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

Good Sport

All photos by Beit Ha'ir

A few weeks ago, a received an email from my friend Daniel Palillo announcing his participation in a F? A Year of Fashion in at Beit Ha'ir, a museum in Tel Aviv.  While Tel Aviv is a little bit off the map fashion wise, I was incredibly impressed with the ambitious year long show that the museum's curators put together, tapping both Israeli and international designers to create a series of temporary exhibitions. The roster is impressive, including threeASFOUR, Boudicca, Anne Valerie Hash, and Vibskov and Emenius, in addition to Daniel.

While I had a difficult time navigating the website, as I can't read Hebrew, I only had to look at the photographs to see that they had put on a spectacular opening, which included a fashion show of Daniel's sport and cartoon inspired Spring collection of adult and children's clothes.  Most impressive was a special video made for the exhibition, featuring the Bney Yehuda soccer team, whose members were decked out in custom made Daniel Pallilo outfits.  I'm not usually a fan of sports, or fashion videos for that matter, but this one is particularly riveting, and definitely worth viewing.  And, if you do find yourself in Tel Aviv, the show will be going on with rotating exhibitions through the end of the year.

Daniel Palillo video collaboration with Bney Yehuda football team, was created by Matan Guggenheim and Daniel Kutz.

-Tiffany

En Vacances

Bike storage at Les Frigos, an art collective in Paris

I've been silent for the past two weeks because I've been on family vacation in France.  In college, I spent a semester in Grenoble, but there are still many areas of the country that I haven't seen, and we took a car trip around the Loire Valley and Bordeaux, finishing with the requisite stop in Paris.  Jimmy and I went there starving, as we lack decent affordable restaurants in Stockholm.  As you can imagine, I was too occupied stuffing my face and expanding my waistline to take any decent photos, but here are a few snapshots I captured along the way.  Can't wait for my next trip back.  Now it's time to get back to work, more consistent blogging, and my regular all-carb diet of instant noodles and pasta. 
 

The requisite cup of hot chocolate at Angelina's in Paris. I'm proud to say that I finished the entire pot.

Toy sailboats at the Jardin Luxembourg

Jimmy at Les Frigos

One of the graffiti teddies that kept on making appearances all over Les Frigos

Outside of Les Frigos

A serpentine street grating in the medieval town of Sarlat

Duck at the Jardin Luxembourg

A four hundred year old wine cave in Bordeaux

L'Arc de Triomphe

Le Louvre

The last two Pierre Hermes macaroons :(

-Tiffany