New York to Stockholm and Back Again: An Interview with Carin Rodebjer

Swedish designer Carin Rodebjer recently relocated to New York. After the Rodebjer show, which is always the highlight of Stockholm Fashion Week, I asked her a few questions on her move, and how it has influenced the design of her new Fall 2012 collection.  One of my favorite shows of the season, the collection was inspired by male style icons like Jean Cocteau, David Hockney, and Jean Michel Basquiat.

You moved to New York from Stockholm recently. How has that been for you, do you feel like a New Yorker now?
No not really! I just moved there one year ago. But I feel kind of connected to the city--It is such a nice city, and I feel that it is good to have both platforms, because you get so much inspiration and you see things from different perspectives.

Did New York have any influence on the design of your new collection?
Oh, of course it does. That's part of why I moved too, because I wanted to have the local and the global perspective.  That's why we chose to show here [at Matthias Dahlgren's restaurat] too, because Matthias works on both a local and global level. That's how I want the collection to be--more global.

You said that your collection was influenced by menswear this season, so what kind of menswear details did you incorporate?
The buttons, shirt collars, bags, and shoes are very masculine.  All those menswear details were things we added.  But we were also inspired by the mindset, all the men that we were inspired by this season were their own universe, so I wanted to have that mindset, with a very focused woman being the center of her own universe.

Would you ever consider doing menswear? 
Yeah, I am considering it! I would love to do it, but it will take a while because we can still dig deeper into what we are. I want to work a little bit now to focus on the design with the womanswear, and then we will move on to menswear.

I've also noticed that this season and last season you've incorporated more color and prints. Can you tell me more about the digital prints and the floral prints that you used this season?
Oh yeah, we wanted to have really rich prints so it kind of symbolized the rich lives that our icons were having, and the richness of their personalities. So it's kind of rich prints with a more structured outside. I like prints, even though that's not very Swedish.  I like prints when they are balanced, and when they're controlled and clean.

Do you have any plans of showing in New York.
I do a little in the back of my head. So we'll see, whenever we have a little more money, I would love to do it!

-Tiffany