Julie Amalie Svensson: 34 Days to Graduation

Julie Amalie Svensson: “I like the idea of giving old clothes new life by rediscovering a hidden beauty in them. I love working with whatever I have at hand. There are refurbished fabrics in all my styles and I collect them from thrift stores, dumpsters and family. And of course my own storage because I am quite the hoarder. It started out as a concern with over-production in the fashion industry but it has become more than a sustainable agenda. Finding uniqueness in the worn and discarded are huge inspirations. For me, it is also an aesthetic choice that mixes the trashy and random with a polished, crafted expression.

One of my items is a deconstructed men’s blazer that has been mashed up with bras and then painted over for a more finished look adding hand-sewn details at the end. I like maintaining a visual echo of the material so you sense what the reclaimed items were before they were transformed into something new.

There are a lot of bras in my collection both for the men’s and women’s styles. The bra is interesting because it is so recognizable for its specific function. I like to challenge our expectations of fashion in a playful way, so using the bra as a material in its own right is part of this disturbance of fashion. Plus, I love lace!

I design for both men and women but I do not work towards dismantling gender-differences. Rather, I like to play with the references and expectations.

I have been sponsored in part by Neil Pryde Sails and C. C. Hobby”.