The fashion world is a place where realities are concocted and futures are forecast. Sometimes it seems that everybody is casting sideways glances to see what the net is doing, or being paranoid about sales figures and sku performance. So it is doubly exciting when a designer comes into the picture who is working from a position of intellectual integrity and developing ideas for their own artistic merit rather than purely for sales.
Sandra Backlund is a textile artist, a fashion sculptor and a knitter. Her work is structurally convoluting, winding around the body, or interacting with it in some other ingenious way. The voluminous shapes evolve out of her fascination with the human body. Backlund is ever intrigued with the prospect of ‘highlighting, distorting or transforming’ . The sculptural garments evolve from a simple brick shape that is added onto, multiplied and attached in different ways.
These strange forms of soft woolliness and cavernous hollows make you want to crawl inside them, whether to hide or to be seen all the more. There is a quality within them that reaches into the senses and draws a response. This is not surprising given the exploratory nature of Backlund’s design development. The garments crawl and grow around the body. It’s a truly bespoke interaction, which is inherently a knit-wear quality to heart. Backlund is taking that humble knit chain and giving us something altogether considered, explored and exciting. Watch for her work and you will see the evolution of an artist on the fashion stage.
