As smoke plumes drifted, shadows danced, drums pulsed and cymbals crashed, Erk Bjerkesj's monochrome masters explored and conquered the opulent stage of Florence's Villa Favard. Returning to the place where it had all began one year ago, Linda Loppa, Patrick de Muynck and Polimoda provided the perfect setting for the design talent to revel in. Weeks might have passed but his is one to savour. Picturing what Marcel Duchamp would have worn if he were alive today and inspired by one of the most accomplished and influential directors of all time in Ingmar Bergman, the young talent casted his own spellbinding theatrical vision.
"This season I wanted to create something that is really close to my heart," explained Bjerkesj as he travelled across a snow covered Swedish countryside by train on his way to Florence. "It is a collection that takes clear inspiration from Gotland, the island that I grew up in outside Stockholm. It is also the same island Bergman lived on. I opted to name the collection 'L'le' which means the island." It is a sartorial love letter to his native home and the craftsmanship of its inhabitants. This collection is more about the craftsmen of the Island. Building on the Florentine shoemakers that first inspired and continue to drive his handmade footwear confidently forward, he built a wardrobe by looking at writers, painters and even explores how Bergman himself lived and looked on the island. A cacophony of craft. With tailoring in wool from Lanificio Cerruti and cotton from Cotonificio Albini, produced in Italy by the same tailors as Martin Margiela used and Valentino still do and knitwear in organic lovikka yarn, made by his mother and himself on the island.
Bergman's masterpiece 'The Silence' might have inspired the set design but I was keen to share the playlist of the sounds that filled Bjerkesj's studio alongside Magnus Klackenstam's atmospheric snapshots from the presentation at Pitti Uomo. Hit play and enter his world...
Bergman's masterpiece 'The Silence' might have inspired the set design but I was keen to share the playlist of the sounds that filled Bjerkesj's studio alongside Magnus Klackenstam's atmospheric snapshots from the presentation at Pitti Uomo. Hit play and enter his world...
Erk Bjerkesj AW13. Images by Magnus Klackenstam
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