Ann-Sofie Back

[Mail-Moth]

Many of the pieces are parodying the celebrity culture of the early 2000s, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan etc. I like the way she combined culture criticism with a few cool pieces of clothing.
The clash of trashy, plastic pieces of shit coming together with neat second-hand materials. Simple dresses with details only in the construction or sparse jewellery.

Can't see the parody, nor the cool, nor the details in the construction.

[Shucks]

[Chinorlz]

"cockring" dress and what looks to be a gigantic lacy g-string? Disappointing in the attempt at shock value and sex-to-boost-sales.

[Icarium]

Man you guys are totally making a mockery of the legacy behind the Torsten and Wanja Söderberg designer prize.

This is the creative director of Cheap Monday for chrissakes!!!

[zamb]

I used to follow her work to some degree along with that of Camilla Staerk in the early 00 when they emerged in London.

There is an aspect of London fashion with which her aesthetic would resonate and there were many designers at that time who approach fashion from this perspective

in some ways kind of like Margiela with deconstruction, irony and the elevation of humble items to art being central to the work.
I am not sure SZ is the place for this, I am also not sure if its always a good thing for SZ's focus and appreciation of design to be so narrow.

I am not advocating a democratic approach, but a more inquisitive one before we dismiss things based simply on appearances.

[Icarium]

Great thoughts Zamb. Always good to have a tempered voice to ground things.

I think I personally was reacting more to his attitude than what was shared.

That said it is true that it takes some amount of courage to put oneself out there in terms of what one is into, even on a fairly anonymous internet forum, so maybe that deserves some respect.

[Mail-Moth]

I get your point, Zam. But are the ideas behind the work enough to make it worthwile ? All I see here is misplaced parts of garments and vague reminiscences of previous works from Gareth Pugh (the shoulders in the fourth picture) or CDG (the oversized blazer) among others, in intentionally cheaper (second hand ?) materials - which is part of the purpose, I understand that far. If the intention behind that is to mock/deconstruct high-end fashion by turning its innovations into watered down gimmicks, ("See ? That's all there is to it, all about sex and stuff", sort of), I still find it less challenging, for the creator as for the beholder, than trying to propose something else, something radically new at best, at least something unexpected. But in the end, isnt't what she does what fast fashion does all the time ?

Comparing this to Margiela is strange, since he seemed to do the exact opposite - subliming mainstream through an exigent artisanal approach. Of course there is deconstruction in both cases, but the results are not equally appealing.

[zamb]

by no means am I equating her with Margiela. There are very few designers who can do what Margiela did in the way he did it. His was a very unique mind. My statements were not only to do with her work, but the dismissive approach taken a lot of times on SZ with regards to the works of a lot designers who do not traditionally fit in here which runs the risk of ignoring or passing on something simply because its not our Aesthetic.
As I have said before, I can appreciate a kind of fashion that I would NEVER wear, as I also view things from a conceptual perspective which is an important aspect of appreciating any kind of Artistic expression.
I don't know if it is because I have studied fashion for a long time and was very familiar with the who's who of the late 90's and early 00's why I see things differently.
She is a designer who was (is?) very well respected on the London scene along with Camilla Steark Marjan Pejoski, Arkadiuis, Robert Cary Williams and a series of other Avant garde types who came out of Central Saint Martins during that era.

[Faust]

What Zam says is true, actually. It's just that the OP posted the most unfortunate examples of her work.

[zamb]

Funnily enough, there are a lot of designers working away and doing really creative an interesting things and i think more can be done it terms of highlighting the work of those people.
I think it may be good to have an ongoing thread that is purely about new designers coming out before simply just forming a thread for every designer.......

So for example a thread named "on the radar: New designer watch" where designers works could be featured and discussed before a thread is formed for them. in such a way if the designer is not worthy of his or her own thread then it wont happen, but at least new aesthetics and new talents can be exposed and covered without the kind of backlash than comes when someone or something doesn't fit into what we would like it to be.

[Shucks]

i have experienced her garments up close. they're badly executed in my (admittedly layman) experience and the 'concepts' are trite, as seen very clearly in this recent stuff.

zamb i think you shouldn't assume that we all dismiss stuff here just cause it isn't black and artisanal. sometimes bad clothes are just bad clothes.

[zamb]

i have experienced her garments up close. they're badly executed in my (admittedly layman) experience and the 'concepts' are trite, as seen very clearly in this recent stuff.

zamb i think you shouldn't assume that we all dismiss stuff here just cause it isn't black and artisanal. sometimes bad clothes are just bad clothes.

My good fellow, I am not advocating her work.........I can see that its bad, even though i might be reluctant to say so for logical reasons.

I also think that some things should be dismissed as it isn't worth paying attention to. My only concern is I often see things being dismissed not because it isn't good but because its not something people think they can wear. So the value an appreciation is reduced to whether i can wear it or not. I also think this is a large part of the reason why a lot of womenswear is not promoted or appreciated here..........