The Scandinavian fashion is back in the spotlight. A change this year in the schedule due to most press and buyers were in holidays during first week of August, so from now and on Stockholm Fashion Week will be the last 3 days of August. This has helped more international presence, indeed. After Copenhagen showing-off excellent fitness –mainly by the likes of Henrik Vibskov, Wood Wood, Stine Goya or Soulland – Stockholm Fashion Week introduced its strength with a range that varies from up and coming new talents such as Nhu Dong to the great heavyweights such as Filippa K, Whyred, Tiger of Sweden, Carin Wester and Cheap Monday.

Sweden has a great potential in fashion design education. There are a few schools with great reputation. Beckmans College of Design is one of them. Last years was easy to hear Carin Wester as one of the favorites pupils from her generation. Well, the baton is passed to Nhu Duong, who in barely four years after graduate in Beckmans, has built an excellent start-off: assistant designer in Acne, commercial collection for Weekday and Elle Award in 2010. She is currently based in Berlin. She was invited to show her collection in Stockholm Fashion Week with a great vibe and expectation around it. Daughter of a martial-mars instructor, you tossed elements of this legacy onto a futuristic neon-like vision. She plays with translucent patterns, different layers overlaying to create new textures out of each combination.

Whyred is a brand always interested in subcultures and music styles from the eighties and nineties. Their SS13 “Calypso Punk,” is a nostalgic look to the early eighties in New York, neon disco, new wave and rock’n’roll tinting streets with fanzines and independent publications. The most progressive vision of menswear depicted with contrast of black and white but also blues, oranges and shades of greens. Roland Hjorton revealed this collection was inspired in figures from the likes of Richard Hell, Nick Cave, Bobby Gillespie and The Gun Club and also Lydia Lunch, Nina Hagen and Debbie Harry for the tough and extraordinary woman. Woven patterns as snake and leopard and jungle prints, silk and cashmere mixed on knits.

Carin Wester Spring/Summer collection 2013, “A power suit’s diary” wanted to look towards the workingwoman in the American of Reagan. The 80’s movie “Working Girl” – you know, the romantic comedy with Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver – was source of inspiration. Vibrant colors combined with plastic coated materials in a contrast with more fluid chiffons enable these working girls to enjoy a playful banter at the office. The male character breaks away from the silhouette of classic tailored working suit. Instead, he uses a light washed denim suit, with a panorama of the metropolitan industrial skyscrapers through the 78th floor.

Filippa K is ambassador of the Scandinavian minimalism. For her womenswear SS13 collection she pushes sophistication and tosses feminine and masculine elements together and again strives for the balance of the comfort of sportiness and sharpness of the look. Highlights of the collection include fluid elegant calf length skirts and knit in light lilac and ultra feminine skirts in army green. She uses long silhouettes in sheer, light and sensual fabrics. Elegant simplicity in nice colors: dusty pastel, army green and pink gold metal, combined in swede boots.

Cheap Monday introduced “Anomalies,” – their Summer-Spring 2013 collection– in a central skate-park of Stockholm. Paranoid Park met Clock Work Orange, with a gang of models walking around with trashed bootlegs of Led Zeppelin and Alice Cooper in the background. This androgynous collection is a very conscious environmental friendly vision. “Us humans have a need to divide the world into various categories. These in turn are often formulated as opposites such as day or night, man or animal, sick or healthy. With everything around us categorized we learn about how we should relate to our surroundings and create a sense of security.” The collection gets inspiration from elements of the supernatural and UFO-alien-like. Pastels colors, mixed with fruity reds, greens and turquoise, combined with stark black and bright white. The denim is coarse yet stretchy with a slight thrift store feeling, contradictory creating something fresh and modern, with high-waist fit for men in rigid fabrics, what they called “High Slim.”

Stockholm Fashion Week SS13
Date: 27th – 29th August, 2012
Place: Berns Salonger, Kungsträdgården and other venues, Stockholm
http://www.mercedesbenzfashionweek.se