fashion design. Madame Grès deserves to be remembered and respected for her many achievements and innovations, and for the

great legacy that she left behind that we at Less Magazine would like to cherish and to promote.If there were something similar to the Mount Olym-pus for deceased designers, Madame Grès would definitely be among the ones chosen to inhabit this holy place.An excellent couturier, a hard worker and an innova-tor, she was also well known for her flawless style and elegance, and her famous “uniform”, which com-prised a gray cashmere jersey, a gray flannel skirt, skin-colored stockings, black lace-up shoes, and a nun-like jersey turban. Madame Grès’ impressive oeuvre is the best example that the beauty and the true spirit of genius lie in simplicity – that less can be more.

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visualization

Olafssonvisualizations are a recurrent feature in less magazine. We ask different

creative people to visualize their interpretation of a given subject which has to do with the theme of the issue. In this case legacy in the sense of some-

thing that binds together past, present and future.

Be grateful for the traces of the past which still stands as the most beautiful in the present and still will in the future. recognize the

genius of innovation and creativity and put it together, then you will experience something unique.

“ “

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PhOtOgRaPhER thomas Olfasson

REtOuch marius nielsen

mODEl anKER leonardo vandal

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Interview

By martin mitchell & Pernille mosbech

WalImOhammED

BaRREch

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Photo by Pernille sandberg

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I find myself deep inside the abandoned, deserted area on the fringe of Copenhagen as I wander around in my search for the studio of Antwerp graduate, Wali Mohammed Barrech. Worn brick walls and gray concrete surround me as I find the entrance to the studio building right next to what looks like a homeless guy’s hang-out spot. When I finally find the right room I am met by a smiling, yet seemingly stressed out Wali who apologizes for the empty studio. He and Freya Dalsjö share a studio and they are in the middle of moving from one room to another, twenty meters away. The room, big and full of opportunities, is furnished with nothing but a small table, three chairs, and two vases placed on top of the table, all situated in the middle of the room. I think to myself that this is a perfect way to stress an isolated mood, but Wali ensures me this is only because they are in the middle of moving. I secretly doubt it since I know Wali is a man of creating moods and analyzing societal behavior. And most importantly, he is a man of opinions. Wali Mohammed Barrech began his life in a gated community in Paki-stan under fortunate conditions and therefore nothing like what most Europeans would imagine a common life in Pakistan to be. This life meant that Wali could not run around freely like other children. If he wanted to see his friends the family’s driver had to take him togeth-er with a bodyguard to another gated community. He even went to a private German school during his upbringing in Pakistan, so he was kind of isolated from people with different social backgrounds to his own. To enhance possibilities for the family his parents built a house in Germany for their children to move to when they needed further education and where their grandmother would take care of them. Wali was 14 years old when he moved there and he was surprised at how differently his new acquaintances treated him:

”They noticed me and that I was different to them even though I spoke German like they did. I did not understand what was going on, what was right and what was wrong, but then I realized that I must have been communicating something towards them that clearly annoyed them just by looking at me, how I looked and what I wore. When I look at old pho-tographs, I must admit that I looked quite gay back then, but in Pakistan we never really had trends nor real art. Everything gets there ten years later. For example, I was madly in love with the Spice Girls when I moved to Germany but they had already been around for like seven years at the time, so I came to Germany all like ’OMG Spice Girls’ and my class-mates were like ’WTF!’”

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Photo by Wali mohammed

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Wali only had his siblings and his grandmother from Croatia in Germa-ny at the time and he suffered a lot at first. Although it was nice to have a grown up to support him, his grandmother did not understand the German society in which they were now living either. This difficult time began to shape Wali, his thoughts and way of understanding this new society in which he had ended up:

“The way we move, the way we dress are all communicative factors so complicated that you can annoy people with just the social connotation that your look brings to their minds. This fascinated me deeply and that is also why I developed an interest for fashion, but not just for the sake of beauty. It’s not like I just wanna make a nice garment. It’s obviously nice to be able to but anybody can make pretty things. We grow up in a society in which everyone is a musician or an artist or whatever. For me it’s more about the fact that we can also have a negative effect on peo-ple.”

Eventually he applied for Antwerp and experienced something very rare: He was instantly accepted. Now Wali found himself surrounded by ex-tremely talented people; some already had a degree in fashion and most had applied at Antwerp for years just to get in.

“Initially I was wondering what I had done to myself. Until I realized that quitting was not an option. I thought to myself: I’m gonna stay and see how far I can go. I had no idea what I was doing. At Antwerp you start knuckling down and realize that you don’t have any skills but that you can learn anything. If you work really hard and learn from your friends - and it is really important to have friends! - then you slowly start to learn all these things. And that was the most amazing thing I have ever expe-rienced in my life. “

After graduating from Antwerp the whole world of fashion is open to you. If the press of your graduate collection is good you can go pretty much anywhere you like. Wali got good press and because of that he was offered an impressive internship in Paris, and even found a place to stay and was all set to go out and work for a designer. But he suddenly stopped and started thinking about the world he was about to enter:

“I thought that I had already worked good and hard on my projects and collections at Antwerp and that I had something new to say and to show. Why should I give this up to enslave myself to some designer and then, if I am lucky, one day get paid for it.

