In trend right this moment, there’s a starvation for designs that elicit pleasure, problem the established order or embody a way of play. Even perversion. A pair of lace underwear tacked onto a pencil skirt, for instance, a bouquet of roses encased inside a tulle robe, or outsized outerwear that turns the wearer right into a real-life paper doll. This ethos is embodied within the work of Ann-Sofie Again, considered one of Sweden’s most influential trend designers, who’s identified for exploring standing, class, disgrace and sweetness requirements by subversive design. She was forward of her time, and as such her collections are as related right this moment as they had been ten to twenty years in the past. Fortunately, the general public can now dive into her wealthy archive by a brand new e book and exhibition referred to as ‘Go As You Please – Ann-Sofie Again 1998-2018’, on view at Liljevalchs in Stockholm.
Again was at all times fascinated with trend as a device of self-expression; notably, its capability to undertaking sure traits about oneself to the world. Within the sleepy Stockholm suburb of Stenhamra, her mother and father paid this no thoughts, which solely piqued her curiosity additional. ‘I found at a really early age that the primary cause my mother and father weren’t accepted socially was due to their costume, their full disregard for a way others perceived them and the best way this actually made life more durable for them,’ Again wrote in reference to her A/W 2005 assortment ‘Costume for Success!’. ‘It mortified me and made me ashamed of them. I believe this expertise is what made me grow to be a designer. Style and disgrace have at all times been linked for me.’
‘Go As You Please – Ann-Sofie Again 1998-2018’ at Liljevalchs, Stockholm
(Picture credit score: Courtesy catwalking.com)
Again studied trend design at Beckmans School of Design, then pursued a grasp’s diploma at London’s Central Saint Martins. After graduating in 1998, she labored as a stylist for a number of years, customising and deconstructing garments that she offered in London, Paris and Tokyo. ‘This would possibly look like nothing right this moment with everybody upcycling left, proper and centre,’ she says of her strategies, ‘however that was fairly revolutionary then. I considered sustainability, however nobody else was bothered by it.’
Her first ready-to-wear assortment – S/S 2002’s ‘Unintentional Embarrassment’, proven in Paris – set the scene. Again explored her uneasiness with typical glamour and perfection, creating sequin tops and T-shirt clothes with built-in bra particulars, styling them with silver belts and heels, however appearances might be deceiving. Whereas the designer’s chosen materials appeared good from a distance, up shut you could possibly see that the gildings had been glued on, skirts had been caught to knickers and the equipment had been, in reality, coated with tin foil. Anne-Sofie Again the label and its defining ‘failed glamour’ aesthetic, whose ripples might be felt right this moment from impartial designers like Vaquera to Demna’s Balenciaga, was born.
The exhibition, which was curated by Again alongside shut collaborator Nicole Walker
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Matthias Lindbäck )
Through the years, Again cultivated a design language of stereotypically unsexy silhouettes, surprisingly positioned cutouts, mismatched layers – inserting a mesh prime over a knit, for instance, and presenting underwear as outerwear. Her notorious A/W 2008 assortment, titled ‘Movie star Obsession’, took on the misogynistic UK tabloid press that hounded, shamed and ridiculed girls within the 2000s by making an attempt to show their knickers. Again created a slip costume out of bralettes and garter belts; she made spaghetti straps from thongs. The label operated from 2001-2018, alongside diffusion line BACK from 2005, exploring main up to date points from cosmetic surgery to ‘the pornification of society’, earlier than the enterprise shut down.
The writer Artwork & Idea approached the designer 4 years in the past and so they started work on a e book that chronicles her seminal twenty years in trend. In its ultimate phases, Again determined to show it into an exhibition in partnership with stylist and frequent collaborator Nicole Walker. ‘We knew from the beginning that we did not need to make a standard retrospective – mixing up all of the totally different seasons, and producing new appears to be like was vital,’ Again explains to Wallpaper* of the present’s idea, which sees clothes reimagined into new, up to date iterations. ‘I’ve a relentless have to shock myself once I work, so this was important. It was additionally regarded as my farewell to trend,’ so it was envisioned with a funeral/burial theme.
‘It felt extremely liberating having the ability to discover and play with totally different concepts of what it means to be a lady’
Ann-Sofie Again
(Picture credit score: Courtesy catwalking.com)
The pair began by unpacking the huge archive, which took a complete two weeks, even with three assistants. It was a really emotional expertise: ‘I felt utterly blocked and overwhelmed,’ Again shares. ‘So Nicole began and made an ideal look. It had that type of surrealist, unhappy glamour that I like, in order that set the tone.’
‘I name her “automotive ring physique girl”,’ Walker provides. ‘She is filled with foam and wears a good little skirt that’s now styled as a costume, a belt wrapped round her breasts, a sequin cardigan prime and a wig.’
The styling performed a significant position within the exhibition, because it did in Again’s unique reveals; the themes had been as related now – if no more so – than they had been then. ‘We performed lots with feminine stereotypes and I actually don’t know the way a lot freedom girls could have sooner or later the best way the world is evolving in the meanwhile,’ Walker says. ‘With that mentioned, it felt extremely liberating having the ability to discover and play with totally different concepts of what it means to be a lady.’
The exhibition’s accompanying e book, revealed by Artwork & Idea
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Ann-Sofie Again)
‘I felt like I died once I needed to put my enterprise into liquidation. It was a complete lack of my identification’
Ann-Sofie Again
The mannequins are standing all through the house, but in addition on prime of tables and rising from coffins. One look incorporates a portray of Jesus that Again’s mom made in her teenagers, whereas one other wears an outfit consisting of a puffer jacket, a feather skirt, stockings that belonged to Again’s grandmother, and a pair of clear stripper heels. Glued onto the model’s face are the designer’s child tooth, formed right into a smile.
Whereas she was engaged on the undertaking, Again was identified with breast most cancers and misplaced a lot of her members of the family. ‘Loss of life was very actual to me,’ she says. ‘I additionally felt like I died once I needed to put my enterprise into liquidation. It was a complete lack of my identification.’ The invites for the opening featured a cross on the entrance and had been impressed by conventional Swedish demise bulletins. ‘Go As You Please’ is the identify of a funeral house, however it’s additionally the costume code. ‘The theme comes from a really private place, however it will also be learn as the present state of the style trade,’ Again says.
‘Go As You Please – Ann-Sofie Again 1998-2018’ runs till 23 February 2025 at Liljevalchs, Stockholm.
liljevalchs.se
Supply: Wallpaper
