The CIFF Gazette

The

Gazette

2nd Edition January 2013

ciff.dk

Thomas Juul-Hansen p.8» Meet the plainspoken Dane behind Manhattan’s most exclusive interiors

Jessica Michault p.6» On what Scandinavian design can teach the rest of the fashion industry

Five Brands of Tomorrow p.18»

Fall/Winter

by Daniel Riera p.34»

We talk to five Scandinavian brands shaping fashion’s future

Discover the new directions that will shape our industry

KiBiSi p.10»

GunGallery p.28»

Copenhagen’s groundbreaking design trio are forging a new path to better, more intuitive design

We talk photography with Greger Ulf Nilson, the founder of Stockholm’s premiere art gallery

Copenhagen International Fashion Fair (CIFF) is the largest fashion fair in Northern Europe The Fall/Winter 2013-2014 season will be unveiled 31 January – 3 February at the Bella Center, Copenhagen. Follow us on Twitter @CIFF_DK

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6 THE CIFF GAZETTE

J E S S I C A M I C H A U LT

Editorial

By Jessica Michault Editor-in-chief of NowFashion.com Photography Daniel Riera

There is a shift taking place in the fashion industry. Labels like Carven, the rebooted Kenzo brand and Swedish brand Acne, have all shown stellar gains recently. Acne just opened its first store in Japan, Carven showed its popular menswear collection for the first time during the menswear shows in January and Kenzo’s designs were the hot ticket items for the fashion crowd during the past ready to wear shows. The growth of these brands suggests that a large section of fashion consumers are moving past fast fashion and are willing to invest a bit more in bridge brands that offer a true designer vision rather than simple knockoff runway looks.

You know the shift is profound and likely to be around a while when a high street fashion behemoth like Hennes & Mauritz, better known as H&M and one of the pioneers of the fast fashion model, gets in on the act. Targeting a sophisticated clientele looking Cover Gertrud wears shirt with organza sleeves and

coq-feathers Maikel Tawadros Aiden wears sweatshirt and sweatpants M.A.B shoes Sperry Top Sider

for what the company calls “lasting wardrobe treasures within a wide price range”, it is launching a new brand called ‘& Other Stories’. Set to debut across ten European cities this spring including Barcelona, Berlin, London, Milan, Paris and Copenhagen, the brand will offer women’s shoes, bags, accessories, beauty products and ready-to-wear at a much higher price point than what is typically on offer in H&M stores.

The line will reportedly be created by ateliers in Paris and Stockholm with a view to creating high quality pieces at affordable prices. Creativity in other words is back in style with consumers.

There has also been a growing desire among consumers to buy garments that give back in some way.

Stella McCartney and Vivienne Westwood have long supported craftsmen in Africa by hiring them to create some of their accessories. And new ethical or ecofriendly brands are popping up everyday, touting not only their fair trade principles but also the original and often sophisticated designs that those partnerships with local artisans have produced.

H&M too has keyed into this blossoming movement of conscientious consumerism and even taken it one step further. From its ranking as the number one user of organic cotton world wide to its ecologically enhanced denim treatment techniques and newly unveiled garment exchange program designed to encourage customers to recycle their discarded fashions, the brand is at the forefront of the industry’s new ethical attitude. Moreover, given its size and market share worldwide, H&M has the potential to effect lasting change throughout the industry.

The fashion industry as a whole could learn a lot from H&M and its Scandinavian peers. After more than a decade of fast fashion, consumers are no longer content with just a quick fashion fix. Producing well made clothing that makes you look good on the outside and feel good on the inside is no mean feat, but it is the way forward. Perhaps this next decade will see Danes, Swedes, Finns and Norwegians blazing a new fashion trail, one that combines Scandinavian style with sartorial substance and responsible consumerism.

Editorial Director and CIFF Fashion & Design Director Kristian W. Andersen Creative Director Pierre Tzenkoff Editor-In-Chief Hélène Le Blanc Design Director Mark Jubber Head of Digital Strategy Arnaud Vanraet Art Director Victor Lieberath Editor Martyn Back Colour Management Alain Touminet Printing Rosendahls

8 THE CIFF GAZETTE

T H O M A S J U U L- H A N S E N

THE CIFF GAZETTE 9

T H O M A S J U U L- H A N S E N

The Modernization of Luxury Bringing Danish design sensibilities to Manhattan’s monied set

By Hélène Le Blanc Photography Nikolaj Moeller

“What I do is the opposite of fashion”, declares Thomas Juul-Hansen. “I don’t do trends. I aim for timelessness. That way, you never need to worry about it ever going out of fashion.” That may be so but it certainly hasn’t stopped the Danish-born, Americantrained interior architect from becoming fashionable with Manhattan’s moneyed set. The creative mind behind the interiors of the city’s most recent uberexclusive residential project, One57, where a typical two-bedroom apartment will set you back upwards of 7.5 million USD, has no time for trends in either fashion or interiors. “My clients spend a fortune on their homes. What I do had better last.” Given the cost per square foot of the typical unit in the aforementioned One57 development, that may be somewhat of an understatement.

Just how does a wide-eyed boy from Copenhagen end up swimming in the shark-infested pool that is Manhattan’s luxury real estate scene? Juul-Hansen’s American odyssey began inauspiciously enough assembling chairs and tables in a Miami furniture store during his gap year. By the time he returned to his native Copenhagen to attend business school, he had worked his way up from the stockroom to the showroom. Miami’s tropical climate and a burgeoning romance proved to be too powerful a lure, however. He promptly returned to his old job and new love, eventually taking up studies in architecture at the University of Miami. While the relationship didn’t quite work out in the end, the career path certainly paid off, leading Juul-Hansen to a Master of Architecture from Harvard University and a coveted job a few years later with Richard Meier and Partners. There, he was put to work designing sleek, modern interiors for Meier’s sleek, modern buildings.

The next few years were spent working alongside Meier during Manhattan’s frenetic late 90’s real estate boom, a period that saw the city’s once gritty downtown transformed into a polished playground for the hip and rich, its few remaining garment factories and abattoirs replaced by luxury fashion boutiques and design hotels. Most ambitious architects can only dream of working alongside a Pritzker Prize laureate and world renowned architect. Few would relinquish the plum position willingly to brave the challenges of setting up their own firm. Yet, Juul-Hansen did just that, striking out on his own in 2003. “You might say I have a problem with authority”, he jokes. Whether his departure was motivated by a peculiarly Danish relationship with authority, the need to express a personal viewpoint using a design vocabulary all his own, or a mixture of both, we may never know for sure. Not that it matters at this point. Walking away from what many consider the pinnacle of the profession was a gutsy move that seems to have paid off handsomely for him. In addition to the attention-grabbing One57 development, Juul-Hansen has assembled an impressive portfolio of residential, retail and corporate clients that range from world-class chefs Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Guy Savoy to American fine jeweller David Yurman.

Understandably given his career trajectory, JuulHansen doesn’t consider himself strictly speaking a Danish designer: “I’ve now spent more time in the US than in Denmark” he explains, adding “Of course, my early years in Denmark have shaped my aesthetic sensibilities but my training and professional experience have been acquired in the U.S.” That may be so but

there is much to Juul-Hansen’s work that still speaks of his Scandinavian roots – starting with his notion of luxury. “My clientele is very modern in the way they lead their lives. They’re not silver spoons but rather self-made and therefore financially aware. You might say they’re slightly conservative or old-school. They don’t throw their money around on things that don’t last. It’s something I have in common with most of my clients.”

What Juul-Hansen’s clients do spend their money on is a certain kind of comfort. As any New Yorker past or present will tell you, daily life in Manhattan is not for the faint of heart. The city’s relentless pace can wear down even the most hearty urbanite. “New York is a chaotic city and can be a very stressful place to live.

When you come home, you need serenity. You need peace” remarks Juul-Hansen. And for a price, wealthy Manhattanites can come home to the peace and serenity of a light, airy floor plan courtesy of Juul-Hansen.

While Juul-Hansen’s clients may not toss their money around quite as ostentatiously as some, on an island with little more than 59 square kilometres of available land mass, much of it already densely occupied, luxury necessarily involves more than just a nice floor plan. Square footage and views count for quite a lot, a reality that continuously pushes New York City’s

»

I don’t do trends.

I aim for timelessness.

That way, you never need to worry about it ever going out of fashion.

«

architects and engineers onwards and upwards taking real estate prices along with them. In fact, Manhattan real estate prices remain year in, year out amongst the highest in the world, prompting New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg to once describe the island as a ‘luxury good’. “I operate at the luxury end of the real estate industry”, concedes the plain-spoken Dane.

Banish any thoughts of flashy surfaces and conspicuous displays of wealth that may be conjured up by the term, however. Together with his roster of likeminded clients, Juul-Hansen is setting out to define a new form of contemporary luxury. As he explains: “I don’t think luxury is about gold faucets anymore.

It’s about space, light, materials and execution down to the very last details. This is exactly what we’ve tried to do at One57. The average three-bedroom apartment at One57 is much larger than any other development project in the U.S. right now. It’s about space and unobstructed views of the city. In a place like Manhattan, that is considered the height of luxury.” Incidentally, once completed, One57’s ninety stories will not only make it Manhattan’s tallest residential building but also its most expensive to date.

While Juul-Hansen may not strictly-speaking consider himself a Danish designer, his sensibilities remain firmly rooted in Scandinavian design. Inher-

ent to Juul-Hansen’s conception of modern luxury for instance are notions of timelessness and endurance, ideas more closely associated with a traditionally Scandinavian or European perspective on design than a purely American one. It hints not only at his aesthetic but perhaps also to his personal upbringing: “In my family, if something breaks down, we get it fixed. We don’t just go out and buy a new one.

Maybe it comes from my parents. It’s a war mentality.” To achieve this timelessness and endurance, Juul-Hansen eschews man-made materials in favour of natural ones: “I only ever use natural materials like wood, stone, leather and glass because time has proven that these materials last.” One shouldn’t confound ‘natural’ with ‘humble’, however. For the interiors of One57, his materials of choice include hand-carved Italian marble and Macassar ebony. Neither peace nor serenity come cheap in Manhattan.

This emphasis on timelessness and endurance stands in sharp contrast to typical American attitudes towards not only toward interior design but also architecture. In the US, homes are endlessly remodelled and buildings are routinely pulled down to make space for bigger, better or just newer versions of the same.

Nowhere is this more true than in Juul-Hansen’s own stamping ground of Manhattan, where real estate developers infamously wield tremendous power over city officials and routinely butt heads with preservationists over the city’s skyline. As recently as the mid80’s, Lever House, a modern masterpiece designed

by Gordon Bunshaft (another Pritzker Prize laureate) located on Park Avenue at East 51st Street, was threatened with destruction to make way for a bigger structure. As with Grand Central Station, which faced the same fate less than a decade earlier, it took the personal intervention of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, beloved former American First Lady and prominent member of Manhattan’s Preservation Society, to halt the demolition. Were it not for her involvement, both landmarks would have been torn down, a stark reminder that when every square foot counts as it does in Manhattan, even cherished landmarks aren’t entirely safe from developers’ outsized ambitions.

The constant tug of war between preservation and urban renewal that defines the city’s real estate scene makes Juul-Hansen’s approach stand out all the more.

Not surprisingly, Juul-Hansen hints at a certain frustration with the typically American ’out with the old, in with the new’ attitude: “In Denmark, people have patience. When I was 14 or 15 years old, I worked a couple of years delivering newspapers in the snow and rain to earn enough money to buy a Bang & Olufsen radio. Because I had to work to afford to buy it, to my eyes that little radio had value. I still have it today.”

