Sandra Backlund: Ergonomic Wool

To what extend do you need or take advantage of the fashion world?

I don´t like the way mass production, mass consumption and making fast and big money is poisoning modern fashion. I think we all have to start taking responsibility for our actions in this matter, but of course I am aware of the fact that it will be imposible for me to continue to do everything by myself and by hand forever. I already work too hard for my own best, so there is no way I can develop my collections if I don´t find a way to solve the production problem.

I was recently introduced to Italian knitwear producer, Maglificio Miles (producer of Alaia, Rykiel etc) by the White Club, a non-profit organisation based in Milano which works to connect new designers with producers in Italy. We have just carried out our first collaboration. A test that has been very successful and I hope that it will soon be possible for me to combine my handmade one-off pieces with machine made pieces, within the same collection.

How many collections do you launch per year? How many pieces do you need to consider a collection complete? It could be one?

Ever since the beginning I have been doing two collections per year, one for Fall/Winter and one for Spring/Summer. A collection is not completed by just a specific number of garments, it differs a lot and this is also one important reason why I need to find help for production. Now when I do about 10 pieces per collection, I already work all the time. It is frustrating because I often feel like I am wasting ideas because there is no time to allow my collections to grow bigger. 

Regarding your question if one garment could complete a collection I would say no, but of course it could be possible to build a collection from only one garment, if I could use it as a starting point for other clothes, it depends how you see it…

Greater artists have always build their world bounded to an obsession? What is Sandra’s Backlund one?

Except from the obvious, the handicraft techniques and the materials I work with. I am really fascinated by all the ways you can highlight, distort and transform the natural silhouette with clothes and accessories. I like to consciously dress and undress parts of the body. I am really introvert and lock myself in my studio when working, so in that sense I guess I find inspiration from everything that is going on in my own life both private, as a designer and as a founder of my own company. 

She avoids the main fashion weeks, while her collections are exhibited in galleries around the globe. Sandra has also taught at the Arts of Fashion Foundation as a master on knitting structures.  

Her public confessor is the cultural guru, Diane Pernet, from a “Shaded View on Fashion”. She invited Sandra to the runway of Hyers Festival 2006, where she received the grand prix from Christian Lacroix.

On the contrary to other designers, she creates from nothing, no cloth or surface on which to print or cut. It is just her yarns and needles.  Some of her pieces must be complicatedly assembled right on the body before shows.

Sandra has investigated with different materials, wood, hair but she seems to have found in wool the perfect companion. 

What does knitting allows you and what doesn’t?

I do not feel like I chose knitwear, it just happened that way. I have always been experimenting with different materials and three dimensional shapes and the kind of knitting that I do is just perfect for that. For me knitting is synonymous to creative freedom. Very consuming in matter of time and money and a real trial to ones mental and physical strength I like the way you are building your own fabric while working with traditional handicraft techniques and the way it is often both mathematical and yet permits improvisation.

Is never easy to define your own work, but you say you are more a sculptor than a tailor. Aren’t tailors, also sculptors who assemble small parts in a conservative or innovative manner. 

I understand your question, of course tailors also sculpt sometimes when creating shapes, but since I never work with traditional pattern making, but invent my pieces while doing them 3 dimensionally by hand, I think I approach fashion more like a sculptor.

I guess a different piece takes a different amount of time, but you could give us an approximately idea of how time demanding you pieces are?

As you already guessed, it differs a lot depending on the piece and my current  health/strength but for the most complicated pieces, could be up to 400 hours.

You say fashion is a democratic form of art? It is in a way because you can express yourself but it is also a very “classifying way”, specially when you make sure you wear pieces not everybody could afford. So, do you think democracy applies the Luxury Brands as well as to your not-so-easy-accessible pieces?

Personally I like to think of fashion as an art form rather than an industry. I consider fashion a democratic form of art in the sense of something that most of us do relate to in our everyday life. People in general could of course be more self governed when it comes to fashion, but even if you do not think about it or actually care about it, the choices you make on what you wear is still an expression for something. It can be a personal or political statement, a way to become someone else or to blend in and look like everyone else or just because of aesthetical reasons.

My designs are very personal for me and they are not made with the purpose to please everyone. Both the aesthetics and the fact that it is all handmade by me and often made from high quality materials, makes it not at all commercial. Actually I try not to think so much about trends, wearability and what other people wants from me when I design my collections, in the end I do this mostly to satisfy myself. 

Do you wear your designs? For you daily life, what type of garments do you wear? And for you special occasions? Any Brands in particular you follow, like or wear? Do you like collecting at markets, or vintage places? 

I seldom wear my own design, but that is also a future mission of mine: for every collection to include at least one garment that I would actually dare to wear myself. Now I almost only wear vintage clothes, mostly all kinds of dresses. I never shop for brands, but for specific pieces I like. 

Do you buy through the Internet or at least surf the web to see other designers’ work?

I don´t. I like better to visit old fashioned places like for example the library, and then I often go beyond the expected sections covering arts and crafts to find books I did not know I was looking for.

As a designer and as an entrepreneur a with your own brand, what would you like to achieve creatively and economically speaking?

I try to keep an open mind and not worry too much about the future, but on the other hand I am not the kind of person who wants to rush for the stars either. My plan is to continue to work hard, protect my origins and what I am good at, but still find a way to develop my designs and my company. I am a searcher so I will never find myself reaching some kind of finishing line, but I would of course like to be able to live off my work.

Any upcoming projects?

At this moment, I am giving the last touch to my F/W 09-10 collection and I am also working on a special knit piece for the Arnhem Fashion Biennale in The Netherlands this summer, and planning for my S/S -10 collection.

Have you ever thought of knitting for men? How would it be your men collection?

When I was in fashion school I did some projects that included menswear pieces, and I definitely think it is interesting, but up until now I have not had enough time to do both, maybe later…

Any common characteristics that your yarn must comply with?

If I could choose whatever I wanted I would prefer ecological and fair trade yarns, but it is a bit difficult when you are a small company doing just one-off pieces. Sometimes I buy my yarns from my local yarn store and sometimes I order from bigger companies, for example in Italy. Hopefully in the future I will be able to select my yarns more carefully planned.

What is going on in Stockholm? In general? Arts, music…How important is fashion in Sweden?

I think it is a mission impossible to try to narrow it down and describe the style of a whole region like that, but if I have to give it a try I would say that it is often simple and modern, but safe. I don´t know how this effect me and what I do. I like to work alone and I do work a lot, so I guess where I live and work does not matter too much. The world is so small. Everyone seems to read the same magazines and visit the same websites anyway.

Sandra experiences fashion, work and life seem to be one single matter. Maybe for that reason she baptizes her collections in such an intimate way. “Last Breath Bruise”, she fell down the stairs at the very same momentum her grandmother died.

Maybe as the Rorschach test, her work is like the ink blots (another of her collections), there are no written rules or patterns; and luck or faith is an important part of the creative process. She lets the piece show its way. Small knitted parts, acting as bricks which she assembles to build each piece of work. 

What would you never give up?

My origins.

Backlund sculpturess never imagined volumes on wool with the aim to disturb the human silhouette. She creates from a brût material a fine piece. A net of wool meant to touch the skin harmlessly. 

Artist, designer, sculptor, there is no agreement when referring to Sandra Backlund. FutureClaw gathered different artists and asked them about some of Sandra’s pieces. This is what it suggested them

• Soft Armours
• Comfortable Geometrics
• Futuristic Past Era 
• Strong-delicate Work on Rough-refined material.
• Complicated forms easily adapted to the body.
• Calmed Instict
• Blade Runner, Dune (David Lynch).
• Profound and nature rooted.