Old techniques, new ideas • The revelations of craft in Danish design

“To me, it felt like a good and equitable way of creating (yet..) a new brand into a fast paced, and sometimes scary, fashion industry. My aim was, and still are, to create something that feels and looks like it has all been touched by human hand.” For Nicklas Skovgaard, whose work exudes an exceptional and restrained elegance within his a-line skirts and hand woven bustiers and complementary headpieces, the role of the hand is not so much seen as whispered in his full looks.

Creating his own textiles on an old Danish manufactured rigid heddle loom, dating back to 1939, Nicklas has been creating his own textiles for two and a half years – fabric and form interacting with one another.

“My brand had quite a coincidental beginning – it started out with a small thrift store find in a summer vacation ; a childrens loom. After some months of trying it out, this was replaced by a bigger loom on which I could create textile to use in making different pieces of clothing. From the beginning it was never the intention to start off my own brand, but slowly it evolved into creating different pieces of clothing, and until now being what I do as a living. It has been a great way of starting out, letting things evolve a bit incidental and not being in a rush.

There is also the role of clothes as conversation starter – their ability to spark a dialogue, which is how Nicklas sees their potential power: “ I hope by sharing the process and the work behind the pieces I create, it will make us start talking, thinking, appreciating and caring even more about new pieces of clothing we buy, but also for the already existing clothes.”

For knitwear designer Laerke Bagger, it is exactly this power of communication that excites her about her work.

“I get an idea of what I want the finished garment to communicate – not what it needs to look like but what it needs to communicate. I want it to communicate, for instance, the feel of the 90’s, or references to pop culture, which I am very influenced by. I start the process by swatching, working out what material works and what doesn’t (I mostly do sweaters, because I am not very good at construction) and then as I start it evolves during its construction so the finished product is never what I imagined it to be.