“I felt that contemporary fashion deserved more qualified space and dedication within Nordic museums,” says Ane Lynge-Jorlén, curator of Nordic Fashion Now: Knitwear and Print, opening tomorrow at Gothenburg's Röhsska Museum
Proudly situated on Vasagatan, one of Gothenburg’s tree-lined main streets, is the Röhsska Museum: an ornate building that’s existed since 1916 with the sole purpose of honouring the principles of craft and design. Home to over 50,000 objects, the museum mainly holds pieces from Sweden, wider Europe, China and Japan. And from tomorrow, 12 May, until 1 October, the location is set to play host to Nordic Fashion Now: Knitwear and Print. Curated by Ane Lynge-Jorlén, the exhibition will showcase the artistry of young designers who are propelling the Nordic fashion scene forward. Individual exhibitions centred around the same concept are also set to take place at Copenhagen Contemporary, The National Museum of Oslo and Espoo Museum of Modern Art.
“I felt that contemporary fashion deserved more qualified space and dedication within Nordic museums,” says Lynge-Jorlén, who’s also the director of Alpha – a non-profit initiative that supports burgeoning Nordic design talent. Lynge-Jorlén personally selected 15 designers to present their work as 12 distinct projects. “Each immersive installation is a micro universe,” Röhsska Museum's project coordinator Olivia Berkowicz says, highlighting the fact that each presentation traverses the entire design process — down to a scattering of sample buttons artfully strewn across a podium.
The displays of Nordic Fashion Now: Knitwear and Print at Gothenburg's Röhsska Museum.
The exhibition is split into three rooms: an introductory space, a print- focused room and a knitwear section. Lynge-Jorlén references exhibitions like Alexander McQueen’s Savage Beauty at the V&A, as well as Martin Margiela’s 1989-2009 retrospective at Palais Galliera, as examples of grandiose exhibitions she adores but has yet to see from a Nordic perspective. However, she clarifies that she purposefully kept this exhibition design minimal to retain a sense of balance, knowing the designers’ bold, experimental work would need ample room to speak for itself.
“This is a thematic group show where we’re presenting emerging fashion designers of international calibre, whilst at the same time hoping to create awareness and discussion of fashion in the Nordics,” Lynge-Jorlén explains. “How I chose to present and stage the work is always a dialogue with the designers as well as the specific space and framework for the exhibition.”Therefore, despite the assortment of materials, textures and colours, the projects seamlessly flow from one to the other — offering a deep dive into each designer’s oeuvre in a way that’s comprehensive rather than overwhelming.
Oslo National Academy of the Arts graduate Rintaro Iino’s knitwear display.
Sasha Heinsaar’s project is the first to be seen on arrival. She creates fantastical pieces crafted from everyday knitwear: think bodices made from patterned mittens and multicoloured gloves. Originally from Estonia, Heinsaar is a graduate from the Swedish School of Textiles. She uses her designs to pay homage to her home region, looking to Slavic fairy tales like Baba Yaga’s Hut as a reference point. Exclusively using second-hand materials, the designer says she hopes the exhibition will allow visitors to “view my work with an appreciation for its backstory, serving as a reminder to consume conscientiously.” On an adjacent wall, Heinsaar can be seen
via video, explaining that her work is also a way for her to react to political issues — namely, the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “The war must be stopped,” she says defiantly, spinning a yarn of magenta wool.
Pivot slightly and Juha Vehmaanperä's project offers up an explosion of colour. An Aalto University graduate and winner of Finland’s Young Designer of the Year Award 2022, they’re fast becoming one to watch on an international scale. The self-ascribed tagline “Craftiest bitch in town” features across knitted patches and a jumper displayed on a mannequin, threads hanging loose like the innards of a party popper. A video of Vehmaanperä in their studio shows how they use 3-D printing to create what they call “donuts” — elliptical plastic pieces they crochet together to add a technical, structural element to their designs. Magazine cutouts of 90s-flavoured imagery and test patches in plastic wallets exemplify just how much the exhibition is dedicated to unveiling each stage of the designers’ creative process.
In the print room, Tuuli-Tytti Koivula’s floral prints take centre stage. Another Aalto University graduate, the Finnish designer looks to her previous career as a ski racer to inform her aesthetic. She won this year’s inaugural ALPHA Award for Nordic Talent with her Master’s collection Blumental, which fuses ski gear with authentic traditional Austrian dress. Koivula developed each print herself, drawing from the wild flowers that grow around the Alps — a shift in vegetation that she believes is a direct result of climate change. Yet another designer on the roster that’s chosen to use their talent to highlight global issues.
In direct contrast to Koivula’s vibrant display is Boram Yoo’s subversive offering. Titled “Absolute Ambivalence,” Yoo’s collection is all about “Grandmothers, prints and military stuff.” The Aalto alumna, who’s originally from South Korea, visited the country’s marketplaces and came across forced labour wear that was typically worn by women during the Japanese occupation of 1910-1945. Traditionally available in all black, Yoo notes that the older generation of women had decorated their uniforms with flowers as an act of defiance. As a result, her pieces aim to emulate that same attitude — rife with deconstructed floral prints and obscure textiles. “The main message is the sublimation of hard times through hopeful imagination,” she says. Expect utopian survival gear birthed from a dystopian past.
In a similar vein, knitwear specialist Matilda Sundkler – who also studied at The Swedish School of Textiles – uses photos of historical garments to create knitting patterns for her contemporary designs. The video installation alongside her display shows the designer at work using a circular industrial knitting machine and actively washing her pieces at different temperatures to purposefully cause shrinkage. One of her dresses is suspended from the ceiling of the knitwear room, commanding the space in all of its technical majesty. Next to Sundkler’s project, Oslo National Academy of the Arts graduate Rintaro Iino’s knitwear is presented on mannequins stood atop cloud-like piles of Norwegian wool: a subtle reminder to visitors to consider the material origins of their garments.
As Berkowicz says, the exhibition “is not just a showroom.” A diverse array of talent has been chosen on purpose, proving that through knitwear and print, pressing cultural topics such as identity, sustainability and political unrest can be discussed through the mode of both traditional and innovative design techniques. “While fashion is wonderfully aesthetic and creative, it also makes us question the value of craft, identity, history and future – fashion is everywhere and so is culture,” says Lynge-Jorlén.
Röhsska’s director, Nina Due, emphasises that it’s the accessible nature of fashion, and, resultantly, this exhibition that makes it so engaging. “It’s for the fashion nerds who are on top of [the industry] and for those who don’t have fashion as their primary interest because it’s all about the crafting and technique. It’s such a broad palette that these designers work with — it’s a range that appeals.” Excuse us while we pick up a set of knitting needles and trial screen-printing to follow suit.