Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.03.2011, Blaðsíða 33

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 3 — 2011 Are y'all going to RFF? Why not broadcast your experiences at
www.liveproject.is, a cool new web initiative.
More info on the festival at wwwrff.is

Reykjavík’s first real fashion festival
took place in March 2010, a timely
event coinciding with the current
surge in icelandic design. The fes-
tival proved an ample platform for
fresh young talent, drawing con-
siderable attention from the inter-
national press. But is the Reykjavík
Fashion Festival set to become the
‘iceland Airwaves of fashion’? We
spoke to one of its founders, Ásta
kristjánsdóttir, to find out more.
WhY did You Found RFF lAST
YEAR ?
Following Iceland’s economic collapse
there seemed to be a great awakening
in the design field. Designers got to-
gether and formed a unified whole that
started discussing cooperation rather
than each doing their own little thing
in their own little corners. We found
strength in this union, and the festival
proves how strongly we stand behind
one another.
ThE FiRST FESTiVAl WAS A Suc-
cESS—hoW diFFEREnT iS ThiS
SEcond onE GoinG To BE?
RFF# 2 is similar to RFF# 1, with the ad-
dition of a design fair that we’re hosting
this year that will take place throughout
the festival weekend. On Saturday and
Sunday we’ll see a designers’ ‘Pop-up
market’, where local designers throw a
clearance sale with up to 70% discount.
It will be a venue to make exciting bar-
gains, chat with designers, shop for
new design samples and flick through
older collections. At the market we’ll
also be hosting cosmetic presenta-
tions and lots more. The Pop-up mar-
ket will take place from noon ‘til six at
Laugavegur 91 on April 2–3, and every-
one is welcome. Another thing that’s a
little different this year is our empha-
sis on inviting international press to
the festival. Over fifty journalists are
booked to attend the shows, with rep-
resentatives from magazines like Dazed
and Confused and Vogue. We obviously
hope to receive favourable reviews this
year, both for the designers and the fes-
tival as a whole. The festival won’t be
that much different in essence, except
in being much bigger with a lot more
media attention.
hoW did You SElEcT ThE dE-
SiGnERS TAkinG pART in ThE FES-
TiVAl?
Each year the RFF board selects seven
individuals to form an artistic council
that in turn select designers that they
feel should take part in the festival.
This year the council consists of Una
Kristjánsdóttir, the designer of Royal
Extreme, Hanna from Hanna Design,
Eygló Margrét Lárusdóttir from Eygló,
Stefán Svan, store director and stylist,
Ellen Loftsdóttir, stylist, Anna Clausen,
stylist and Katrín Alda from Kalda de-
sign.
nEWS hERAldS ThAT icElAndic
FinAnciAl MoGul Jón ólAFS-
Son hAS inVESTEd in ThE FESTi-
VAl ThiS YEAR?
Yes, Jón is an investor in the festival.
He believes that the Icelandic fash-
ion scene has a bright future and that
Icelandic fashion will become one of
Iceland’s greatest exports in ten years
time. He has very good connections
abroad that have proved useful to RFF.
Jón, for example, owns the company
Glacier Water, which is used for all the
Christian Dior cosmetics.
do You FEEl ThAT RFF plAYEd A
pART in hElpinG MAJoR icElAn-
dic lABElS in TAkinG oFF ThiS
YEAR?
I’m certain of it. RFF helped to play a big
part in launching designers last year
and will do so again this year. Royal Ex-
treme was invited to do a show at New
York Fashion week last year and Sonja
Bent got invited to do sales shows free
of charge. Most of the designers taking
part last year received good reviews in
well known international publications.
Andersen&Lauth were contacted by
ASOS, Britan’s largest web store and
Kalda were offered a deal with Top
Shop in Britain. It will be exciting to see
where RFF takes young Icelandic de-
signers to this year round.