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Photo by Wali mohammed

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People are willing to work as slaves just to get something on their CV and if you cannot handle the pressure of work and the lack of money, someone else who has a little more money, and therefore a surplus of mental resources, will take your place. I think that we are naive to accept this state in the fashion world. If you are not good enough you are not good enough. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that an internship at a massive brand will help. It takes something extra to make it in the fash-ion industry. Most of the people I know who went out and did this have returned depressed, hating society and hating fashion. And who would want that?”

Talk of working conditions for fresh graduates gets Wali thinking about the general state of fashion. He tells me that he thinks fashion was a lot more exciting just a few years back. Alexander McQueen, Calvin Klein, Balenciaga and John Galliano made amazing collections. He contin-ues by explaining that he thinks there was a much higher level of power and guts and also innovation. “Everything wow’ed me at that time. Now, everything is boring and repetitive”, he says.

“The Maison isn’t what it used to be. They really need to reconsider what they are doing. I think that a truly inspiring, gutsy and inventive era has past and I find that sad and hard to take because I find a lot of the well-known houses very bland these days! I think that big maisons are con-fronted with an overall change they need to take seriously because there is a very sharp generation of new designers on their way just waiting for their chance to prove themselves. And the chance is now. People want something that comes directly from a vision or from a person. They don’t need the impersonal stuff anymore. The new fashion designers are smart. They realize that they don’t have to go there (Paris ed.), that they can do their own thing”.

From the established Paris we move on to discuss Copenhagen as a fashion city now that he moved here after graduating from Antwerp in 2012 and began his eponymous label.

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“The city is filled with creativity but also respect towards each other. People don’t have the same sharp elbow mentality as they do in Paris”, he tells me. He exemplifies this by telling me about the relationship he has with Freya Dalsjö who has been an amaz-ing friend and guiding hand in his first few steps into the fashion scene. “Who the fuck would do that for you in Paris?” Wali asks. “In Paris they would tell you what to do but then shoot you in the back on your way home just as you were actually trying to do something.“

“I like Copenhagen a lot. It is not established yet and new talent can live here. Art in Scandinavia is of a very high standard. You are good at film, music, art and fashion – all in one city. But there is always room for variation and development. I also like the way trends spread here. The youth have a lot of money. They have the luxury of having both the time and the money to focus on their identity. The mindset is very different from other cities around the world. People spend a lot of time considering what they want to express, but time goes very quickly. Now everybody in Copenha-gen jogs, but they are not just jogging; they jog with shorts over their leggings. And absolutely everybody jogs - neurotically. When I came here I asked myself why is everybody so healthy here (haha). Now I know it is because of the nature of trends here. It’s a small community so if the majority says that it’s good then it is like that for everyone. Everybody just needs to fit in. But that is very good for business, sad but true. ”

Maybe the reason that Wali feels so comfortable in Copenhagen is because of the point he made about the city not being established yet. The design legacy in Copenhagen is not yet (and probably never will be), as heavy as it is in Paris, and it doesn’t weigh down the fresh new talents and prevent them from developing their cre-ativity as it does in France. But you might say that trends work just like heritage does on creativity by keeping everybody on the same track. Well this doesn’t apply to Wali’s work as his latest collection also bears witness to. Maybe Wali’s creativity isn’t obstructed by the trend-based society in Scandinavia because of his childhood in Pakistan where trends didn’t really exist.

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visualization

visualizations are a recurrent feature in less magazine. We ask different creative people to visualize their interpretation of a given subject which has to do with the theme of the issue. In

this case legacy in the sense of something that binds together past, present and future.

KRIstIan hInDØ

for me, this editorial is all about saying goodbye. goodbye to what’s supposed to be something and in gen-eral to doing what people expect you to. The inspiration for this shoot was, as given to me, departures and what would’ve been the obvious for me too, would be to do something in a train or some other vehicle, but I

decided to focus on what I’m best at – the styling and trying to tell a story about a departure and travelling in time through the clothes. I chose mainly to work with clothes from the Swedish brand aCNe STuDIOS and

instead, I tried to mix seasons and created thereby a journey through time as the seasons expand from Pre aW10 to aW13.

““Farewell

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cocoon shealing coat acne Studiosshirt Vintageleather Overalls acne Studiosshoes Charlotte Olympia

model: Molly at Le Management

Photographer: asbjørn Christensen

make-up artist: Mette Westergaard Schou

stylist: kristian hindø-Lings

styling assistant: Simone gry Sørensen

thank you stylepaste.com.

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Coat acne StudiosFake Fur Jacket acne Studios

leather skirt acne Studiosshoes Lanvin

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shirt VintageBiker Jacket acne Studios

cocoon shearling coat acne Studios

lessmagazine #2

Documents

legacy of fashion

values of fashion

theme legacy

different people

magazine issue

ones legacy

copenhagen fashion summit

various people