For Icelandic womenswear designer Sól Hansdóttir, AW25 was born from looking ahead, anticipating how the documentation of the garments she creates today will affect the way her designs are received in the future.
The designer took inspiration from the intricacy of the archival processes, observing the power it has to transcend physicality, and open up corners of past worlds to a new kind of exploration. Hansdóttir developed delicate techniques based on the idea of display and documentation, wool trapped between layers of organza and handstitched organza over jersey, mimicking the preservation process and knitted pieces with holes like punch cards containing information.
When considering the record of the latest collection, Hansdóttir opted to circumvent traditional showcasing formats, which are an abstract way to imagine clothing, removed from the future wearer. By inviting artists and academics within her community to present themselves and their lives on the brand’s stage through words and conversation, the designer looks to centre her artistic, off-kilter designs in reality, in a context that honours the sentimentality and tactility of garments, allowing them to be seen as intended as opposed to simply worn, and placing herself in direct dialogue with future the wearer.
Sól Hansdóttir
Speakers included performance and sound artist Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir, Jamaican-Icelandic broadcaster and diversity activist Chanel Björk, Finnish-Gambian photographer and writer Kadi Jatta, sculpture artist and prop-designer Sienna Murdoch and architect-turned-audio-visual and light artist Sammy Lee.
ABOUT SÓL HANSDÓTTIR
Sól Hansdóttir is the eponymous womenswear label of London-based Icelandic designer and artist, Sól Hansdóttir.
Anti-disciplinary by nature, her fluid way of design is off-kilter and without regard for the expected order of things, proposing new and singular notions of beauty, adornment, and dressing.
Material sourcing is innovative, unconventional, and ecological, reimagining things created from resourcefulness and necessity into things of beauty and utility in new contexts including locally sourced Icelandic handcraft, end-of-life fabrics, and looking beyond the fashion industry for alternative textile solutions.
Expressive, artistic, and free – Sól Hansdóttir utilises experimental pattern-making, cutting on the wall instead of the table as if like painting freehand on canvas. Community changes faster than industry but through the label’s progressive and dynamic creative tribe, hell-bent on pushing things forward, Sól Hansdóttir remains a pioneer in future everyday-wear.
The designer has received industry wide recognition since launching her brand, receiving the L’Oreal Creative Scholarship for her CSM MA graduate collection. Her previous SS25 collection was presented during Copenhagen Fashion Week as part of the NEWTALENT initiative.
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