REcEnTlY iT SEEMS icElAndic
dESiGnERS ARE Much MoRE
conFidEnT, lAunchinG ThEM-
SElVES inTo pRoducTion.
WhAT'S diFFEREnT noW?
Fashion design is a young field in Ice-
land and only a few years ago people
thought that it entailed a couple of old
ladies knitting gloves somewhere in the
suburbs. Now people understand that
design is a huge business worldwide.
RFF is an important festival for this in-
dustry so that people open their eyes to
all the exciting things going on in the
field in Iceland.
Fashion | RFF Fashion | Blogging
Words
Anna Margrét Björnsson
photography
Jói Kjartans
The iceland Airwaves of Fashion
Reykjavík Fashion Festival keeps coming on strong
labels to watch
out for this year:
ÝR
Fabulous rock chick pieces from
newly graduated Ýr Þrastardóttir that
seem to draw inspiration from every-
thing from Bowie to techno. Fitted silk
shoulder-padded patchwork jackets,
slim velvet trousers and slinky sexy
playsuits and dresses.
Royal Extreme
Last year’s hit were Una Kristjáns-
dóttir sumptuous creations that
combined medieval regalness with a
funky modern twist. Una’s strengths
lie in the details: tassels, fringing,
embroidery and a rich colour palette
and it will be exciting to see what she
comes up with this time round.
kron by kronkron
A firm favourite with Iceland’s young
and pretty hipsters, this new collec-
tion of candy coloured shoes, dresses
and tights is set to become spring’s
big thing. Even Tavi, the Style Rookie,
has been spotted wearing Kron by
KronKron’s rainbow hued legwear.
kalda
A cooler than thou collection for ur-
ban women that like their clothes
original, yet wearable. Stunning kimo-
no-like sheath dresses, gothic chiffon
columns and bondage-inspired six-
ties shifts. Yummy.
creative consumer-
ism And The Fashion
Blogger’s holy Grail
Hola lovers,
You might not know me, but you should
(if you are a foreign national visiting the
country; I forgive you, but if you are a
native Icelander you have no excuse)
I am the most prominent fashion
blogger Iceland has reared, and I blog
mainly in Icelandic (which is the only
plausible reason why you tourists might
not have heard of me). And I assure
you, being Iceland’s leading fashion
blogger is no small feat, as Iceland—
having among the highest literacy rates
in the world and a genetic flair for fash-
ion—probably also has the most fashion
bloggers per capita in the world.
I blog on Iceland’s most fashionable
website, www.tiskublogg.blogspot.
com, and when the Grapevine asked
me to write a piece for its DesignMarch
issue I immediately agreed.
As you probably already know if you
are reading this, Iceland is the most
creative country in the world. We are
renowned for our creative musicians,
our creative artists, our creative nam-
ing of volcanoes and our creative bank-
ing. And we Icelandic fashion bloggers
(being Icelandic) are a creative lot as
well, though we choose to channel
our creativity through unconventional
channels. Unconventional, because
we don’t create anything as mundane
as tangible objects. Our creations are
abstract and transcendent, rather than
substantive, and therefore everlasting.
We write about things we want to
buy and demonstrate in a graphic man-
ner how we would use them in creative
ways together with other things that we
want to buy. This could include sug-
gesting a man’s shirt be worn a wom-
an’s skirt, using faux-bacon strips as a
bandanna, or perhaps using suspend-
ers as a brassiere.
The most fashionable version of this
form of creativity is undoubtedly post-
ing pictures of things that you really
want to buy, but will probably never be
able to afford in your life, and inform-
ing your readers how you would use the
thing with other things you desperately
want but will never afford.
Because it is the fashion blogger’s
Holy Grail to covet things that are si-
multaneously attainable (because they
are for sale) and unattainable (because
no ordinary person can afford them)
and therefore ethereal.
This form of creativity popular with
fashion bloggers around the world is
what I call creative consumerism, and
it will be the next big thing.
xoxo
-h
[This article was translated into English
by Google Translate.]
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