Juul-Hansen can take heart, however, as ideas sometimes have a way of outlasting even steel and concrete. Once completed in 2014, One57 will no doubt provide inspiration for a new generation of design aficionados and professionals. Together with fellow Danish architect Bjarke Ingels’ massive 750-unit residential project down the street at 57th Street and the Westside Highway, Juul-Hansen’s One57 development has the potential to usher in a new conception of luxury to the American design lexicon, one with a decidedly Danish feel to it. Consequently, Juul-Hansen’s design ethos may well outlast the ever-changing Manhattan skyline.

10 THE CIFF GAZETTE

K i B isi

Forget Form Over Function It’s The Idea That Matters Whether one looks to fashion, architecture, gastronomy or industrial design, Copenhagen is currently enjoying a surge of creativity and the ripple effect is being felt from Manhattan to China and many places in-between. Nowhere is this creative surge more clearly on display than in the studios of Copenhagen-based KiBiSi, a groundbreaking design firm currently making waves throughout the international design community with their unorthodox approach

By Hélène Le Blanc Photography Nikolaj Moeller

KiBiSi is the hyper-creative design studio born of the fusion of three hyper-creative minds: Lars Larsen of Kilo Design (‘Ki’), Bjarke Ingels of BIG architectural group (‘Bi’) and Jens Martin Skibsted of Skibsted Ideation (‘Si’). Lars Holme Larsen’s Kilo Design has earned him acclaim as one of Danish designs fastest rising stars. Architect Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), is behind a highly anticipated residential development in Manhattan that promises to fundamentally change the city’s gritty Western border and an equally anticipated 45-story energy-efficient skyscraper in Shenzhen, China. Not to be outdone, Jens Martin Skibsted’s high-profile collaborations have earned him a spot on the Young Global Leaders panel of the World Economic Forum in Davos and landed at least one of his designs, the Puma bicycle, in the permanent collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art. It is Skibsted or, the ‘Si’ in KiBiSi if you will, who graciously accepted to submit to our questions on behalf of the trio.

The first thing one notes about KiBiSi is the peculiarity of the union itself. Creative partnerships are frequently volatile affairs. Moreover, three is not exactly the easiest dynamic to harness especially when each partner has already laid claim to the professional

spotlight individually. To some extent, KiBiSi is tantamount to three world-class chefs ruling over the same kitchen. So how do three distinct designers each with thriving independent careers come together to form a productive work relationship? “You might say that KiBiSi is the result of coincidence,” says Skibsted. “Each of us had been working with one another in pairs for a number of years. At some point, since we were all working together anyway, we decided to make it formal.” By his account, it wasn’t until well after the trio had actually formalized their working relationship that the light bulb went on and they came to the realization that the three in fact share an almost identical design philosophy.

Whether it was fate or sheer fluke that brought them together hardly matters at this point. What really counts is that this shared philosophy, something they call “idea-driven design”, is quickly changing the way we approach product design. “Scandinavian design tends to fall into one of two categories, either processdriven design which tends to be more commercial or shape-driven design which tends to be more artistic,” notes Skibsted. “We felt there had to be a third way between commercial and artistic that remained intuitive. We call it ‘idea-driven design’ because it’s the idea

that determines whether we follow shape or function.”

Thanks in part to this third way, Larsen, Ingels and Skibsted are rapidly knocking down the barriers traditionally erected around design disciplines and connecting the dots in an entirely new way.

While a common design philosophy is no doubt important, as anyone who has ever taken part in a group exercise can attest, a cohesive team dynamic doesn’t necessarily come easily. In the case of KiBiSi where, according to Skibsted, each team member is directly involved in the design of each KiBiSi product, the success of their working formula is all the more surprising. “Once in a while we go up to my mother’s summer house, lock ourselves in and delve into an idea or a product. After this initial phase, we explore different directions by trading pdf iterations back and forth between us. We can easily go through 70 different iterations of the same product before we’re satisfied with it. One of us, either myself, Lars or Bjarke will be the main contributor and eventually Lars will take leadership of the project and manage the design team.”

Interestingly, Skibsted is careful to point out that the trio do not consider their approach to design as typically Danish at all. “Danish design tends to be shape-driven”, he explains. “We obviously share many

K i B isi

THE CIFF GAZETTE 11

Work by KiBiSi: In front, Shanghay Chair for Hay, on the XTable desk for Holmris, left to right, Silverback for Louis Poulsen, TMA-1 for Aiaiai, Biomega bike CPH for Biomega, iFlash One light for iFlash (on the bike) and Pebble watch for Bulbul. View all products at www.kibisi.com

values with Danish design – it’s spareness and simplicity for example – but our approach is very different.” Danish or not, this approach seems to yield one successful product design after another. From buildings to bicycles to furniture, lighting, electronics and clothing, there seems to be no design challenge the talented trio will shy away from tackling. Oh yes, did we mention they also design planes? “It’s true that we do many things” concedes Skibsted, adding “but all our designs are mass producible product designs. We don’t do graphic design or sculpture or anything like that so it’s actually more focused that it might seem.”

It isn’t KiBiSi’s impressive design portfolio alone however that is getting attention. Larsen, Ingels and Skibsted are also bringing a fresh perspective to thorny design issues. Sustainability for instance is increasingly driving the agenda these days for many design firms. The growing environmental awareness amongst consumers means that it’s no longer enough for design professionals to merely create novel products to feed the consumption treadmill. A new generation of consumers are demanding much more from their products than previous generations, including a cleaner conscience whilst consuming them. Designers are therefore under increasing pressure to address the

environmental impact associated with every point in the lifecycle of their products from conception through to consumption.

»

Larsen, Ingels and Skibsted are knocking down the barriers traditionally erected around design disciplines and connecting the dots in an entirely new way.

«

Unlike many design professionals, Skibsted seems leery of jumping on the sustainability train. As he puts it, “sustainability sometimes means you have to resist consumer demand and ignore trends.” Starting from that premise, he continues: “All good design needs to be marketable, it needs to work and it needs to look good,”

he explains. “The way we approach sustainability is that it needs to be fun. Otherwise, it won’t work”. In other words, rather than creating a ‘sustainable product’ to address a trend as many designers are increasingly doing, at KiBiSi the view is to extend the life cycle of any given product by creating a product whose design will enhance longevity: “An object that is beautifully designed and timeless will not get discarded as readily as a product that doesn’t work aesthetically.” While KiBiSi’s approach may not in and of itself solve the sustainability issue, the idea of creating products that consumers want to hold onto for longer is an enticing one all the same. After decades of fast food, fast fashion and fast spending, it might be just right for the times.

Judging by the sheer breadth of KiBiSi’s creativity, it would be difficult to quibble with their unorthodox approach. In fact, given their impressive product portfolio, it’s hard to believe the firm is only a few years old. Yet the trio’s most important contribution to the discipline may very well reside less in the products themselves than in the ideas they embody. Larsen, Ingels and Skibsted’s ‘third way’ is pushing the boundaries of the discipline and forging a new path for the industry. It’s enough to make you rethink the wisdom of that old saying about too many cooks in the kitchen.

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14 THE CIFF GAZETTE

A r ne B ang M ikkelsen

A Chat with Bella Center CEO Arne Bang Mikkelsen Copenhagen’s Ørestad area is currently red hot with exciting new urban developments under way.

Bella Center, Scandinavia’s largest convention centre and home to CIFF, is in the thick of it.

We sat down with Bella Center CEO Arne Bang Mikkelsen to discuss Bella Center’s role in sparking this development and its own ambitious expansion plans

By Elena Hvid Photography Nikolaj Moeller and Claus Starup

multifunction venue for sports and entertainment that is slated to open south of Bella Center in 2015 with a capacity of 15,000 holds a great deal of promise. It has taken a little over 20 years to get here but all of this development is very gratifying for us at Bella Center to witness.

When Bella Center moved to its current location in the mid-70s, it was a largely undeveloped area outside of the city centre. Now it is an area of major urban development, with BC at the heart of it all. Can you talk about the role BC has played in stimulating this development?

Bella Center’s prime location has always been its biggest asset. In fact, Ørestad where Bella Center is located has been referred to as ‘the largest crossroads in Scandinavia’. The proximity to Copenhagen Airport, the main roads that connect Denmark with Sweden and Copenhagen’s city centre, coupled with the expansive open spaces to grow and build made it the ideal location for an exhibition centre. We always knew that development around Bella Center would eventually come and we have lobbied heavily over the years to make that happen.

The biggest boon to the development of Ørestad came with the inauguration of the Bella Center Station of the Copenhagen Metro. Since then, a number of award-winning residential developments have popped up all over Ørestad including Mountain Dwellings and 8 House on the southern perimeter, both designed by Bjarke Ingels Group. Also, the new

With its bold architecture and design, Bella Sky Hotel plays a strategic role in the overall development of Bella Center. Given BC’s proximity to the centre of Copenhagen, why do you feel that it’s important for BC to have its own hotel?

At Bella Center, we believe in the need to think big so that things don’t become too narrow. This was our mindset when we decided to build Bella Sky. I joined Bella Center when it was founded in 1975 and when I became CEO in 1992, I suggested at my very first board meeting that we build a hotel right next to Bella Center. So, you might say that Bella Sky was my biggest dream for Bella Center. The decision to invest DKK 1.6 billion in what was to become Scandinavia’s largest hotel during the middle of a financial crisis was not an easy one to make. Yet, it is no doubt one of the smartest moves we’ve ever made in the company’s history.

Competition in the national meeting and conference market is intense and there is no doubt that the combination of hotel and convention centre is a crucial element to attract international conventions, fairs and events. Bella Sky Hotel with its 814 rooms including 100 suites, 32 conference rooms, 3 restaurants, sky bar and wellness centre, ensures that Copenhagen will remain a member of the leading European exhibition cities along with Barcelona, Vienna, Amsterdam and Berlin. Competition in the international conference market has intensified but we believe that our unique facilities and flexibility, combined with the excellence of Copenhagen’s infrastructure, sets us apart. I’m confident in our capacity to become one of the leading conference centres in Europe.

Bella Center has a new owner, Solstra. Can you explain how this new investor will impact Bella Center’s development going forward?

We’re extremely pleased to welcome Solstra into Bella Center’s capital. If we are to remain the leader in the market and continue to grow, we need new capital.

The solidification of our ownership structure means that we can now focus on generating that growth. This investment will help secure Bella Center’s position as a leading international player capable of attracting major large-scale events to Copenhagen.

You have very ambitious plans for Bella Center, as outlined in Vision 2020. Can you describe them for us and explain their importance to the overall development of Copenhagen?

Our development efforts moving towards 2020 include a number of large-scale projects, starting with the modernization and expansion of our exhibition and convention facilities and International House office facilities. The construction of a multi-purpose hall next to Bella Center is also planned, as is the expansion of our parking capacity and the construction of a commercial and residential project. Some of these plans are already well underway, such as the revamping of our meeting facilities and CIFF Fashion House. So far the response from CIFF customers has been very positive.

Of course, we also look forward to unveiling CIFF’s new space dedicated to shoes and the continued rollout of CIFF’s new structure throughout 2013 and 2014.

Our plans for a new multi-purpose hall is particularly important as it will enhance Bella Center’s ability to host multiple large-scale events simultaneously in addition to major international conventions. This will eventually enable us to maximize the utilization of our space and therefore make us more profitable.

It will also permit us to attract new types of events, including cultural gatherings.

Bella Center still has vacant construction capacity, which is a huge asset as it enables us to envisage new commercial developments. As the expansion of activities in Ørestad continues, room to build new facilities and expand existing ones represents a tremendous opportunity for growth.

Bella Center has largely been your ‘baby’ for all of these years. How does it feel to see it blossom as a leading European business centre?

