Reykjavík Grapevine - 21.09.2012, Blaðsíða 33

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33 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 15 — 2012FASHION
The Knitted Worlds Of Sonja Bent
How did you wind up at Lazy-
Town?
I started out as an intern here,
when I was studying fashion design
at the Iceland Academy of the Arts,
and I was offered a project of making
knitwear for the winter show. Now
I am a costume design assistant to
María Ólafsdóttir, who is the main
costume designer for the show. I love
working in this kind of an action
driven environment, where creativity
levels are very high. All the charac-
ters have their own colour palette,
which is a great challenge.
Is it difficult to design for pup-
pets?
Well their proportions are so dif-
ferent from humans and for instance,
one puppet on the show is quite the
challenge because of its big belly.
Have you worked in other
mediums, in the Icelandic film
industry perhaps?
Yes, my first film project was to
work on the wedding scene in the
film ‘Brúðguminn’ (“White Night
Wedding,” 2008), which takes place
in the beautiful island of Flatey. The
environment is fast-paced, and it
can be very artistically exciting. It’s
a huge change to go from doodling
to working with a challenging team
of filmmakers, which need things
done on the spot. My biggest project
in film was when I was the costume
designer for the film ‘Kóngavegur’
(“King’s Road,” 2010), portraying
Icelandic trailer trash characters in a
trailer park.
What was that like, given that
we don’t have real trailer trash
culture in Iceland?
Well, we had influences from
America of course, but the director,
Valdís Óskarsdóttir, had a strong
vision for the characters so that was
very helpful in the process. The
costumes were reality-based worn out
eccentric pieces that we put thought-
fully together for each character. We
thought of the Icelandic eccentric, in
fact, which is what made the creation
of the costumes come to life.
Do you borrow most of the
clothing for these kinds of
projects?
No, we have many fantastic
second-hand shops here in Iceland.
The Salvation Army and Red Cross,
for instance, are very important for
the film industry.
They aren’t too smelly?
No, not at all. I use a magical
chemical that eliminates odours and
germs. This has made life much
easier for us, using used clothing as
costumes in general.
Are you working on any new film
projects now?
Yes as a matter of fact, I am work-
ing on a short film called ‘Stúlkan
á rauða hjólinu’ (“The Girl On The
Red Bicycle”), which is in produc-
tion now. My husband directs it and
one of our friends, a filmmaker,
coproduces it with us. My costume
design for this film is pretty unique,
as it is for a married, middle-aged
man whose story is told through
clothing. The man is always waiting
to win the lottery, and the audience
understands his emotions based on
how he is dressed. If he feels like a
clown, he is dressed as a clown, and
if he feels like a million dollars, he is
very sleekly dressed. This concept is
very interesting to me.
You are a fashion designer and
knitwear specialist on top of all
this, how is that going?
Yes, I don’t think you can just be
a fashion designer all the time, espe-
cially in Iceland. Sometimes you have
to work on projects, but for me it’s a
great mix. It’s not as if I’m working
at a café alongside being a designer. I
am a knitwear designer, and I sell my
pieces at Kirsuberjatréð at Vestura-
gata 4. I think my projects—work-
ing for LazyTown, Icelandic films,
theatre and commercials—go well
with my personal freedom of being
an independent designer. That’s what
makes me happy, and I will probably
want to do more of it in the future!
- ÁSA BALDURSDÓTTIR
We met with Sonja Bent, a fashion and knitwear designer for LazyTown, a wildly popular
children television program in America that’s produced both in Iceland and overseas. In
the production room, Sonja took a break from making some rather tacky red and green
Christmas sweaters for LazyTown’s closing show this season to tell us about her various
design projects, both independent and collaborative.
Snoop-Around
Nanna Dís
snooparound snoop-around.com
“My costume design for
this film is pretty unique
as it is for a married,
middle-aged man whose
story is told through
clothing.„