Now it's the men's turn : Danish Mens Fashion

Picture: Soulland, https://www.facebook.com/shop.soulland

Currently you can read a series of articles about Danish mens fashion on various news sites, among others FashionForum.dk. David Jenkins wrote a chronicle in the Danish newspaper Politiken where he describes Danish mens fashion as developing towards the gutter, being androgynous, boyish and apathetical. This started a welcome discussion of men’s fashion. To David Jenkins there is only one way to go with men’s fashion; a high quality tailored suit and a tie tied the right way.

Current popular fashion with low-cut revealing t-shirts, skinny jeans and unisex-shoes approaches rock bottom rapidly.

I find mens fashion extremely interesting because of the challenges that lie within that area, one you don’t find in womens fashion. In women’s fashion there are so many possibilities and almost everything is allowed.

There is a paradox with men and womens fashion. A woman can show a lot of skin without you really taking notice. But if she shows too much breast it will become offensive. A man can take of his t-shirt and you won’t find it provocative, but he can’t wear an asymmetrical shirt only covering one shoulder or a deep cut t-shirt revealing a lot of his chest without it seeming vulgar. 

There is fashion for certain environments and situations that you should respect and I do love a suit that fits well on the man. Having said that, I miss creativity in mens fashion. It is locked inside a box and I think the resistance towards development of expression in men’s fashion is sad. We saw a similar opposition to the development of womens fashion in the beginning of the 20^th century when women started wearing pants and “oh what catastrophe” later embraced the suit and broad shoulders. As said in the documentary Modearkivet created by DR2, Chanel gave women freedom, Yves Saint Laurent gave them power.

Women haven’t abandoned high heels and feminine dresses. They just have the freedom to play with their looks, mixing jeans, sky-high heels and feminine little blouses or dresses worn with sharp blazers and flat boots.

I find it liberating seeing mens fashion becoming more expressive and playful, not paying attention to stereotypical gender roles. Maybe it takes men looking a little feminine for a while, but I believe in time this evolution of fashion will open our eyes as to what you can wear as a man and not loose masculinity. 

New in Designkollektivet

I have designed this new T-shirt which you can now buy at the shop Designkollektivet in Copenhagen. 
My idea was to make a T-shirt that will easily become your new favorite item in the basic wardrobe - but with a twist. Due to the beautiful detail on the back this T-shirt is more than just an ordinary basic item. It is perfect for the casual woman who likes to stand out wearing great design. 

Designkollektivet : Grand Opening

This Saturday was the Grand Opening of our shop Designkollektivet.

There has been a lot of preparation to get the shop ready, arranging the event and finishing products.

But it was a succes. Our little cozy shop was constantly full of happy people checking out this new addition to the area around Jægersborggade, sipping wine and eating delicious homemade cake.

From now and onwards Designkollektivet is open Monday to Friday from 12pm - 6pm and Saturday from 10am - 3pm. We are each gonna be there one day a week. 

After a few days relaxing I'll be working hard on new products for the shop. First to come are tops and computer bags. 

The last of the last logo

I have changed the top logo of the blog so the visual identity is more like my website tibbesmith.com and my facebook page. (like it here)
I hope you like it.

Designkollektivet

Things are changing, and I am now part of Designkollektivet. 
Designkollektivet consists of a group of 6 different designers and illustrators. The shop opens at Stefansgade 12  on Nørrebro, Copenhagen on the 15th of December. 
You can check out the website and designers here and like us on facebook here. 

The designers are  
Pernille Rask, www.pernillerask.dk/
Nikolaj Mogensen, www.nikolajmogensen.dk/
Charlotte Cederkof, www.cederkof.tumblr.com 
Nina Meldgaard, www.ninameldgaard.dk/
Anne Tranholm, www.annetranholm.com/
and me www.tibbesmith.com

Morbid Times

I saw this on a fleamarket and found it quite interesting. The guy told me it was an old antique and for babies to suckle on for comfort. 

More on the Ecological Age of fashion

In my last post I talked about an exhibition where a handful of Danish and other Northern European designers presented their take on sustainable design. I was especially crazy about Ivana Helsinki's print, the feathers you see right above. 

Some facts I read at the exhibit:

The fashion industry is the world's third largest industry with a yearly turnover of more than €370 billion. The global textile production has grown by 25% between 2002 and 2012, wih Asia as the main contributor. Cotton is concidered the world's most dirty crop due to it's heavy use of incesticides, the pesticide being the most hazardous to human and animal health. Production of a T-shirt can cost up to 2,000 Liters of water from field to shelves. Currently less than 1% of the world's cotton is grown organically. But from 2006 to 2010 sales of organic cotton has grown by more than 600% so things are changing. 