With an indoor area of 121,800 m² and room for 20,000 visitors, Bella Center is already Scandinavia’s largest exhibition and conference centre. We have successfully hosted large-scale international events as diverse at the MTV Europe Music Awards and the UN Climate Change Conference – not to mention the biannual CIFF fairs. But in an industry such as this, we can’t afford to stand still. We need to continue to seek out new opportunities on the international front to secure our future. It’s no secret that the last few years have been difficult – not just for us, but for northern European exhibition centres in general. At Bella Center, we believe that this is precisely the time to stand out from the rest. As the Chinese proverb goes, “When the wind of change begins to blow, some people build walls while others build windmills.” We’ve opted for windmills.

A r ne B ang M ikkelsen

THE CIFF GAZETTE 15

16 THE CIFF GAZETTE

K r istian W . A nde r sen

Moving Forward There are big changes under way at Copenhagen International Fashion Fair (CIFF).

We sat down recently with CIFF Fashion & Design Director, Kristian W. Andersen, to learn all about them

By Elena Hvid Photography Nikolaj Moeller

This year marks CIFF’s 20th anniversary and there are obviously major changes afoot. Can you tell us about them?

CIFF arrived on the Scandinavian fashion scene in 1993. Here we are 20 years and 40 seasons later and CIFF is now the largest commercial fashion platform in Northern Europe. While that’s clearly impressive, fashion is an industry that is fast paced and getting faster all the time. There are fewer and fewer boundaries between markets and competition is fierce. I don’t think that the concept of a biannual fair as we know it is realistic in this kind of hyper-competitive business environment. What we’re doing is setting the course for CIFF’s future.

You have an ambitious vision for CIFF. Can you tell us about it?

I feel strongly that CIFF has the potential to become a world-class platform from which to propel the entire Scandinavian fashion industry forward. To me, one common platform in Copenhagen uniting all Scandinavian fashion under the same ‘roof’ is the only way forward. CIFF now encompasses menswear, womenswear, sportswear, childrenswear, shoes and jewellery.

Once our new structure and services are fully implemented, CIFF will become not only the gateway to Scandinavian fashion but we will be poised to become the ultimate one-stop destination for the entire European fashion industry.

Can you tell us more about CIFF’s new structure?

The concept of a biannual fair is no longer realistic given the current pace at which fashion is moving. Our customers need support throughout the year to help grow their businesses. The changes we unveiled last

August were really just the beginning. CIFF is currently working on many more changes which will be rolled out throughout 2013 and 2014 starting with a brand new space dedicated to bags and accessories and a completely renovated space to house womenswear essentials. In addition to this, the renewal and upgrade of Fashion House is ongoing and will be implemented throughout 2013 with a grand reopening scheduled for early 2014. CIFF is also working on POP UP Showrooms, an innovative one-stop business solution for international fashion brands, distributors and brand agents in search of an efficient way of promoting their business. When we unveil them in 2014, POP UP Showrooms will be a set of pre-designed, fully operational showrooms ready to welcome fashion exhibitors on a temporary basis both during the biannual CIFF fairs and throughout the year. We designed POP UP Showrooms to better service international brands who don’t currently show at CIFF but routinely come to Copenhagen to reach their Scandinavian market.

Thanks to POP UP Showrooms, brands, agents and distributors from the world over can arrive straight from Copenhagen Airport, unpack their wares and get down to business. Our overall aim is to offer a more efficient lay out and a full array of new support services to better serve our clients. Once CIFF’s strategy is fully implemented, the CIFF community will have a full service, innovative platform to support their business year-round with a global reach thanks to our digital strategy.

You mention CIFF’s digital strategy. Why is it a priority for CIFF to occupy the digital sphere?

Fashion is increasingly a borderless industry. CIFF’s customers – not to mention the buyers, journalists

and bloggers who are essential to growing the fashion business beyond our borders - come from throughout Scandinavia, Europe, the Americas and Asia. Digital platforms are a very effective way to reach all of these different players. With this in mind, we’re currently developing CIFF’s website and cultivating our presence on various social media platforms. In 2014, we also have plans to launch eCIFF, a B2B platform to connect foreign buyers to our brands. It’s still very early but our ultimate aim is to build a digital community around CIFF composed of brands, buyers, press, bloggers and other industry professionals who make up fashion’s ecosystem.

To implement CIFF’s new strategy, you retained the services of outside consultants from Paris specialized in luxury branding and digital media. Why? Sometimes it takes a fresh perspective from people unconnected to the day-to-day operations of a business to help move it forward. My vision for CIFF is ambitious. It entails reinventing the fashion fair model as we know it and transforming it into something completely new. While I know exactly where I need to take the company, I need expert advice on the best way to get there. The team I’m working with is extremely knowledgeable about luxury and fashion branding and digital media strategy. They’re also passionate about what they do and bring a new energy to CIFF. CIFF would not have come this far this fast without them.

CIFF is inaugurating a new space this season called Crystal Hall. What is Crystal Hall?

Our industry is premised on constant renewal. It’s therefore important for CIFF to help promote and strengthen innovation. With Crystal Hall, CIFF is

K r istian W . A nde r sen

providing a unique showcase space for some of the world’s most forward-looking brands, those that are closely tracked by the industry for new directions in style and attitude. It is both a platform to support emerging Scandinavian brands and introduce them to an international public as well as a showcase to introduce forward-looking European brands to the Scandinavian market.

What can we expect to find in Crystal Hall?

The inaugural edition of Crystal Hall will focus on lifestyle and menswear because these are the next frontiers for fashion. We have an exciting mix of carefully curated brands that will be exhibited in a space especially designed for CIFF by renowned scenographer Jean Christophe Aumas who has worked with the world’s leading luxury fashion brands. From Scandinavia, we look forward to welcoming exciting brands like Cyclemageren, Elka, Randers Handsker, Ron Dorff, SOS, The White Briefs, Trine Lindegaard and from the rest of Europe, AMI, Cote&Ciel, Damir Doma, Falke, Isaac Reina, James Heeley, LaContrie, Les Ateliers Ruby, Melinda Gloss, Seraphin and Side Slope.

Why is it so important to attract these brands to CIFF? These are the brands leading the way forward for our industry. They are each in their own way pushing the boundaries of fashion and providing new direction.

The ideas that they are developing today will eventually trickle down to the rest of the industry and shape its future. What is important to understand is that most of these brands never show in fairs, not even Pitti Uomo in Florence. They are here at CIFF because they understand that it has tremendous strategic value for them.

CIFF is featuring a small number of startup brands as well. Why? CIFF believes strongly in supporting emerging talent.

For this reason, we’re dedicating a section of Crystal Hall to showcasing products from fledgling brands like Erik Bjerkesjo, Trine Lindegaard and Marwood.

This is in addition to our existing Stylesetters section, a new area of the CIFF fair dedicated to emerging talent and established fashion forward brands. CIFF has also partnered with Rasmus Storm, founder of the hugely influential Storm concept store in Copenhagen. Storm will have its own space within Crystal Hall where they will feature a mix of products from brands like Mismo, Astrid Andersen, Common Affairs and Pyrex Vision. We’re particularly proud to have Pyrex Vision, a youth culture brand with close ties to the music industry that is the brainchild of founder Virgil Abloh (Abloh is art advisor to Kanye West and the creative director of West’s DONDA multimedia venture).

Given Storm’s reputation for spotting new talent, his presence at CIFF along with that of international buyers and trend watchers is tremendously useful to young brands. CIFF is creating a platform for this new talent to network, connect and grow.

CIFF is first and foremost a fashion fair. Why the emphasis on lifestyle this season? Is this a new direction for CIFF? As I mentioned previously, fashion is moving at an increasingly fast pace and there are fewer and fewer boundaries. Art, gastronomy, design and fashion are all converging and feeding off of each other such that it no longer makes sense to think of fashion as a sector separate from other design disciplines. CIFF needs to evolve accordingly. For instance, CIFF has partnered

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with Coffee Collective, a small start up company that is reinventing the way we think about and consume coffee. We’re also showcasing KiBiSi, a groundbreaking Danish design firm that is respected the world over for their innovative approach to design. Whether in architecture, gastronomy, industrial design and increasingly fashion, Copenhagen is shaking things up and leading the way forward.

You mention Copenhagen. All of a sudden, it seems Copenhagen is on everybody’s short list of places to be. Why do you think that is?

It’s true, there is tremendous energy around Copenhagen right now and CIFF is excited to be part of it.

Copenhagen has an enviable lifestyle. It is strategically located between the rest of Scandinavia and Europe, it has an educated, affluent population, an excellent infrastructure, a very high quality of life and a strong design tradition. We also have a world-class gastronomic scene and a cool club scene. At CIFF we believe that Copenhagen is perfectly positioned to be a major fashion and lifestyle centre on a par with London, Milan or Paris.

Would it be accurate to describe CIFF itself as a brand rather than just a fair?

Absolutely. When people think about Copenhagen and fashion, we want the first brand name that pops into their head to be CIFF. The new visual identity, structure and services unveiled by CIFF last August were just the beginning. When we’re finished rolling out the new strategy and our metamorphosis is complete, we will have transformed CIFF into a brand in its own right, one that stands for innovation, creativity and service.

18 THE CIFF GAZETTE

five b r ands

Trine Lindegaard

Astrid Andersen A gr aduate of London’s prestigious Royal College of Art, the Danish designer burst onto the London fashion scene with her debut collection in 2002 and has been busy shaking up the once staid world of menswear ever since. Her signature fusion of urban street vibes, luxe details and superior craftsmanship is earning her kudos from critics and the fashion forward set alike and have made her one of the bright lights of the London Fashion Week menswear circuit.

Growing Brands Scandinavian fashion talent has long been a well-kept secret – although perhaps not for too much longer. As the gaze of the international fashion industry shifts north, we take a closer look at five design-savvy brands that are bringing Scandinavian sensibilities to the forefront of European fashion thanks to their commitment to creativity and craftsmanship

By Elena Hvid

Who or what inspired you to take up fashion design?

My mother was a strong early influence just by empowering my creativity. She always made my clothes when I was younger so I guess she was my earliest inspiration. Later at the Royal College of Art in London and at TEKO in Herning, I met mentors and fellow students who definitely inspired me to value the craftsmanship involved in making clothes and to approach it with a higher sense of fashion.

Can you articulate for us what you’re trying to say through your designs?

I want to make men look hot! It’s really that simple.

I want the man I dress to feel confident, comfortable and powerful. I want him to feel like he belongs to a certain tribe through the attitude and confidence he derives from my clothing.

Who or what influences your aesthetic?

A generation of men that go to the gym to feel powerful and sexy and who find a strong sense of belonging with their ‘teams’.

Fast forward five years from now. Where do you want your brand to be?

I want the brand to be firmly established on the market without losing the creative core that is its foundation. I want to do exciting collaborations that push the functional and technical boundaries of the brand. I also want to keep reinventing sportswear and casual wear as high fashion.

If the industry is turning left, then you can expect this Danish graduate of the Royal College of the Arts in London to turn right. Dalston-based Trine Lindegaard is neither afraid of risk (she started her label straight out of design school) nor is she afraid of experimentation (her Spring/Summer 2012 collection made good use of rubber bands). Known for her playful take on menswear, she readily eschews the digital prints currently favoured by the industry and opts for hand-painted ones. She has commissioned printed fabrics from weavers from as far away as Ghana and the Ivory Coast, which she then marries with sportier technical fabrics to achieve her signature looks.

Who or what inspired you to take up fashion design?

As a child, I always followed my own path whether in the way I wore my hair or with my pastimes. Once I found a sewing machine and was given the tools I needed, I knew immediately that this was what I wanted to do. That coupled with an open mind allows me to enjoy what I do.

