A new stunning collection by Sandra Backlund is out!
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Sandra Backlund,"Don't Walk." Photo by Denise Grünstein
Titled “Don’t Walk” and made entirely of red knits, it is the fifth collection by the Swedish designer, who started out by studying fine arts in college, then textiles and art history and only later decided to pursue fashion and enrolled at the Beckman’s School of Design in Stockholm. Her varied background shows through in her beautifully constructed, intricate work, which often stands away from the body yet at times reiterates it in the very material she uses to create clothes. Her very first collection “Body, Skin and Hair,” partially employed human hair, which she carefully and painstakingly “styled” into garments by sewing it onto a fabric lining, then combing, cutting, braiding and finally pinning it.
Most of her work plays with the traditional silhouette, often distorting and transforming it in different ways. She admits to working along the lines of a sculptor rather than a tailor in building her clothes from a number of small pieces which she then joins together in different ways to create novel and ever-changing shapes. (see, sandrabacklund.com)
Francesca
Fashion Projects #5 is devoted to fashion curation, examining the meteoritic rise in relevance of fashion exhibitions.
It features interviews with an eclectic assortment of leading practitioners from different corners of the world. The issue includes long Q&As with Harold Koda, the longtime, recently retired curator of the Met’s Costume Institute, as well as the Museum at FIT’s veteran leader Valerie Steele. It also features interviews with curators in Antwerp (the ModeMuseum’s Kaat Debo), Toronto (Royal Ontario Museum’s Alexandra Palmer) and Venice (Maria Luisa Frisa); academics studying the field (Hazel Clark, Annamari Vänskä, and Alistair O’Neill); and, giving an on-the-ground perspective, the Met’s head conservator, Sarah Scaturro. The issue’s cover stars Greer Lankton’s sculptural representation of legendary Vogue editor and Costume Institute doyenne Diana Vreeland, who continues to loom over the field years after her death.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Showmanship and History: An Interview with Harold Koda by Francesca Granata
Woman of Steele: An Interview with Valerie Steele by Lisa Santandrea
Exploring Fashion’s Openness: An Interview with Kaat Debo by Alex Esculapio
London, After a Fashion Curator: An Interview with Alistair O’Neill by Alexis Romano
Curation and Conservation: An Interview with Sarah Scaturro by Mae Colburn
Reflections on Fashion Curating
An Interview with Hazel Clark and Annamari Vänskä
Fashion in the Vast Museum: An Interview with Alexandra Palmer by Ingrid Mida
Restless Curating: An Interview with Maria Luisa Frisa by Marco Pecorari