Entering The Ecological Age

I just got home from KEA Business Forum, an afternoon conference which is held every half year in Copenhagen. This time the theme was sustainable design. Since this is such an important issue to me, of course I needed to go. Networking and learning with free cake and coffee in the break just makes for a great afternoon. 

Five speakers with different approaches and different backgrounds were presenting to us their knowledge on the subject, hoping to inspire and make an army of contributors to a better world. 

As Nille Juul-Sørensen, CEO of Danish Design Center was saying, we are entering a new age: The Ecological Age. Humans are consuming three planets' worth of resources, so we obviously need to change the way we make and use things. Sustainability isn't  and must not be a trend. It marks a change in the culture of the world today; a change in the way we percieve our existence in the world. As Daniel Quinn writes in Story of B:

"If the world is saved, it will not be by old minds with new programs 

but with new minds with no programs at all." 

Nille Juul-Sørensen talks about how we design and develop by looking in the back mirror. Instead we need to look forward to be able to move in the right direction. It is also essential that scienctist and researchers, the industries and designers collaborate in order to find the solutions needed to make a sustainable world. 

One of the more fashion specific talks were from a KEA student, Maja Stabel, who studies sustainable fashion. She presented her Zero-Waste project and collection that she made for David Andersen Copenhagen. I realized that I had seen Maja's project when it was exhibited at Design Museum Denmark during the Copenhagen Fashion Week this August. As mentioned, she worked on Zero-Waste which is a technique where no fabric is wasted. It is quite a complex method where you make clothing like a puzzle with pieces cut from the fabric. As she describes it it's a spontaneous method where risk taking is essential. 

All the presentations were really great and gave food for thought and a lot of inspiration and hope. I feel hope is the most important since we have to believe that we can make a change.

Below are some pictures from the exhibit in Design Museum Denmark taken with my phone since I came there unprepared. A post about the other designers showing their sustainable proposals at this exhibit will follow soon.  

Fleas are hoppin'

I went to a flea market today in great need of something new for my wardrobe since I always wear the same few outfits. Found a few good things as you can see.

Summer is over

Summer is surely over and the fall is biting our tale. The flea market went really well. It was the first time I did this but even being rookies we sold a lot of the things. Soon it's time for a party for all the people working at Kihoskh though my partying will be interrupted since I also have to work there tonight. 

Watch : Earrings

Here are the pictures of my new watch and the earrings. I got both second hand for a bargain and love them! 
Tomorrow I am going to a flea market with my boyfriend to sell a lot of the stuff we decided we don't need anymore. Feels so great to clean up in your life. Christianshavns Torv is where it will take place and we hope the Universe will give us nice weather.

Hunting and Scavenging

After being absent from the blog for a looong time I want to get back on it.
I just moved in to a gorgeous apartment with my boyfriend, a big 3 room place with a great courtyard and right by the busy street Istedgade. We love it! But moving into your own place also means you need lots of things. I have been scavenging the second hand shop around Copenhagen for bargains on kitchenware, plates, glasses and all other cool stuff to put in our new home. Here's what I wore. Well actually I found the earrings in one of the shops I went to. I'll give you a close up of those along with the watch I also bought.

New page: Portfolio

Check out the page I've made for my portfolio here. Like I also mention there a portfolio should always be a work in progress and so is this one.

I have waited for a long time, trying to figure out how I wanted it to look like, getting the right things and all the time I've felt like it wasn't good enough.
But not so long ago I realized that I shouldn't be satisfied. That that is not the point of a portfolio. Or anything for that matter. You can never get somewhere if you don't take the walk. You never get better if you don't practice. Being scared, intimidated or expecting yourself to be perfect will only stand in your way. So now it's out there. I am still not very happy with it, but it still feels nice. And I'll keep working on it and make it better and better and better and keep updating it again and again.

I hope this inspires you to also do whatever you dream of, take the first step, practice. And realize that you will only get to where you dream of by taking each step on the journey. 

A fashion photo shoot

I just did a photo shoot with my designs from the past year or so, some pieces much older. I wanted to get some really cool and professional pictures of my work for a portfolio. 