Can you articulate for us what you’re trying to say through your designs?

I believe that clothes can be simple and have a clean aesthetic whilst also being fun and colourful. I studied seams and how to create pieces that are very simple shapes, but which I can then transform and bring to life by adding on various design elements. I create a base and build from there.

Who or what influences your aesthetic?

It’s different for each collection. I always use bold colours and have a new approach to texture and textile techniques each season. This season we have teamed up with a UK based charity called Fine Cell Work for embroidery. They train prisoners in needlework in around 400 UK prisons and the guys are doing amazing work. One of the prisoners did a painting on happiness which inspired the collection quite a lot. We are also working with Ghanaian weavers for the second season now. They have been hand-weaving the ‘Kita’ for generations and their traditional techniques allow them to create the most fantastic colours and patterns.

Fast forward five years from now. Where do you want your brand to be?

I want my brand to be relatively small, collectable and for people to still see a value in a piece they bought five years previously. I want my work to be cherished and smiled upon. On the business side I would of course like the brand to grow and keep on working on new and interesting projects. I am originally from Denmark but have been living abroad for the past ten years. I would like to think that in five years time I would have moved back home.

five b r ands

THE CIFF GAZETTE 19

Ron Dorff Mismo

Elka Rainwear Elk a R ainwear was founded in Denmark in 1958 as an underwear company. Since then, it has evolved into a purveyor of high performance outerwear that marries functionality and design for maximum protection against extreme elements. Following successful collaborations with Comme des Garçons in 2007 and Norse Projects in 2009, Elka Rainwear is branching out into fashion with its very first collection of classic rainwear unveiled recently at Pitti Uomo in Florence. Designed by Daniel Schou, the collection combines high levels of functionality, immaculate quality and durability.

Who or what inspired you to take up fashion design?

I attended fashion school in Paris at Studio Berçot.

Since then I’ve had the opportunity of working in various aspects of design from underwear to haute couture. I’m drawn to both the creativity that you find in fashion and to the craftsmanship.

Can you articulate for us what you’re trying to say through your designs?

My aim is to design rainwear and outerwear garments that combine a high level of functionality with immaculate quality, classic pieces that will last for multiple seasons. Elka is a company that has always been known for producing very high quality outerwear for extreme weather conditions. It supplies the police, the military and the coastguard with highly functional garments designed to protect them from the elements. I was drawn to their technical know-how. For instance, they developed a raincoat for Danish coastguards that has a built-in life jacket that inflates when you’re submerged in water. I find that really cool. I felt that their know-how could be applied to a wider range of outerwear that would appeal to everyone, not just military and service personnel. I wanted to take the company’s DNA and apply it to a wider range of products and ultimately make it better.

Who or what influences your aesthetic?

My aesthetic influences come from interior design, car design, boat design and fashion design. My goal is to combine authentic craftsmanship and advanced technology with time-honoured classics. This is what I’ve done with Elka Rainwear’s first collection of rainwear. It is designed to appeal to everyone from the businessman with classic tastes to the hipster with more urban or street style tastes. It’s also designed to appeal to both men and women.

Fast forward five years from now. Where do you want your brand to be?

We’ve just come back from Pitti Uomo in Florence where our collection was very well received. Currently, we’re working on establishing our distribution network. In five years, we want Elka Rainwear to be recognized internationally as the best leisure and outerwear brand in the world.

The Danish accessories label cofounded by husband and wife team Adam Alexander Bach and Rikke Overgaard has become synonymous with timeless elegance. Together, they are busy bringing the spare, streamlined aesthetic that defines Scandinavian design to the world of luxury accessories, proving once and for all that functionality need not be achieved at the expense of style.

Who or what inspired you to take up fashion design?

It was never our ambition to become fashion designers and we don’t really look at what we do as fashion design. The basic idea behind what we do came to us in 2003 around the time when laptops were starting to become more popular. As more people started carrying laptops, we noticed a limited number of options when it came to laptop cases and bags. Everyone had those black, sexless nylon cases sold by Dell, HP, and IBM. We wanted to offer a little imagination and we thought that people would opt for a more stylish alternative. Basically, the company was founded more on an entrepreneurial idea to fill a gap in the market, and the fashion-related, creative aspects of what we do fell into place after that.

Can you articulate for us what you’re trying to say through your designs?

Poul Kjærholm, one of the great Danish design icons, said “we should aspire to keep our designs as simple as possible” and I think that we’re very much in line with that tradition. There’s a notable purity and simplicity in Danish design that is consistent with the way that we approach our work. We aim to strip down a bag to its pure functionality while maintaining an artistic expression. We just try to make the best possible products. We pay special attention to aesthetics, functionality, and making sure our bags stand the test of time. Danish design has always been fuelled by the search for the optimal balance between materials and means of production. That’s an important factor in every Mismo product as well.

Who or what influences your aesthetic?

We take in inspiration on a daily basis from nature and the world that surrounds us: the colour on a faded building facade, a glimpse of a well-dressed cyclist passing by, an old photograph at a friend’s house or the colours of the leaves during an autumn walk in the forest. When it comes to the actual designs however, we’re actually very analytic in our approach. I’m the son of an engineer and Rikke’s father is an architect.

That heritage is very significant in our design process as we look to combine the architectural approach to creating a product – working around dimensions, shapes and materials – with the functional needs of the modern globetrotter.

Fast forward five years from now. Where do you want your brand to be?

In five years, we’ll have further increased our retail presence in the world’s best fashion and design-related stores in major cities around the globe. We’ll also have a well-established online sales channel. Physical Mismo stores are starting to pop up in major cities around the world and Mismo is firmly on the way to becoming the name that people think of first when talking about Danish luxury. I also see us expanding the product line, tapping into different products beyond bags and accessories down the line. Oh and we’d have our own production facility… We would love that!

At its inception, the Franco-Swedish brand whose motto is “Discipline Is Not A Dirty Word” set out to reinvent the world of sportswear one garment at a time. True to its word, it’s collection of essential sportswear basics, which now includes timeless pieces for both men and women, marries functionality and craftsmanship with a spare, chic aesthetic.

The demand for their superior sportswear continues to grow, and founders Jerome Touron and Claus Lindorff now have plans to evolve Ron Dorff into a fullscale lifestyle brand.

Who or what inspired you to take up fashion design?

Our story is actually quite simple. We were looking for everyday basics like sportswear, swimwear and underwear, functional pieces that were well cut and made from high quality fabrics. When we couldn’t find any that met our standards, we set out to create them ourselves. Our inspiration in other words came from a specific need for well-made, high quality sportswear and leisurewear garments.

Can you articulate for us what you’re trying to say through your designs?

What we want to achieve ultimately is a line of basics that stands the test of time. We’re less interested in creating new seasonal pieces than creating a well cut garment, a swimsuit for instance, which will remain relevant over multiple seasons and accessible in store throughout both winter and summer. We gradually add new pieces to our collection that we consider appealing, functional and useful. We feel strongly that you shouldn’t have to keep renewing garments once you’ve found the perfect one. We would rather introduce new colour variations or graphic elements to our designs to maintain a freshness or sense of renewal than to keep producing new collections as such.

Who or what influences your aesthetic?

There are really two types of aesthetic, one functional the other stylistic. For us the most important one is by far the functional aesthetic, which relates to the cut of the garment, the fabric and the way it moves with the body and the way it contributes to the wearer’s sense of wellbeing and comfort. It is that aesthetic that is observable on a daily basis in the street, on the beach or even just at home. It ultimately determines whether the person wearing it feels attractive and sexy in it or not. Of course, our garments involve stylistic or design elements as well which vary over time but which usually are derived from the Bauhaus movement, contemporary painting including the work of Tauba Auerbach and Hard-Edge painters like Frederick Hammersley, Ellsworth Kelly and Frank Stella.

Fast forward five years from now. Where do you want your brand to be?

Ron Dorff is a really a lifestyle brand. We’re currently thinking of ways to develop it in a concentric manner but always with a focus on the body. We feel that brand extensions should be both logical to the brand and enhance rather than dilute it. With this in mind, we recently launched a skincare line for women called Skin Discipline. Our first boutique in Paris also reflects the lifestyle dimension in our product mix, which includes things like organic health foods from Sweden or vintage books about sports. We want to be free to grow at our own pace in a way that’s instinctive. For instance, we will be introducing a line of yoga wear next September. We realised that there was no yoga wear that met with our particular standards for functionality and aesthetics. This for us is a way to pursue our brand story in a new way while remaining true to our core belief: Discipline Is Not A Dirty Word.

20 THE CIFF GAZETTE

RASMUS STORM

The Gatekeeper If Copenhagen is indeed the gateway to Scandinavia’s fashion market, then Rasmus Storm could very well be its gatekeeper

By Hélène Le Blanc Photography Martin Bubandt

RASMUS STORM

The man behind Scandinavia’s premier concept store, Storm, has been casting his discerning eye over fashion collections on both sides of the Atlantic for nearly 20 years. Located in Copenhagen’s equivalent of New York City’s West Village, Storm has become an obligatory first step for any brand intent on seducing Scandinavia’s affluent style-seekers. There are seemingly few exceptions to this unwritten rule.

Even fashion ‘heavyweights’ like Givenchy, Céline and Balmain made their Scandinavian debut at Storm.

But to get your clothes onto the racks at Storm, you’ll first have to find your way into Rasmus’ heart: “I’ve always stayed loyal to my gut feeling. It’s about emotion,” he explains. A concept store doesn’t become a destination for the fashion forward set by accident.

Nor is there a tried and trusted formula you can follow to achieve success: “I buy only what I find personally interesting. I buy on instinct. Somehow, it all seems to come together to form a cohesive whole. It evolves

a name for itself in the intensely competitive luxury accessories sector. “When we first approached Rasmus back in 2006, we had little more than a few samples and high hopes,” explains Adam Alexander Bach, the brand’s CEO and founder. “He immediately identified our potential and helped us launch our brand.”

Part retailer, part brand counsellor, it was Storm who encouraged the brand’s founders to show at Pitti Uomo in Florence and explore new directions to broaden their product line and their appeal. “When we launched Mismo at Storm in December 2006, it wasn’t with a just few products tucked away in the corner somewhere. It was with a full window display,” recalls Bach. Though the retail exposure is no doubt a significant first step for a young brand, it’s what their inclusion in Storm’s product mix implies about a brand’s prospects that seems to pave the way: “When you’re a young brand just starting out, having Rasmus’ stamp of approval gets you noticed and gives

THE CIFF GAZETTE 21

curating than creativity. I find that very modern in a way.”

He clearly sees parallels between fashion and the art world too, judging by the number of artist collaborations he has spearheaded over the years. As with fashion, his approach is one of gut instinct over rational calculation: “Most of the time I see what someone is doing and I approach them based on my interest or curiosity. In the end, I need to feel right about the product or the outcome of the collaboration.

It needs to be right for my brand but it all still comes down to instinct.”

While artist collaborations may be all the rage now among luxury fashion brands like Louis Vuitton, they actually date back to the early 1930s when Parisian designer Elsa Schiaparelli tapped her circle of surrealist artist friends including Cocteau and Dali for whimsical details to incorporate into her designs. What is novel today is that this type of creative collaboration

»

I buy only what I find personally interesting. I buy on instinct.

Somehow it all seems to come together to form a cohesive whole.

«

from season to season but it’s ultimately always about what I’m instinctively drawn to.” That mix currently includes a selection of clothing and accessories that range from the cool sophistication of Phoebe Philo’s creations at Céline to the edgy menswear of rising Swedish designer Astrid Andersen. So what does the current darling of international fashion editors have in common with the new darling of brash urban menswear? Nothing really…except that both happen to appeal to Rasmus Storm.

