September 4, 2011 |
FROM THE VAULT (SUMMER 2011)
NAME: Ann-Sofie Back.
AGE: 39.
OCCUPATION: fashion designer.
CURRENT EMPLOYER: my own brands Ann-Sofie Back Atelje and BACK, as well as consulting as joint creative director with founder Örjan Andersson at Cheap Monday.
FIRST JOB IN FASHION?
“I met Margareta van den Bosch of H&M before I started studying and she gave me a job at H&M on the spot. I was designing prints in the white room during my studies for four years when I did my BA in Sweden.”
WHAT’S NEW?
“Our new line Ann-Sofie Back Atelje, a more high-end and mature collection and Cheap Monday’s shoe collection for AW11.”
HOW DID YOU GET STARTED?
“My parents wore really bad clothes when I was little; I had to care about clothes…”
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GET TO THE TOP OF THE TREE?
“Monkey feet.”
FASHION IS…
“Constant change.”
DO YOU EVER WEAR YOUR OWN DESIGNS?
“Yes, these days I do. I can’t wait for the SS11 stuff. I’m wearing the gagball belt from ASBA with everything this spring.”
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Social phenomena I don’t agree with.”
FASHION IS…
“Much more fascinating than art.”
HOW IMPORTANT ARE HEMLINES?
“I like all of them.”
CAN YOU MULTITASK?
“OH YES, ARE YOU KIDDING?”
What would you like on your epitaph?
“A very good dog trainer.”
ARE YOU ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR LAST COLLECTION?
“Yes, unfortunately – I think that is very true but I don’t judge others that way.”
ARE YOU/WERE YOU A JUVENILE DELINQUENT?
“How did you know?”
ARE YOU A SMOKY SOMETHIN’?
“No, I’m doing hardcore Swedish snus, two boxes a day.”
DO YOU GET JEALOUS OF OTHER DESIGNERS?
“Yes, but I don’t compete, I invent my own genre.”
DO YOU GET RECOGNISED ON THE STREET? DO YOU HAVE/HAVE YOU EVER HAD A STALKER?
“Yes, Stockholm is so small, it is scary. I have to put make-up on to go across the street to the grocery store.”
HAVE YOU EVER THROWN A DIVA STROP?
“I probably have – ask my designers at Cheap Monday!”
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE WAY MOST PEOPLE DRESS?
“I came back from NY yesterday and I have to say I love the way older women dress there, like they matter! In Stockholm you’re dead at 35, it’s quite sad.”
WAS THERE A PARTICULAR POINT WHEN YOU STARTED TO GET AMBITIOUS?
“No, I have always been ambitious. I was ambitious in the way I played as a child.”
HAVE YOU ALWAYS BEEN ALL ABOUT FASHION?
“No, I could have been good at lots of things.”
ARE YOU A LEGEND? LEGENDARY?
“An anti-legend, not by choice though.”
DALLAS OR DYNASTY? SUE ELLEN OR ALEXIS?
“Dynasty, but Sue Ellen’s more interesting.”
HAVE YOU EVER LIED IN AN INTERVIEW?
“Yes.”
DO YOU HAVE A MENTOR? A MUSE? WHO/WHAT ARE THEY?
“No, I wish I did have a mentor. Muses are for pussies.”
ARE YOU A BELIEVER IN HEALTHY COMPETITION?
“It never feels healthy to me.”
WHAT DID YOU HAVE FOR DINNER LAST NIGHT?
“Pasta pesto with cornflakes as a starter – nothing in the fridge, husband on holiday.”
HOW MANY LICKS DOES IT TAKE TO GET TO THE CENTRE OF IT?
“I’m a prude, can’t talk about it.”
CAN YOU WRAP YOUR LEGS AROUND YOUR NECK LIKE JANICE DICKINSON?
“No, but I can throw the ball from my sofa 500 times in one evening for my dog.”
IF YOU COULD BE A SUPERHERO, WHICH ONE WOULD YOU BE AND WHY?
“I’m not interested in superheroes.”
WHAT IS GOOD DESIGN?
“The kind that makes you insecure and itchy.”
DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR FIRST DRESS? SHOW?
“No, but I remember being jealous of somebody else’s dress. Mine was corduroy and passed down from my cousins.”
WHAT’S VULGAR?
“Stupidity.”
HAVE YOU EVER BANNED ANYONE FROM YOUR SHOW BECAUSE OF A BAD REVIEW?
WOULD YOU?
“No I haven’t. I’m not sure if I would – I think it’s wrong but I do lots of wrongs all the time.”
HOW PRETENTIOUS ARE YOU ON A SCALE OF 1-10?
“It would help if I was a lot more pretentious. I have huge problems with taking myself seriously.”
by Natalie Dembinska
Photograph by Maria Ziegelboeck