I am so lucky that my brother Kaare Smith is a photographer and wanted to help me with it. (Check out his website here)

I then asked my good friend Marit if she wanted to model in my clothes - I am honored to say that she felt honored. (Read her blog here) 

I had never done something like this before. Kaare also never tried to shoot for fashion, he's a journalist photographer - captures the moment in its truth. Marit had tried modelling once before some years ago, but that is not something she does either.

So all of us being pretty unexperienced we didn't really know what to expect with this shoot. I thought that would make it even more interesting, a real low-key photoshoot out in nature and in an abondoned industrial building with only rookies.

It was awesome! Everything just worked. I was kinda on the side line while Kaare and Marit worked magic.

Here's some shots from the day.

 

The quick reader might notice that the last picture is the dress I made in my bachelor project.

wrap myself in shades

New tee

I quickly made this new tee the other day. Hope you like it.

Am printing and can't stop

Am currently taking a course in Illustrator, Photoshop and PadSystems. The course is intended for people working in fashion, so it's all about making technical drawings and patterns for printing fabric. On the school they have this textile printer, and let me say it is fabulous. (something that I don't usually say, but really, it is!) It is only money that keeps me from printing and printing and printing. 
(For those of you who don't realize it, I want to point your attention to the fact that our clothes are usually not printed in this way, but in the old school silk-screen-printing way like Andy Warhol's images. It is not a printer but a person, - just the more reason to be impressed and apprecciate the work.)

I made this print, the first one that I finished, which you see being printed as the picture was taken. 

The inspiration is from water crystals, microscopic constellations in water which shape is decided depending on which thoughts are directed toward the water. You can see on the crystals how positive thoughts create completely different constellations that negative thoughts. (so be good to yourself, you are mostly water)
After a long designproces where I basically dissected pictures of water crystals I finally decided on this print. 


It will soon become a dress - well actually I plan on making two dresses, one in a sharp clean and minimalistic cut with a deep back and one to wear on top, if you feel like more adventure, which will be a much more extravagant, flowing draped dress.

 

More of

 

The post card I made for the event that was held for our bachelor projects. 

Front and back side, with text about my project on the back. 

Let's make it work, Let's spread sustainability

Some time has passed since we handed in and presented our bachelor thesis and product, and the date of our exhibition event is approaching. 

My focus throughout my degree has been the fashion industry, primarily on design and pattern making. With my strong interest in sustainability, it felt natural that my bachelor should concern sustainability in the fashion industry. I decided to create a garment that was designed to convey a message of sustainability. This was also the starting point for the written part of the project. To explore how to convey this message through clothing, it was necessary to explore what sustainability in the fashion industry really entails. In addition, I have a sociological angle on how we consume and on how we carry symbols of who we are through our clothes.

There is no specific definition of sustainability, but there are many theories that deal with how we can change our ways to produce and consume. I can conclude that there are so many ways to work with sustainability in the fashion industry that you can not work with all at once. I can mention organically produced materials, minimization of transportation, recycling, fair trade and focus on working conditions, information regarding environmentally friendly maintenance, zero-waste (this means that there is not created any waste material by pattern construction but that everything is being used in the clothing piece), multi-functional design and much more. For the same reason it is also almost impossible to call a product 100% sustainable. However, one should use as many methods as possible and make a genuine effort to protect the environment and create good working conditions.

Like Kate Flecther writes: 

Business as usual, or more to the point,

fashion as usual, is not an option.

As a fashion company I believe it important to consider sustainability but of course also the customer. The most important thing for the consumer is design, price and availability. If you want to sell sustainable products, they must therefore be attractive and beautiful. Consumers today are using clothing as part of their self-realization process and it is therefore not surprising that the design is essential when shopping.

With the dress I have made I sought to communicate a sustainable message. But based on my research, I came to realize that it is not certain that such a message would be welcomed by a buyer. There is also the possibility that symbolic value loses its deeper meaning when used in clothing context. 

Later I'll put up pics with me in the dress. It does suit me better.

bachelor under a glass bowl

Finally the paper is finished, printed and sewn in Japanese book binding style and the last chance of changing anything is up. (Which leaves me a nerve wreck, goddamn perfectiosnism)

I look up and though I'm not yet done (there's still a dress to be sewn and a presentation to prepare for) I can for a short while take a look at the world around me. I have been almost isolated with my project for the past months not spending my time doing much else but the daily yoga.

I will later on write more thouroughly about my project, which I hope you'll find interesting. For now, here's a picture of the actual paper.