“Astrid was introduced to me by a mutual acquaintance and I immediately thought that what she was doing was really different and cool. I liked the way she combines high end craftsmanship and a certain street vibe.” Based on that initial gut feeling and not much else, he promptly dedicated a window of his store to a few of the looks from her debut collection. Fast forward two years later and Andersen is now one of the bright lights on the London fashion scene credited with shaking up the notoriously conservative world of menswear. But it was Storm who spotted her first. As Andersen puts it: “Storm for me is one of the ultimate retail platforms so when Rasmus offered to do a window installation with pieces from my first collection, I was super happy! He is one of the best at spotting rising talent so to be showcased by him is something I take great pride in.”

His knack for talent spotting is difficult to quibble with, and it’s clearly an important contributing factor to his success; but his involvement doesn’t stop at providing a retail showcase. He’s been known to lend a hand to fledgling local designers eager to gain a foothold in the industry by providing valuable strategic advice. Storm was, for example, the very first retailer to carry Mismo, the emerging Danish brand fast making

you a certain credibility”, says Bach. “It has been invaluable to us!” Their pared down, practical designs are now carried by the likes of Barneys New York, and the brand’s particular take on Scandinavian luxury is quickly catching on amongst the design-savvy international set.

While the gaze of the international fashion community is increasingly turning North to Scandinavia, it wasn’t always so. For decades the Nordic fashion scene, much like the region itself, could best be described as insular. With the exception of Swedish fast fashion giant H&M, a handful of smaller brands were focused primarily on domestic consumption and had little visibility beyond Scandinavia’s borders. This is changing quickly, however, as more and more smaller niche brands like Acne from Sweden and Day, Birger Et Mikkelsen from Denmark start making inroads into the European market. Trend trackers and international buyers now routinely sniff around Copenhagen in search of new ideas and directions.

Opening up to Europe and the rest of the world has long been a priority for Storm. “I’ve always wanted to create an international platform for fashion in Copenhagen. It doesn’t have to be only about London and Paris anymore. We may not have the tourist traffic of these bigger cities or the presence of international buyers, but now with the Internet and my network of international contacts, I can level the playing field significantly.” That network of contacts, which includes the likes of jet-setting multi-tasker Kanye West and his creative advisor Virgil Abloh, would probably impress even the most blasé of hipsters. For Storm, that connection with the music industry is a natural fit thanks to the many parallels between the fashion and music scenes: “Fashion, like music, is now more about

is being embraced by small independent retailers like Storm. It underscores a certain commercial creativity that pushes the boundaries of traditional retail strategy and sidesteps the whole art vs. commerce debate that Storm understandably finds sterile: “To me it’s not really modern to think ’I buy, I sell’. You gain from non-commercial collaborations in terms of image and stature. I may not be able to sell the resulting product but Storm has gained in stature and image, which in turn will help me sell other products. It’s not necessarily straightforward commercially but it does have a commercial impact.”

This kind of willingness to bend or break the rules in search of modern and fresh ways of doing things seems to be springing up all over Copenhagen these days, and it is undeniably paying off. From the gastronomic scene to the architectural and design arenas, Danes seem intent on turning received wisdom on its head. As a result, they find themselves at the forefront of creativity and innovation with repercussions being felt far and wide. Storm offers the following insight into this phenomenon: “Copenhagen is a very safe place. The cost of living is relatively low and there’s a good social safety net. I think this frees people to be creative. You can make mistakes here and you won’t end up living under a bridge like in other places. It could have had the opposite effect but it hasn’t.”

For now, Storm’s influence is being felt mostly throughout Scandinavia. Given his talent for spotting the ‘next big thing’, the extent of his network and his penchant for embracing risk, who knows where that influence will be felt next? Wherever that may be and whatever form it may take, you can bet that the trend trackers and fashion forward set won’t be far behind.

22 THE CIFF GAZETTE

SOCIAL MEDIA

Vimeo

Pinterest

vimeo.com/showstudio

pinterest.com/cfda

#nickknight #creativity #interviews #artists

#designer #redcarpet #quote #charity

Follow VeePost.com is a street-smart fashion blog with definite feminine flair featuring the latest trends, accessories and interviews. VeePost’s founder, Virginie Dhello, shares her favourite social media platforms with The CIFF Gazette

By VeePost.com

Instagram

Twitter

@Kegrand

@CathyHorynNYT

#lovemagazine #marcjacobs #hogan #rabbitobsession

#thenewyorktimes #fashionnews #shows #integrity

Tumblr

Soundclound

inezandvinoodh.tumblr.com

soundclound/majorlazer

#pics #video #portrait #cover

#music #jamaica #mix #hype

24 THE CIFF GAZETTE

C offee collective

THE CIFF GAZETTE 25

C offee collective

»

This is not charity, this is business. We pay top dollar for the best possible quality coffee bean.

This in turn allows us to offer consumers a better coffee experience and charge enough for the product to make the business sustainable.

It’s a win-win all around.

«

Fairer Trade For A Better Brew

By Elizabeth Atwood Photography Nikolaj Moeller

Imagine if you will a cup of coffee with flavours so rich and well balanced that it has not even the faintest trace of bitterness. No milk or sugar required. That exquisite cup of coffee exists thanks to Copenhagen-based The Coffee Collective. “We work hard to keep the bitterness low and enhance the natural sweetness of the bean to make a more balanced cup of coffee. You can taste the difference,” explains Peter N. Dupont, The Coffee Collective’s affable CEO. The Coffee Collective doesn’t just want to offer consumers a superior cup of coffee however. Together with his partners, world barista champion Klaus Thomsen, world cup tasting champion Casper Engel Rasmussen, and architect and dedicated barista Linus Rorsater, Dupont (himself an internationally acclaimed roast master) has set out to challenge long held western assumptions about coffee and ultimately change the way we drink it. “We as western consumers have come to think of coffee as a cheap commodity because it’s easily available. We want to show another way of thinking about coffee.”

That ‘other way’, which they call ‘Direct Trade’, entails amongst other things, paying coffee growers a minimum of 25 per cent above Fair Trade values for their beans. If it sounds perfectly mad from a business perspective to willingly overpay for your raw materials, rest assured there’s method to their ostensible business madness. “We realised that consumers were willing to pay more for a quality coffee experience.

Our reasoning was that if consumers were willing to pay higher prices for better coffee, then we should be able to pay higher prices to coffee producers.”

The Coffee Collective works directly with a select group of coffee growers across the globe to ensure a consistent, reliable supply of the very best coffee beans available. “We buy directly from producers who make the best coffee. We engage with them on a mutually respectful basis and over time, a mutual trust develops. From there we can start collaborating more closely together with a view to developing a better product. They become our partners.” While The Coffee Collective clearly embraces a social mission, whatever you do, don’t refer to them as a ‘socially responsible’ company, a label Dupont objects to: “We’re reluctant to call ourselves a ‘socially responsible business’ because often, this is little more than an empty marketing claim”, he explains. “We regard our business practices as merely acting responsibly.”

Good intentions aside, the problem with many western businesses riding the Fair Trade wave is that their efforts to do good can sometimes seem selfrighteous or, worse still, misguided in ways that can have unfortunate consequences for the very people they’re trying to help. The Coffee Collective seems to have sidestepped this trap by focusing on a ‘trade not aid’ ethos, a more realistic and productive way of approaching Fair Trade businesses. In addition to a genuine interest in fostering a mutually beneficial partnership with growers, one also senses an awareness of the law of unintended consequences. As Dupont explains, “We’re conscious that the micro roasting movement is changing the coffee business in some ways. When we pay top dollar for a grower’s harvest for instance, it can ruffle feathers, especially at local

level. We have to be careful not to disrupt the delicate local balances that are in place.” In this sense, The Coffee Collective’s Direct Trade model can perhaps be described as a new breed of Fair Trade ventures, grounded as much in sound business judgement as in social awareness.

The Coffee Collective operates a wholesale business supplying the likes of Kadeau and other highend restaurants around Copenhagen with their superior blends of coffee, as well as providing barista training and consulting services to other like-minded coffee houses. It also operates at a retail level with three coffee houses in Copenhagen, which they use as platforms for educating consumers about their mission and brand values. Coffee tastings (organized very much along the lines of wine tastings) are held regularly, teaching customers to taste coffee made with different varieties of beans and different roasts. “Some of our customers just like our coffee. Others are attracted to our Direct Trade model. It’s not our style to be dogmatic about it. We prefer a soft sell.”

While a project of this magnitude necessarily starts with an enhanced social conscience, Dupont emphasises that The Coffee Collective is as much a capitalistic enterprise as the next coffee venture. “This is not charity, this is business. We pay top dollar for the best possible quality coffee bean. This in turn allows us to offer consumers a better coffee experience and charge enough for the product to make the business sustainable. It’s a win-win all around.” It’s hard to argue with this assertion when the evidence – rich, flavourful and well balanced – is plain for all to taste.

26 THE CIFF GAZETTE

KADEAU

The Boys From Bornholm The ‘Boys From Bornholm’, otherwise known as Rasmus Kofoed, Nicolai Nørregaard and Magnus Høegh Kofoed, are the talented trio behind Kadeau, the latest addition to Copenhagen’s growing restaurant scene. Together, they are on a culinary mission and thanks to them, the Nordic gastronomical landscape is all the richer and more exciting. In simple terms, they’re determined to infuse Nordic cuisine with a taste of Bornholm. But what’s so special about Bornholm, you may ask?

By Elizabeth Atwood Photography Nikolaj Moeller

To start with, the tiny Danish island located in the Baltic Sea between the coasts of Sweden and Poland is blessed with a rich, diverse terroir. “Bornholm encompasses all of Denmark in one tiny island.

It has rocky hills, grassy meadows and sandy beaches.

It also benefits from a micro-climate so it gets more sun than the rest of Denmark. As a result of this, the fauna is richer and more diverse”, explains chef Nicolai Nørregaard, the creative mind behind Kadeau’s unique cuisine. Twice weekly, wild ingredients foraged locally are delivered to Kadeau’s kitchen in Copenhagen and incorporated by Nørregaard into the restaurant’s menu. The result is a cuisine that is at once seasonal and unique to the tiny isle.

And the Bornholm touch doesn’t stop there. As restaurant manager Magnus Høegh Kofoed points out, “From the water glasses and crockery to the wood used to panel the restaurant’s cosy interior, virtually everything comes from the island.” In fact, the wild herbs, berries and vegetables that give Kadeau’s cuisine its regional specificity are foraged across the island’s 588 square kilometres by friends and acquaintances of the trio, making the enterprise as much a community affair as a business venture.

The connection to Bornholm is not merely culinary, however. It also happens to be where Kofoed, Nørregaard and Høegh Kofoed were born and bred and

where they met years ago working in one of Bornholm’s seasonal restaurants. It is this deeply personal attachment that lies at the heart of their operation which in addition to their Copenhagen outpost includes a seasonal restaurant on the island itself, Kadeau Bornholm (already considered one of Denmark’s finest) and Pony, a laid back lunch spot. This personal connection with the island and genuine sense of kinship with its residents are what keeps the Bornholm ‘theme’ from becoming just an amusing story or marketing hook.

Together with the restaurant’s support staff, many of whom also hail from the island, the trio form a tightknit culinary clan that gives Kadeau its soul.

