Susanne Guldager

VIEW THE COLLECTIONS

{Some of Susanne’s pieces are available online at PixieMarket}

Inspiration: The Enchanted Forest

Stills from the video Stillness is the Move by Dirty Projectors, Domino Records.

Starstyling spring summer 2010 collection. Via

Nature inspired photographic overall prints by Facetasm

Travel Findings: Beyond the Valley

I spent four days in London during my European break and I found the city to be an intense mix of cultures, colors and inspirations. Beside that, London is for sure a shopping city and if you have a capital to spend it is not gonna let you down. Of course you can find tons of streetwear and high end flagship stores to meet your tastes but we believe that what London is unique for is the amount of crazy good indie designers and vintage boutiques. Beyond the Valley is one of those and it plays the double role of a fashion store that is a stepping stone for more than 100 designers and art gallery offering products that cross the bounderies between music, art, clothing, product and graphic design and holding regular exhibitions.

The Beyond the Valley store is located at 2 Newburgh Street, London. Online store

Openclothed

Openclothed is Diana Lang. View the collection

Spotlight: Mociun

Caitlin Mociun, at a young age developed an intense fear of coyotes and spent large amounts of time pretending to be an appaloosa. At the tender age of 12 she left her native California and spent the following 6 years living and traveling throughout Asia and Europe, with extended stays in both Malaysia and Prague. Though no longer pretending to be an appaloosa, she was accompanied at certain stages by various pets, including an emotionally challenged cat named Capella. At 18 she returned to the U.S. to attend the Rhode Island School of Design, where from 4 years later she graduated with a BFA in textiles. Throughout this period, her stepmother Marilyn was the esteemed protector of the Mociun family menagerie. Hearkening back to her childhood urges, Caitlin found the coyote-like corporate world frightening and is currently enjoying the appaloosian character of self-employment.

It was a rather simple notion, profound nonetheless, that the Bauhaus school sought to promote: the combination of art(s) and craft(s). Mociun adheres to this same, simple notion: expressed most visually in the Bauhaus-inspired prints she employs throughout her line. Similarly expressed is the influence of Karl Blossfeldt, whose plant photography ultimately served the interests of art and craft.

Mociun continues to explore and integrate the ever-emerging technologies and critical conceptions of sustainability; environmentally healthy production; and, as a type of de facto jouissance, the role of, and the products available to, the individual consumer in society at large. Perhaps like David Bowie’s “Sound and Vision”, Mociun designs inspired by an ahistorical use of various cultural textile and pattern traditions, and constructs visually and economically attractive products, likewise inspiring consumers of a similar persuasion. Images: Spring 2009 collection | See more | Online Store

FOX IN MOCIUN/ Collaboration with Alyson Fox. Small collection of limited-edition dress, tees, totes and scarfs. Available at Mociun Store | Totokaelo Seattle |

Spotlight: Rabbit on the run

Rabbit on the run e’ un brand indipendente attivo da due anni sospeso tra Parigi e New York. Il nome suggerisce uno spirito indipendente e i motivi e le grafiche dal vago sapore etnico-indiano delle collezioni, costituite per lo piu’ da bluse oversize in cotone e seta, tute e sciarpe stampate a mano, sono il risultato di un processo ludico di tagli e pieghe su carta colorata. Online store

Spotlight: Anti Sweden

THE AGE OF DARKNESS

Fighting the established jeans brands like Acne, cheap Monday from our neighbors in Sweden we now introduce a label based on the Norwegian cultural history on black Metal. The line is a co-lab with the San Diego based artist Justin Bartlett, famous for his occult and obsessive art. Norwegians always like to challenge their slightly larger and moderately happier neighbors, Sweden, who are renowned for their many famous denim brands (Acne, Cheap Monday, among others). Anti Sweden stands as a declaration of war! With their own truly Norwegian denim brand Anti Sweden is  taking the fight to the Swedes in the true spirit of the friendly rivalry that has long existed between the two lands.

Norwegians and Swedes are Scandinavian minimalists but at the very heart of the Anti Sweden brand is the Norwegian culture of darkness, which has also given rise to the True Norwegian Black scene. Indeed, one of Anti Sweden designers is a member of such a band. Living near the top of the world, darkness is inescapable – its everywhere. It manifests in our natures, our culture, our art and our music – its essential to who Norwegians are. Anti Sweden is yet another pure manifestation. Norway – this land of eternal midnight and of the darkest of Black Metal is our inspiration for the first line of Black Denim Jeans. Anti Sweden is Norwegian Black metal going fashion. Anti Sweden´s signature is the True Black Jeans – as black as the northern nights. Printed in the pocket-lining of the first edition line you’ll find selected illustrations from the dark imagination of gore artist Justin Bartlett who through his experience of working with Norwegian bands such as Gorgoroth.

All photos are made by NY based photographer Alex Freund. The name of the line? It’s of-course 666. View the whole collection and get more infos at ANTI SWEDEN.

Anti Sweden is a side project of the Oslo based multi-disciplinary design studio Anti Design that works with brand identity, art direction, packaging, print, illustration and interactive design.~M.

Spotlight: Maria Francesca Pepe

Maria Francesca is a young London based Italian designer. Her first collection Spring/Summer 2008 was presented in Paris at Rendez-Vous Femme selling to Rei Kawakubo’s Dover Street Market (London) among other selected high-end boutiques. Following Collections introduce MariaFrancescaPepe Bags and a full range of Womenswear pieces all concieved around the Jewellery-Wear Concept. Featured in a photoshoots on the latest issues of, among the others, Plastique with her tubular extra-large necklaces part of her 2008 Paradoxa collection, D la Repubblica delle Donne, i-D, Elle Uk and Self Service, Maria Francesca’s creations merge the link between ornament and wearability. The Italian handcraft tradition is fused to a contemporary and avant-garde sense of Fashion.

Art-Brut is her latest collection and her first attempt of merging experimental jewellery into clothing, bags, accessories. The jewellery pieces are turned into buttons, handles, collars. The materials? Varnished brass, black hard plexiglass, sterling silver, stones such as black hematite and ruby zircon, smooth leather, cotton, silk, viscose, jersey.

Images: MariaFrancescaPepe

Temporary Love

Temporary Love is the first concept store where bags, garmnments and jewellery are exclusivelly made by the artists, for uniqu pieces, in the never ending meeting between art and design. The upcaming exhibitions will feature the work of some young italian artists like Akab, Tellas, Ciro Fanelli and others. The store will also open its doors to Loop, a collective exhibition project around the team of daily loops and repetitions, featuring 15 young italian illustrators and 3 video artists. The store is located at Via di San Calisto 9, Rome (Trastevere), Italy. Online shop coming soon

Polipo Bags

Shop and view more products at PolipoBags