Reykjavík Grapevine - 29.07.2016, Qupperneq 26

strengthens and helps boost confi-
dence. “I love creating a whole world
around my clothing lines,” Hildur en-
thuses. “I almost want people to be
able to hear music and feel a certain
taste when they see my shows.”
The approach has worked: Hildur’s
designs are regularly seen on promi-
nent Icelandic women, such as the
singer Jófríður Ákadóttir and the ac-
tress Hera Hilmarsdóttir. “My main
goal is to create pieces that are beau-
tiful and exciting at the same time,”
she continues. “I love seeing people
wearing my designs, especially older
women.”

Industrial action

A person wearing a piece of clothing
doesn’t necessarily realise the amount
of thought and work, and the sheer
number of people, behind the creative
process of design and production. Hil-
dur starts by finding inspiration—re-
searching her idea to the fullest, and
illustrating it. She then finds the right
fabric to print her pattern onto, and
carries out fittings to perfect the cut.
Afterwards, a prototype is created and
sent to Estonia, where her clothes are
sewn.
It’s an involved, labor-intensive
process, especially when considering
the small market and isolation of Ice-
land. So it’s refreshing to hear about
artists like Hildur, who make a good
living from the fruits of their imagi-
nation. “I’ve been designing clothes
for many years, and only now am I be-
coming successful,” she explains. “It’s
not something that happened over-
night. And even though it’s going well,
it’s a lot of hard work.”
Hildur recounts how the Icelandic
fashion industry has changed in the
ten years since she graduated. There
weren’t a lot of job opportunities for
new graduates, and KronKron and
Spaksmannsspjarir were the only
successful stores selling Icelandic
designs, meaning many Icelandic de-
signers had to travel abroad to find
work. “There are a lot more opportu-
nities nowadays for designers,” Hildur
says. “The market has grown enor-
mously with the increase in tourism,
and locals choosing to purchase Ice-
landic designs.”
This increased desire for Icelan-
dic design comes at a time when an
awakening is taking place within the
fashion industry, with consumers be-
coming more aware of how and where
their clothes are manufactured, buy-
ing fewer garments, and reusing old
textiles. “It’s a complicated subject,”
Hildur says. “Clothing design is a pol-
luting activity in itself, because of the
fabric printing, transportation and
manufacturing of the clothes. How-
ever, paying the people that make the
clothes a good salary and having items
produced in smaller quantities is, in a
way, a much more sustainable way of
producing clothing.”

With a little help
from her friends

Hildur is first and foremost a fashion
designer, but she is also known for her
visionary use of photography and il-
lustrations, and her flamboyant fash-
ion shows. She has worked closely with
photographer Saga Sig in creating
photo series like ‘Garden Of Enhance-
ment’ and ‘Metamorphosis’, for which
the two artists combined forces to
produce otherworldly pictures strad-
dling the line between fashion and
art photography. “My favourite thing
about being a fashion designer is get-
ting to know interesting people, and
collaborating with them,” Hildur says.
Projects evolve and thrive, Hildur
continues, when different visions are
mixed together with her own, making
collaboration a creative process in it-
self. “If I weren’t a fashion designer, I’d
still be doing something creative. Not
making music though. I have no music
skills whatsoever,” she laughs.
Even Hildur’s approach to com-
merce is collaborative. Her designs can
be found at Kiosk, a small boutique on
Laugavegur. The store is run by local
designers, who’ve joined forces to sell
their clothes and accessories. The de-
signers themselves work at the store,
which creates a homey atmosphere.
“We’re a group of young designers run-
ning a store together, which is some-
thing we wouldn’t be able to do on our
own,” she says. “We support each other
and work closely with one another. We
are stronger as a whole.”

Transcendence

As part of the Reykjavík Arts Festi-
val, Hildur exhibited her designs in a
collaborative fashion show featuring
dancers, musicians, photographers
and visual artists. 'Transcendence'
was inspired by the state of mind be-
tween sleep and wakefulness, dreams
and hallucinations. The idea came
to Hildur while she was creating the
world around Flóra, but she wanted to
dig deeper into the world of dreams.
She was fascinated by the dream world
spell, an herbal sedative said to in-
crease dreaming.
“Transcendence is my favourite
project so far,” Hildur says. “The proj-
ect’s atmosphere was so great, and I
had more time to work on it than I usu-
ally do with these kinds of projects.”
She went to Paris to research the fab-
ric used for the Transcendence cloth-
ing line, she elaborates: “I thought a lot
more about fabrics in this line, rather
than patterns.”
Hildur also had a strong mental
image when she started working on
the exhibition, and chose collabora-
tors she thought would help realise
the idea. The results were magical:
the ambitious, collaborative 'Trancen-
dence', staged in an abandoned medi-
cal museum, was a lauded creative
achievement.

Just Married

Hildur refers to herself as a fashion
designer, but she uses her illustra-
tion skills and other art forms in her
creative process. She utilises draw-
ings and sometimes photographs
in her prints, and plays around with
them when tailoring. Her designs are
unique, and the patterns have devel-
oped a character that’s uniquely hers.
The overall aesthetic of her practise
screams Yeoman.
Hildur’s most recent collection, Eu-
phoria, came to life when she started
planning her wedding. “The collection
is like a love letter,” she says. “I have
been with my husband for ten years
now and they have been filled with joy
and brightness.” Hildur got married in
a magical ceremony in the countryside
surrounded by her friends and family.
The new collection is filled with
love and happiness. Hildur and her
husband’s favourite flowers can be
seen in the prints, as well as little love-
birds. “There was so much happiness
put into the design of this collection
that I’m quite sure it might rub onto
those who wear it,” she proclaims.
Having come this far, Hildur shows
no signs of slowing down. Her de-
signs have been requested abroad for
various photo shoots, more and more
overseas clients have been purchasing
her designs online. Asked if she plans
on moving abroad, Hildur says she’s
not ready to leave Iceland just yet—but
has learned never to say never. She is
currently enjoying her life in Iceland
as a mother and newlywed, with her
Transcendence clothing line coming
up this fall. And if her busy career, in-
teresting projects and magical cloth-
ing lines so far are anything to go by,
we can expect even greater things in
the future.
Hildur
Yeoman
“I love creating a
whole world around
my clothing lines,
so that they tell a
certain story. I want
people to be able to
hear music and feel
a certain taste when
they see my shows.”