There is of course more to their mission than merely glorifying their hometown. Like groundbreaking Danish chef and Noma founder Rene Redzepi before them, their journey started with a deep sense of dissatisfaction with the state of traditional Scandinavian cuisine and the conviction that more could be done with less: “We set out to prove that you can use local ingredients foraged in the wild in a new and exciting way.” Like many of the most recent wave of restaurants popping up on the Nordic gastronomic landscape, Kadeau owes much to chef Redzepi and his emphasis on foraging seasonal ingredients from the wild. But if Noma with its live ants and occasional mouthful of dirt can best be described as ‘an acquired

taste’, Kadeau is ‘New Nordic 2.0’ to Noma’s 1.0, a more user-friendly version of the same movement.

Kadeau’s rise to prominence is also linked to a shift in attitude amongst Scandinavian restaurant patrons. There has been a culinary awakening of sorts amongst Danes over the last four or five years which the trio trace back directly to Redzepi’s 2004 Kitchen Manifesto, a watershed moment for Nordic cuisine that has had repercussions as far away as London, New York and California. It’s not just that Danes are waking up to a new local cuisine but to gastronomy in broader terms. “Copenhagen in particular offers a much greater variety of cuisines than previously” acknowledges sommelier and co-founder Rasmus Kofoed. But if the cuisine has changed, so too have the patrons: “The new Nordic consumer is looking for something different. They’re not just looking for something trendy but rather a cuisine that is healthier, more sustainable and ultimately more exciting”, explains chef Nørregaard.

Like all traditional Nordic cuisine, Kadeau’s relies heavily on foraging, drying, smoking, pickling and curing. The result however is anything but traditional or rustic. It is at once earthy and refined but without the pretentiousness that often accompanies haute cuisine generally or culinary movements in particular. “We want to show that gastronomy can be

KADEAU

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Rasmus Kofoed, Nicolai Nørregaard and Magnus Høegh Kofoed

laid back and approachable.” explains Magnus Høegh Kofoed. At Kadeau, that warmth is communicated as much by the simplicity of the restaurant’s decor, an open kitchen looking out onto a spare wood-panelled dining room, as it is by the efficient and polite service of the leather apron-clad staff. The seemingly endless supply of the most delicious rustic bread also con-

hype, the team at Kadeau have opted for a different approach. As Rasmus Kofoed explains: “We could charge more for our dining experience but we would prefer to keep our prices down and our restaurant packed. It’s a conscious choice.” Of course, it’s a choice more easily made because they are self-financed. “We value our independence” states Rasmus matter-of-factly.

creating employment both on the island and here in Copenhagen but we’re also instilling local pride and hopefully inspiring others to do the same. That means everything to us.”

Of course, in the competitive world of gastronomy, even hard-earned, well-deserved success such as Kadeau’s comes with a certain amount of sniping. The

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If Noma with its live ants and occasional mouthful of dirt can best be described as ‘an acquired taste’, Kadeau is ‘New Nordic 2.0’ to Noma’s 1.0, a more user friendly version of the same movement.

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tributes to the cosiness of the experience. “Our philosophy is that our patrons should feel at home in our restaurant. If we create a warm, relaxed atmosphere for them, they’re much more likely to enjoy their meal and come back again. It’s a win-win”, adds Rasmus Kofoed.

And come back they do! The restaurant is routinely packed, the critics are raving and the word is spreading quickly in Copenhagen and beyond. Interestingly, while one of the first signs of a restaurant’s critical and commercial success is a hike in prices to match the

Following the excitement Kadeau’s Copenhagen outpost has generated in less than a year since its launch, there is already the inevitable chatter of an eventual Michelin star. But if the acclaim by culinary critics and industry peers including chefs Rene Redzepi and Rasmus Kofoed (no relation) of Geranium is clearly flattering to them, the trio’s feet remain firmly on the ground: “We’re grateful for the reviews and the press attention but what really makes us proud is the fact that we’re doing something positive for Bornholm”, explains Rasmus Kofoed. “We’re

hype too can be a double-edged sword and already there is pressure to open more restaurants and expand into branded products. Can the affable trio navigate the hype and pressure that comes with this kind of success and remain grounded all the same? “No matter how successful we may become, we want to remain ourselves”, states Rasmus Kofoed, a sentiment echoed by both Nørregaard and Høegh Kofoed. One certainly hopes so, for it is in part what gives Kadeau its soul and no one should ever have to sell their soul to succeed.

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An interview with Greger Ulf Nilson

By David Bault Photography Hans Malm

His initials spell Gun – and his name is a shot heard around the world. Greger Ulf Nilson is a key figure and an invaluable source of knowledge for anyone with a serious interest in photography. The GunGallery in Stockholm, which he has created in collaboration with Karolina Strömberg, is an open window on contemporary Swedish and international photography for enthusiasts and collectors alike. Many of the photography books he has designed in recent years have become standard works or simply ‘must-have’ items, and he has given an international aura to photographers who might otherwise have passed under the radar outside Sweden. We have decided in turn to showcase the work of Greger Ulf Nilson: a man whose exhibitions and books have highlighted the talent of so many brilliant photographers

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How did you come to start editing and designing photobooks? What was your training?

As I recall, I drew the text for a book on ice hockey in 1970. I wasn’t that interested in the photographs, but the typography was what caught my attention.

They may not have been very good pictures... I graduated from high school and had no idea about how and where to find an outlet for my interest in art and images. Luckily, I met a man on a bus who asked me what I planned to do with my life. I told him I liked to draw.

So he said: “You should go to an advertising agency.”

“What’s that?” “They cut and paste,” he replied. “Look them up in the Yellow Pages.” That was in 1980; I was lucky and was hired as an assistant. I always wanted to meet that man again – I owe him everything.

When and why did you become interested in photography and photographers, and what made you decide to do photography books?

I discovered that photography was a large part of my work: I met a lot of photographers, and I had friends who wanted to become photographers. It was punk – anything was possible!

In Stockholm, Moderna Museet, the Photographic Museum and Camera Obscura held wonderful exhibitions. I received my first photo book, Robert Frank’s The Americans.

As you can see, I’ve been lucky to meet and work with some very inspiring people. One of them was Johan Ehrenberg, who ran ETC Magazine. ETC was groundbreaking in many ways: it was obsessed with photography and had a huge influence on Swedish photography in the 80s. They also published books with Christer Strömholm (Vännerna från Place Blanche) and a Swedish edition of Anders Petersen (Café Lehmitz), amongst others. We started to collaborate and travelled to New York. We returned with our bags loaded with photo books – I’d had my first taste. Now it’s hard for me to walk past a book – I love the smell, holding it... Johan taught me everything he knew about photography and I told him about typography. In 1988, we designed my first photo book, Dawid.

I also contributed graphic design to the magazine Picture Show, which Johan was struggling with and few people in Sweden were interested in – it was way ahead of its time. Together, we designed Tuija Lindström’s retrospective book and Ralph Nykvist and Anders Petersen’s Carnival in Venice. We also put together a little exhibition for Swedish Development Aid with Sebastiao Salgado about the situation in Ethiopia, and I first met Lars Tunbjörk, for whom I designed a poster.

Another important person was Lars Hall. Lars offered me a job at his agency Hall & Cederquist – of course I said yes, they were the very best. Lars was very into photography and the founder of one of Europe’s best photo galleries, Camera Obscura. He had worked with all the great Swedish photographers, and also internationally with Irving Penn and others. One day Lars asked me if I wanted to help “embellish our entrance hall”. We hung a small, very exclusive Irving Penn exhibition – about 20 photos. It was fantastic.

Johan and Lars are greatly responsible for developing my interest in photography. It’s all their fault.

What would you like people to call you? It seems you have embraced many skills: art director, editor, book designer, curator, gallerist… I even read that you were an agent. What title best reflects your work? And how would you describe your work?

My work is art direction, graphic design, editing and curating – they all connect. Yes, I have a gallery, but the one sitting at the desk is Karolina Strömberg – she’s does the difficult stuff. I don’t feel that comfortable calling myself a gallery owner – it feels like being a used car salesman...

What is your latest project?

As art director – lots of exciting projects with Snøhetta Design.

As graphic designer – a number of books with photographers including Gunnar Smoliansky, Bård Breivik, Gerry Johansson, Lars Tunbjörk… A nice little project for Another Park Film (Tomas Alfredson’s film company) together with my dear friend and colleague Björn Kusoffsky.

As curator – the exhibition I did for the Swedish Institute in Paris and Mois de la Photo is going on tour, so I’m getting that ready. A Gunnar Smoliansky exhibition, at and in collaboration with Moderna Museet.

At the gallery – I’m planning the next exhibition with Gerry Johansson and an Art Fair. I’m making my selection for the exhibition in March with Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre.

As an agent – I just came in from the cold…

How and when did you start to work with international book publishers such as Gerhard Steidl and Michael Mack and why?

I was so frustrated by the fact that Swedish photography wasn’t getting greater international attention. We have a strong photographic tradition in Sweden, we have produced and still produce fantastic photographers. Why wasn’t I seeing their books on the shelves when I went abroad? They absolutely ranked among the other world names. It made my whole body ache that they were only being shown in Sweden and that their books were only sold at the very few interested book dealers. In Sweden, there was only one publisher (Journal) that was really serious about publishing photography. Previously, there had been a few others going against the grain like 4 Förläggare (Gerry Johansson and others), DOG (Dawid, Gunnar Smoliansky and others) – the larger publishers didn’t seem interested at that point. In 2002, Lars Tunbjörk had the opportunity to publish Home at Steidl, and I designed it. I liked Gerhard. Gerhard liked me, and we decided to get something done. Early in our collaboration, Gerhard travelled to Stockholm. I prepared carefully and presented my Swedish projects – we would meet around 5.30 am (!) This became the start of Germany – the Home of the Swedish Photo Book. Michael Mack was and is part of Steidl; he’s as passionate about photography in books as Gerhard and it became evident

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that we should do books together. What Michael is doing now with MACK Books feels great – he’s incredibly good.

Your involvement at Steidl was a great contribution to the promotion of the now famous Scandinavian photographers , such as Lars Tunbjörk , J-H Engström, Gerry Johansson, Thobias Fäldt to name a few. How can you explain that Scandinavian photography remained so confidential before GunGallery’s opening and the photo books you published?

Well, we are very close to the North Pole. I wrote in Steidl’s 2011 Spring Catalogue: It is not only about Ingmar Bergman or free sex.

It is not about Switzerland.

It is not about Photography.

It is not about Something else.

It is about Dreams, Nightmares, Encounters, Disappointment, Alienation, Longing, Secret Dreams, Feelings, What you are Afraid of.

It is about other worlds.

And. It is very important for me to show this to the rest of the world.

To your eyes what makes Scandinavian photography so different, aesthetically and historically, and what influence do Christer Strömholm , Jacob Holdt or Anders Petersen have on the younger generation of Swedish photographers?

I don’t know if there is a common denominator in Scandinavian photography; maybe the Swedish photo tradition is deeply anchored in social documentary – Sune Jonsson and others. In Norway, there might be more nature photography. Anders Petersen is one of those who has carried the tradition on to new generations like JH Engström and others. It’s mainly very undiscovered – just look at Gunnar Smoliansky’s photography...

Would you say that there is a Swedish photography school, as we could say for America or Germany?

As I said, very many follow a kind of social documentary path. Look at Hanna Modigh’s Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down. Of course, Christer Strömholm’s photo school has been very important for Swedish photography.

You designed and edited for Steidl the book City Diary by Anders Petersen which was awarded best photo-book of the year at Paris Photo this year.

Given that Anders had already done a legendary book called Cafe Lehmitz in the early 70’s, this must have been a real challenge…

Café Lehmitz is an amazing book, or rather amazing pictures in a book. Anders is one of – or I’d like to say that he is the world’s foremost photographer in his genre. What’s so amazing about Anders is that he is constantly moving forward, developing and

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surprising. It’s always a challenge to design a book.

