So, I make my move into Features this semester as the Editor of WINOL Travel and Adventure Magazine.
This week, I decided to write a fashion piece for ABSOLUTE:LY Magazine. See the full article HERE.
[27.12.12]
Firstly, could you give us some information about your fashion label?
"At the moment I'm doing a fashion label called 'HAiK'... spelt in the Norwegian way it means to hitchhike. It's a collaboration between three designers, me and Ida Falck Øien and Harald Lunde Helgesen who are two other fashion designers that are from Norway. Harald lives in London and Ida... lives in LA and I live now in Norway, so we decided to create this label together where we investigate a certain theme from three different angles and three different locations. It is also a collaboration on two other levels... we invite other designers and artists and other collaborators like filmmakers who would contribute to a certain theme to also help make the collection and everything around the collection"
Could you tell us more about your current project "HAiK"?
"Being three really quite individual designers... we're quite tuned in on what we like... we're very used to doing our own projects and doing our own research... It goes really well for stuff that's selling in London and in Beijing and in Japan...We're going to Paris in January for the new collection... so hopefully our sales will really pick up and we're getting a lot of Press. We've just done a collaboration with... a Norwegian shoe factory or shoemaker. He was making this penny loafer shoe that's been the same for almost 100 years... In the 1920's there was an article in 'Esquire' magazine in America about Norwegian fishermen and in that article... [they] were wearing these shoes. They looked really amazing. That led to the biggest shoe factory in America, seeing these penny loafers... He got a pair and copied them in America and made them worldwide. That penny loafer shoe became that kind of American college look and from then it has become this worldwide phenomenon... and that all started in this tiny village in Norway. That's one of the collaborators of 'HAiK'... but the point of them [is] to really lift some iconic brands that nobody really knows about"
How would you say this differs from your involvement in the "Designers Against AIDS" campaign [2009]?
"The idea of collaborating is something that's key to all the previous work I've done. I've always felt that was a really valuable and important part of being a designer to almost be an art director of a vision and if you only have your own voice... it becomes quite single minded... and people who I collaborated with in the past often become friends and that is actually the case with Ida and Harald, they have both worked with me in London before over many years. Harald has done his own label and won awards and he's a really talented menswear designer and Ida as well... she has an artistic background and also a fashion background so her take on things are pretty unique and often based in fine art type research"
Who has been your favourite collaborative partner?
"I've collaborated for the longest time with Tom Murphy. He's a stylist and we did loads of shows together... He would be the person who would come in with a fresh eye towards the end of making a collection and you've become pretty blind on your project... You've kind of worked on it so much that you think you've exhausted all avenues... It's really important for someone you trust... to come in and bring something fresh to the project, which was what he was doing. He's always been a good collaborative partner for me. I've collaborated with jewellery designers and since I've moved to Norway I've started teaching more... we're also doing teaching projects together which is really good fun for us... I've invited three of them to Norway to teach at the National Academy of Arts [Oslo] where I have a project every year... It's nice to collect people you work well with and introduce each other to some new opportunities"
How have the traditions/the island in Norway influenced your work?
"You're really a vehicle of anything that comes out creatively... from who you are as a person. The values you have, the upbringing that you've had, the knowledge that you have... and that's what you bring to the table as a designer. It's what defines you and what makes your work different to everybody else's... The upbringing was very normal to me but pretty different to my fellow students that I met in London, but then again everyone's background is unique so I think you just have to draw from it anything that's positive to you. Make everything positive for you and useful to you in what you choose to do in life. Obviously I got a few skills from my background with craft and sewing and knitting, but often what's more important is the attitude that you have to things... when you're satisfied with what you do... that is formed early on in life as well. I think that's one to work on all through the life. To really think about how you handle things and how you meet challenges"
What inspired you to become a designer?
"I never really aspired to fashion when I was that young... I did take quite a traditional education then went into University, but... I did miss making things. I knew there was something missing, that it wouldn't be enough for me. I had this really inspiring story from my ancestors... about taking your decisions from early on in life... so that's when I quit University and went back to vocational school and found this course in tailoring that I was really interested in. I did that for three years and became a men's tailor. My family wasn't really against it, but I think they were really worried about what I was going to work with, but then again they knew I had liked sewing since I was little. It kind of made sense... in a really quiet way I knew what I wanted to do but I didn't go around at the age of 16 going 'I'm going to be a Fashion Designer because it's so cool'. It wasn't really about that. It's more that I felt I wasn't really on the right path and that story gave me the strength to try for what I wanted to do instead"
How is working in Norway different to working in London?
"It's a really different set up. Some things are better, some things are more challenging. In London I had a bigger studio and more access to design work and also to collaborators... it was easier to set up relationships with people. I have a studio, but it's in my house. There [are] no fashion students really in Bergen, so... I don't really need to have a big studio... but then most of the work in London was done over email and phone anyway so that hasn't really changed. The access for work in Norway is different. Not so much design work perhaps but other kind of work that's actually better paid. Design work in London was quite good. It fit the profile but was very badly paid. I was a bit tired of London, we had been there for over 10 years and... now... It gives me challenges and keeps us wanting to achieve and wanting to create"
[25.07]
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