Designerkollektivet

A group of Norwegian designers set up a Collective in 2009, first with a pop-up store but now in a permanent shop in Glasmagasinet, a department store in Oslo.  The shop has recently been launched and contain some stunning pieces made by the 21 brands taking part in the Collective. It feels more like a gallery than a shop and several of the designers offering business-cards to take with you. I was inspired by one-off designs by Sorl ved Strand, they were machine knitted and several were marked with “concept under development”, an extremely fitting phrase for a designer’s work in progress! You can see photos from the launch, which included a fashion show here: designerkollektivet-opens-new-store-during-oslo-fashion-week. Here are links to all the designers participating in the Designerkollektivet.

I love the look of these shoes made by designer Monica Stålvang and were not surprised to find customers trying these ones on. They have heels you can easily walk on without any discomfort, and look trendy – a rare combination, indeed. See more of her collection here: monica-stalvang. You will obviously find beautiful jewelry as well in the Designerkollektivet. Below are some of the stunning brooches made by Siri Berrefjord. They are based on traditional folk costume jewelry several centuries old, but not made in silver nor gold but in colourful plastic. See more at fredenshavn. A marvelous shop, I will be back for more inspiration!

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Pingouin Créateurs – a pattern adventure from 1985

I wish I kept more of my old knitting patterns, but at least I was smart enough not to get rid of this magnificent pattern booklet from a time when the French yarn company Pingouin was huge and influential. What a marvelous idea to ask five of the most acknowledged designers to design a collection where they could experiment freely according to their personal beliefs and intuition of fashion. As Melka Treanton says in her introduction that the idea of letting the creative and the innovative unite hand knitting and fashion became something between play and fireworks. Azzedine Alaïa, the innovative. Anne Marie Beretta, the strict. Jean Paul Gaultier, the inventor. Thierry Mugler, the daring. Chantal Thomass, the feminine. Knitted evening dresses, beachwear, gorgeous jackets in bold colors as divine today as then, even though the styling is at times very much from its time. The professional finish is outstanding!

You can see pictures of all the 29 garments here: album. I still remember my excitement when I found it in, what used to be my local yarn shop which stopped trading just as Pingouin unfortunately did. My version is translated into Swedish, even though most of the other patterns used to be sold in Danish which has more similar knitting terms to Norwegian. If you want to compare for yourself, take a look here: garnstudio. What I do like about the magazine is not only how mind blowing it felt to realise that you can knit amazing, fashionable garments that do not look homemade but also the professional lay out and fashion styling. Each designer has a portrait page and each design has been given plenty of space, unlike the limited space and page numbers each design is given by publishers today. I have been waiting for a new issue ever since…

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