It’s always about trust: I was given a large box of photographs that I was entrusted to administrate in the best way. I began with the idea that it should be an ‘ordinary’ book, but when I had finished, it felt as though I hadn’t hit the nerve and that I wasn’t telling the story that the photographs and I wanted to tell. I started over, and it became something quite different: three books (volumes) that are to be the beginning of a series that can go on as long as it wants to – there’s no end. Given the title, if feels natural that it should be an ongoing series. I also wanted the books to have a tactile feeling, which I couldn’t achieve with a hardcover. Gerhard prints so very well it just dumbfounds you and production is probably more exclusive than most people think. But it’s a good thing that it’s not easy – the photographs should be shown in the best way – you should feel it in your body.

I have the feeling that some photographers’ work is getting stronger as they get older, (Lee Friedlander for example). Was City Diary a way to show that it was also the case for Anders?

Lee Friedlander is like Anders Petersen, they keep moving forward – no nostalgia. Of course I like the famous icons of Robert Frank’s The Americans, but when I later saw his The Lines of my Hand, I was totally gripped – Sick of Goodby’s.

I told Anders that I wanted to send him to Svalbard – to photograph everything but not a single person – I think he told me that his grandfather had shot a polar bear once.

In the history of photobooks, which book would you have loved to edit or/and design your way ? If none, which photographer or artist would you like to do a book with?

It would have been nice to work with Lee Friedlander or Robert Frank, but I’m looking forward to working with Gunnar Smoliansky again. And there are many that I already love to work with. I don’t work with things that I’m not looking forward to…

When did you create GunGallery? What was the story that led you to create a gallery in Stockholm, and what was the main focus?

When I (we) were finished with Under/Exposed, I found myself with a huge network among photographers and, I hope, trust as well. With Under/Exposed, we had shown that the interest in photography was huge. It included a total of 750 photographs by 250 photographers worldwide, including Lee Friedlander, Robert Frank and others. This also began with a great frustration at the fact that there was no place for photography and especially no place where my mother felt welcome to see exhibitions. We made a wish list of photographers whom we wrote to asking them if they wanted to show my mother their photographs in a place she regularly visited: the Stockholm underground.

After Under/Exposed, I got thousands of requests to start a gallery. My answer was always: “How? When am I going to find the time?” I work as an Art Director and I want to keep doing that. I see the fact that I get the chance to do books and exhibitions as an asset and inspiration to my job as an AD, and vice-versa. Moreover, I’m not that interested in selling photography – I want it for myself, on the wall. In 2007, I received a request from Karolina Strömberg, who worked at one of Sweden’s best galleries, but that mainly displayed painting and sculpture. She had discovered a lack of a forum or gallery for photography. This was an acute observation; it had been empty since Camera Obscura (1977-1983) closed its doors. Karolina had asked around a bit, and all paths led to me, she said. She asked me what I thought about a gallery for photography. Great idea, but not for me, thanks. She was very nice and serious, though, and I was curious about her plans, so I promised we could keep meeting. After a year of saying NO, I said YES – I understood that Karolina was very serious and knowledgeable, and

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that the distribution of work would be that I could do all the fun stuff and she could do all the boring stuff (the way I see it).

GunGallery aims to display photography of the highest standard with its own identity and origins.

Both by Swedish and international photographers – there are a lot of gaps to fill...

Gun is exhibiting some famous and historical art photographers such as Christer Strömholm, Gunnar Smolianski, Saul Leiter and Keizo Kitajima, but also some famous fashion photographers such as Sølve Sundsbø, Mikael Jansson, maybe less well known to photo connoisseurs. In your opinion what are the connections between art and fashion photography?

What do you mean by connoisseurs? If it’s the ones I think you mean, they are very few.

People who are interested usually know Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank. But I’d like to say that few people, even if they are interested, know big names like Lee Friedlander, Paul Graham, or Keld Helmer-Pedersen.

When we did Under/Exposed, I discovered names I didn’t know before – we decided not to have a theme, just show the huge world of good photography that was out there. This was appreciated, and I know many people became interested and kept finding out more – the exhibition was seen by 5.8 million people in two weeks.

In Sweden, for instance, Mikael Jansson is a much bigger name than both Saul Leiter and Keizo Kitajima. Good examples of the connection between art and fashion photography are Man Ray, Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, William Klein, Nick Knight, Sølve Sundsbø, Mikael Jansson, and Martina Hoogland Ivanow, to name but a few.

We met at the Swedish Institute in Paris last November, where you curated an exhibition called Distances Différentes showing five Swedish woman photographers. What was the main focus of that exhibition?

It started with a request from the Swedish Institute, who wanted to participate in Mois de la Photo. They needed a curator. There was a fairly loose theme and they wanted to exhibit Swedish fashion photography.

I turned it this way: Fashion. I don’t care about fashion.

Or... it’s hard not to care about fashion – it’s everywhere. In the morning, I usually go down to the shop to buy stuff for breakfast. It’s not far, so I usually go down in my pyjamas, maybe wearing a scarf and usually rubber boots. A few years ago, I was reading the excellent magazine Fantastic Man and I saw a story titled ‘The PJ’. It shows men, precisely, going out in the morning getting breakfast in their pyjamas. I hadn’t thought that I was an object for ‘fashion’, but I am – I can see myself in eight pages of this ‘Gentlemen’s Style Journal’. But, okay, if you walk down naked... Well, that might be fashion too. But... the photographs taken in context with the stories or campaigns of the magazines can be great to see and often very inspiring. But they’re often taken in a context of being shown in a magazine or an advertisement. Nothing else. But when they’re taken out of context and are to be seen as art on the wall, it gets harder. There’s no context anymore and they have to make it on their own. I don’t mean that they are worse photographs for all that. But they just don’t work up on the wall. Now we want to take these pictures out of context and hang them up on the wall to be looked at. So are there photographers who explore, stretch, create moods that we can relax in and that might spellbind us? Photographers with huge integrity, who also command the role between closeness and distance. Their photographs place us in a story, perhaps like a scene taken out of a film, a memory or a dream. We are affected by them, and see our own beauty.

The idea of reality is overrated. There isn’t just one reality. Reality is personal and subjective. Our ways of seeing reality are governed by our longing, our

dreams and nightmares. To me, that’s what these photographs and photographers represent.

GunGallery has showed a collection of Irving Penn photographs (Irving Penn: A tribute), this type of work is now rarely shown in galleries but mostly in institutions or museums. Do you feel this is some kind of an achievement or just a step that will help you to promote new artists?

As I said previously, I’ve had the good fortune of working with Lars Hall, the founder (with Lennart Durehed) of Camera Obscura. Lars knew Irving Penn, they had been good friends, worked together and exhibited. Irving Penn is one of modern photography’s most important foreground figures, who has inspired several generations. He was active until his death – an amazing photographer. We wanted to honour his work in some way. Now we had the chance to ask if we could show some of his works from Lars and Karin Hall’s unique collection. Lars and Karin said yes – it was a unique opportunity to exhibit such a good collection of Penn’s photographs – A Tribute...

More than 3,000 people came to the gallery in three weeks. It was amazing to see these pictures collected at the gallery. Of course I enjoyed it. Many people came there for the first time.

Moderna Museet has an extensive collection of Irving Penn’s photographs, spanning several of the genres he worked in. The greater part of the collection was donated by the artist himself in 1995, in memory of his Swedish-born wife Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn.

Can we describe GunGallery as a kind of lab?

It is a gallery for photography. I’m very happy when I do the hanging. I love to clean up, have a bottle of wine afterwards and enjoy the show by myself. That’s the best part of having GunGallery.

We can say that GunGallery is now considered as maybe the best gallery in Sweden and has now acquired a worldwide reputation…

Probably because of hard work done by Karolina, the architects CKR who have given us a perfect room, Hans Malm who has helped us with the small invitation films and Linnéa Bergman who continues to help us with that. The personal texts Johan Croneman writes for our invitations. Peter, who makes our windows so beautiful, Martin, who translates Johan’s texts, my assistants Adrian and Teitur who help with hanging, Björn Kusoffsky, who does playlists for all our exhibitions. And a number of others who help us so we can show the photography we love. Thanks to them, and of course mainly the photographers who trust us.

Which artists do you dream of exhibiting at Gun, and why?

There are so many. Let’s start with Thomas Demand and Lee Friedlander.

Are you thinking of opening another GunGallery in another town, like NYC, Los Angeles or London?

Yeah, why not in another climate zone.

Do you practise photography? if so, do you see it as an asset to your work, and why?

As an art director, graphic designer, editor, curator and because of the fact that you actually run a gallery for photography, you have to. It is a very good way to open your eye and see things around you in a different way. In 1999, I made a film called A Film – it’s about looking around in the world – five minutes of the letter A in New York, Paris, Havana and London.

Photography is a good way to experience life.

What’s your next project, book, or exhibition?

Let’s meet up another time to talk about that. But it’s incredibly exciting to accompany Snøhetta on a design trip, to try to contain Bård Breivik’s artistry in a book and to be exhibiting Julia Hetta at the gallery this autumn.

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Anders Petersen’s City Diary winner of the Paris Photo Photobook of the year 2012, photo edited and designed by Greger Ulf Nilson, published by Steidl/Gun and photographed by Daniel Riera

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S U N E no r dg r en

Scandinart In a world based on the circulation of visual experiences and screen-based information, ‘being there’ is becoming an increasingly important objective

By Viviana Birolli

Odd Nerdrum Mordet på Andreas Bader, 1977-78 324 x 262 cm Oil on canvas Courtesy the artist / Astrup Fearnley Museet

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He was asked to think of art as a kind of imaginary ‘wardrobe’ where everything that can’t be missed in Scandinavia might be stored: basics, classics, innovative accessories, and concept pieces. Sune Nordgren took this in his stride. “I think fashion is part of a broader idea of design and self-expression”, he says. Besides, the idea seems tailor-made for him: after all, he’s the curator of The Thief, the amazing hotel that opened in Oslo in January 2013 with the simple but oh-so-ambitious goal of revolutionising cultural tourism. A stone’s throw from the Astrup Fearnley Museum, The Thief is intended to form part of a 360 degree cultural experience that shuns the classic temples of art and makes its home in a new neighbourhood: the Tjuvholmen Icon Complex.

On an impressive artificial fjord in a suburban industrial zone, there are (or there will be) cafés, trendy galleries, shops, concept restaurants, and an open air sculpture park: an arty enclave centred on the imposing museum designed by star architect Renzo Piano to house the art collection belonging to the maritime broking and trading services group Astrup Fearnley.

It can be reached by land, but the museum’s best profile is seen from the sea: at night it looks like a glittering glass wave emerging from the icy northern waters, or the billowing sail of a ship making ready to set a course for unknown ports. There’s a bridge between the two buildings, or you can cross by boat, lulled by the calm waters of the canal: for a brief moment, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’re in Venice. Inside there are 45,000 square feet of light-filled exhibition spaces with the ever-changing Scandinavian skies as their ceiling, housing a star-studded international collection of contemporary art: Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Charles Ray, Richard Prince, Matthew Barney, Bruce Nauman and Cindy Sherman to name but a few.

It’s perhaps hardly surprising to find the same star artists in the foyer of The Thief: thanks to a rather unusual sponsorship arrangement, the museum will have the rare opportunity to move artworks out of the standard exhibition circuit to enrich the experience of the hotel’s guests. “2012 has been a great year for the arts in Oslo. The new museum, with the expected ‘Astrup Fearnley-effect’, will most likely change the city’s artistic dynamic. Some of the best galleries in Oslo have already moved ’under the wing’ of the museum, and this is just the beginning”, explains Sune.

