Within a single Stockholm Fashion Week, I got to talk to not one but TWO designers about food. DOUBLE SCORE! First it was Carin Wester's abstracted Parisians bistros and brasseries and then yesterday, I began at Mathias Dahlgren's Matbaren where Rodebjer presented their A/W 12-3 collection and ended the day, with a meal at that very same establishment, eating pig's head and pickled cucumber. A fitting end to a trip where keeping warm, seeing warmth-inducing collections and good food has gone hand in hand with each other. There was a reason why Carin Rodebjer chose that venue to show her collection. She spoke of relating to Dahlgren, drawing parallels between his harmonious food creations and her own attitude towards the sort of women that command her clothes rather than the other way round.
It's with this notion in mind that she thought of men's fashion icons such as David Hockney, Jean Cocteau and Prince Michael Duke of Kent for her new collection. It wasn't that she wanted to inject menswear dress codes into the collection but it's more about the attitude and the ease with which these men inhabit their clothes that she brought to her clothes. In general, that is the raison d'être of all Rodebjer collections but there was definitely something luxuriously comforting about the recipe that she had cooked up in Dahlgren's premises, all of which instantly looked like go-to-staples - a knee length kimono coat with arm patches, the sweaters and skirts in a texturised faux fur that from a distance looked like crushed velvet, the idea of layering up two polo necks (thanks Carin - I'm shamelessly nicking that idea to keep my neck warm in New York) and a wrapped shirt printed with garden blooms. Accessories such as the flat leather slip-ons and the A3 sized clutches (suggesting that it might hold something more substantial than a lippie and a phone) were the perfect ingredients to complete this succinctly edited wardrobe.
I know it sounds like a bit of a la-di-da drone, but editing does seem to be a problem at Stockholm shows. There's no need to hammer home the point by showing EVERY single style in EVERY possible colour way. Rodebjer did no such thing. Actually, I left the show wanting more. Fortunately, Rodebjer has support from the likes of bStore in London and a very well-stocked webstore of their own. Hopefully the reality of wearing this collection feels every bit as good as my meal did at Matbaren. Steve's iPhone pics are my one boshed attempt at throwing in my secondary passion here. Sadly, pro food blogger I am not.