Oslo’s first ‘art district’ is the first sign that the wind of change is blowing in the city.

Sune Nordgren is also a startup aficionado, and the idea of curating artworks in the unusual setting of a hotel is just the latest in a string of achievements.

Between 1990 and 1996 he directed the Konsthall in Malmö. At the end of the ’90s, he crossed the sea and arrived in Gateshead to head up the opening (2002) of the impressive Baltic contemporary art centre.

Hardly a year later, he led the way for a new ‘broadspectrum’ museum in Oslo, the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, which opened in 2003 and whose new home, designed by Kleihues + Schuwerk and due to open in 2018, promises to transform the city’s profile once again.

As his career clearly shows, Sune deftly captures the tendency for hybridisation that characterises today’s art: “The attraction between different creative disciplines is one of the outstanding traits of our time, as is the desire to work together and share skills, most often to challenge and discuss the frontiers between genres”. But he doesn’t stop there: Sune was one of the first to understand the crucial importance of decentralisation and the integration of new forms of art in

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We need to see things, to touch things. We want to say: I was there.

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natural settings; this is one of things that characterise a model of cultural fecundity for which the Scandinavian countries are justly famous. He promoted openair events in Sweden, and since 2007 has been project manager for Vandalorum, an art and design centre deep in the countryside at Värnamo: from a distance it looks like a farm, but the first draft of the project was designed by Renzo Piano. Sune is also artistic director of the Kivik Art Centre, an astonishing monumental park deep in the forest a stone’s throw from the village of Kivik (960 inhabitants), where architecture and sculpture strut their stuff under open skies.

Sculpture for an objective experience of architecture, the sleek concrete pavilion made in 2008 by artist Antony Gormley and architect David Chipperfield, is just one example of the sometimes daring, sometimes suggestive, but always impressive and sustainable ‘art rooms’ that make up the centre.

Our trusty guide for a page or two, Sune has kindly agreed to take us on an imaginary tour of the best contemporary art spaces in Scandinavia. We begin with a flagship venue: the Louisiana Museum at Humlebæk near Copenhagen, where Tara Donovan defies grav-

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ity with her astonishing monumental installations featuring small everyday objects. Fifty years after it opened, the Louisiana is still one of the most visited museums in Denmark and an unchallenged model for how corporate capital can nourish cultural endeavour: it was founded by cheese magnate Knud W. Jensen. “A pioneering institution in a context where, until just a few years ago, private initiatives seldom focused on contemporary art”, says Sune, before taking the opportunity to show us another, less well known example: the new Faurschou foundation, which showcased the Gunpowder Drawings by Chinese artist Cai GuoQiang for its ‘explosive’ inaugural exhibition in 2012.

All this is more than enough to keep us happy, but Sune’s tour takes us beyond geographical frontiers, turning us into cultural nomads as an antidote to the surfeit of images that surround us.

We find ourselves in Sweden, at Magasin 3 in Stockholm, where videos by Argentinian New York-based artist Mika Rottenberg show the surreal, absurd world of production lines operated by women. We’ll just have time to drop in on the Soft Works by star Los Angeles artist Sterling Ruby at the Bonniers Konsthall, before hopping on a ferry for an hour’s crossing to Värmdö, the largest island in the Stockholm archipelago. Here, amid ancient pine trees, industrialist Björn Jakobson has just launched his ‘arts archipelago’: a waterside walk, two restaurants, a versatile ‘art-box’ for concerts, shows and public events, a shop showcasing the best local designers, and the highlight of the complex, an 11,000 square foot art hall which, on 9 March, will open a ‘Made in Sweden’ exhibition devoted to Danish ‘outsider’ artist Poul Gernes. There’s a wonderful view of Baggen’s Bay from the roof terrace, and you get a total sense of eco-cultural immersion. The same goes for the Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter at Høvikodden, near Oslo, a centre created in 1968 by a film/iceskating star and a ship owner, both avid art lovers. It’s a fifteen minute drive from the bustling city centre; in a dramatic setting on the green banks of a fjord, the centre’s open, modernist architecture is a journey back in time and the visit provides a great way to enjoy the local countryside.

The arts may continue to mix and match, but Sune shows us that nomadism, a return to the land, and the rise of glocalism are today’s new watchwords: “In a world based on the circulation of visual experiences and screen-based information, ‘being there’ is becoming an increasingly important objective. The Web and the new phone media communicate a sense of reality, but at the same time they move us away from what’s real. We need to see things, to touch things. We want to say: I was there”.

Recommended exhibitions Louisiana Museum Tara Donovan 8 February – 20 May 2013 Pop Art Design 22 February – 9 June 2013 Humlebæk Denmark www.louisiana.dk

Faurschou Foundation Cai Guo-Qiang: A Clan of Boats Until 31 January Copenhagen Denmark www.faurschou.com

Astrup Fearnley Museet To Be With Art Is All We Ask Until 21 April 2013 Tjuvholmen Icon Complex Oslo Norway www.afmuseet.no

Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter Olav Christopher Jenssen: Works On Paper 31 January – 21 April 2013 Høvikodden Norway www.hok.no

Magasin 3 Mika Rottenberg: Sneeze to Squeeze 8 February – 2 June 2013 Stockholm Sweden www.magasin3.com

Artipelag Poul Gernes: Made in Sweden 9 March – 12 May 2013 Gustavsberg Sweden www.artipelag.se

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Previous spread Aiden wears sweatshirt and

sweatpants M.A.B shoes Sperry Top Sider bike Cykelmageren This page Solveig wears jacket B-Young sweatshirt Blend She tights Falke shoes Ilse Jacobsen Malthe wears jacket Jofama knit AMI jeans ID-Denim shoes Sperry Top Sider Aiden wears blazer DXO by Deerhunter shirt Barbour socks DXO by Deerhunter shoes Wolverine

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Centre Aiden wears coat Carven polo neck Deerhunter pants Signal Opposite Solveig wears coat J. Philipp knit Coster Copenhagen

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This page Aiden wears blazer DXO by Deerhunter shirt Barbour socks DXO

by Deerhunter shoes Wolverine Malthe wears jacket Jofama knit AMI jeans ID-Denim shoes Sperry Top Sider Opposite Aiden wears blazer DXO by Deerhunter shirt Barbour socks DXO by Deerhunter shoes Wolverine

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Opposite top Malthe wears coat AMI shirt Adidas Opposite bottom Solveig wears cap Deerhunter

jacket Ichi knit Deerhunter socks Deerhunter shoes Gardenia This page top Malthe wears cap Deerhunter jacket AMI scarf AMI pants ID-Denim This page bottom Otto wears jacket Melinda Gloss knit Henri Lloyd pants Melinda Gloss gloves Melinda Gloss bag Mismo

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Aiden wears shirt Carven pants AMI shoes Sperry Top Sider Pebble watch KiBiSi for Bulbul

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Gertrud wears jacket Henri Lloyd knit Barbour pants Turnover

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This page Gertrud wears jacket Dranella knit Barbour pants Jofama Opposite Aiden wears knit AMI pants Blend Denim

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This page top Malthe wears coat AMI shirt Adidas pants AMI shoes Wolverine Aiden wears jacket DXO by Deerhunter knit AMI pants Blend Denim This page bottom Otto wears blouson Jofama t-shirt Deerhunter pants ID-Denim gloves Deerhunter Opposite top Cristina wears knit Ganni pants Jofama shoes Adidas Opposite bottom Malthe wears sweatshirt Trine Lindegaard pants Trine Lindegaard

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Cristina wears knit Henri Lloyd skirt Blend She bag Rohan by LaContrie jewellery Ina Beissner Otto wears knit Melinda Gloss pants Signal jeans

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Photography Daniel Riera Fashion Nanna Flachs & Martin Asbjørn Bjerre Hair Lasse Pedersen Make-up Trine Skjøth Photography assistance John Enos Dickey Digital assistance Jacob Storm Retouching Sébastien de Oliveira Photography management David Bault at Jed Root Production Fashion Exclusive

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Models Aiden Shaw at Success, Solveig and Gertrud Hegelund at Unique Models, Cristina and Malthe Lund Madsen at Elite model management, Otto Lotz at 2pm Locations Botanisk Have, Dyrehaven, Statens Museum for Kunst, Jacobsen Cafe

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Brand Adidas AMI B-young Barbour Blend Denim Blend She Carven Coster Copenhagen Cykelmageren Deerhunter Dranella Falke Ganni Gardenia Henri Lloyd Ichi ID-Denim

GAZETTE BRAND LIST

Website CIFF location Contact Email adidas.dk amiparis.fr byoung.com barbour.com blendcompany.com blendcompany.com carven.com costercopenhagen.com cykelmageren.dk deerhunter.eu dranella.com falke.com ganni.dk gardenia.dk henrilloyd.com ichi.biz id-denim.dk

Showroom B5-182 Lars Odgaard Crystal Hall Emmanuel Zanucchi E-006 Søren Land Showroom B6-101 Rolf Sundqvist E-001 Søren Land E-001 Søren Land Crystal Hall Julien Labat C1-020 Henriette Hardis Crystal Hall Rasmus Gjesing Showroom B2-145 Lisbet Friis E-006 Søren Land Crystal Hall Angela Schulte E-025 Nanna Sommerset Showroom B4-114 Allan Gutkin Showroom B6-114 Peter Degn E-005 Søren Land B4-005 Jacob Berend Aaberg

lars.odgaard@adidas-group.com emmanuel@amiparis.fr buying@byoung.com info.de@barbour.com info@blend.dk info@blend.dk julien-labat@carven.fr info@costercopenhagen.com info@cykelmageren.dk deerhunter@f-engel.com sola@dkcompany.dk angelaschulte@falke.com nanna@ganni.dk info@gardenia.dk info.fd@fairpoint.dk info@ichi.biz info@id-denim.dk

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GAZETTE BRAND LIST

Brand Ilse Jacobsen Ina Beissner Jofama KiBiSi LaContrie M.A.B Melinda Gloss Maikel Tawadros Mismo J. Philipp Randers Handsker Signal Signal Jeans Sperry Top Sider Trine Lindegaard Turnover Wolverine

Website CIFF location Contact Email ilsejacobsen.dk inabeissner.com jofama.se kibisi.com lacontrie.com martinasbjornbjerre.com melinda-gloss.com maikeltawadros.com mismo.dk j-philipp.de randers-handsker.dk signal-clothing.com signal-clothing.com bonvita.dk trinelindegaard.com turnover.com bonvita.dk

C2-008 E-026 C3-007 Crystal Hall Crystal Hall Crystal Hall Crystal Hall E-024 Crystal Hall Showroom B6-114 Crystal Hall/C2-006A B2-043/C3-008 B2-043/C3-008 Showroom B4-112 Crystal Hall C1-021 Showroom B4-112

Dorthe Aistrup Melanie Bauer Bjarne Andersen Lars Larsen Edwina de Charrette Martin Asbjørn Bjerre Mathieu de MÊnonville Maikel Tawadros Adam Alexander Bach Peter Degn NielsVejrum Henrik Soelberg Henrik Soelberg Bonvita/Henrik Hammer Trine Lindegaard Henrik Ladefoged Bonvita/Henrik Hammer

mail@ilsejacobsen.dk mail@inabeissner.com bjarne@jofama.dk lars@kibisi.com edwina@lacontrie.com press@martinasbjornbjerre.com mathieu@melinda-gloss.com sales@maikeltawadros.com ab@mismo.dk info.fd@fairpoint.dk randers@handsker.dk signal@signal-clothing.com signal@signal-clothing.com salgssupport@bonvita.dk trine@trinelindegaard.com veldhoven@veldhovengroup.com salgssupport@bonvita.dk