Looking Back to Find our Future
The Nordic Fashion Biennale was launched by the Nordic House, Reykjavik in 2009 in Reykjavik, Iceland, and included more than 60 designers, artists, musicians and speakers. The 2011 Nordic Fashion Biennale will be held at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle, for six weeks from September 30 through November 13, 2011. This is the first time that this event will take place in the United States.
The 2011 Nordic Fashion Biennale is being produced by the Nordic House, Reykjavik and the Nordic Heritage Museum. The highlight of the Nordic Fashion Biennale is an exhibition, Looking Back to Find our Future, curated by New York-based Icelandic artist Hrafnhildur Arnardottir. Arnardottir is well known for her collaboration with Björk and for her commissioned work for the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Looking Back to Find our Future will include fashion and jewelry from Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Sweden, and Norway. Cutting-edge contemporary fashion, design, and installations throughout the Museum will blur past and present, highlighting traditions of craft and creativity in Nordic design. The exhibition will demonstrate how important the influences of nature and heritage are for Nordic designers. Detailed information about the designers is on our website at this link: http://www.nordicfashionbiennale.com/nfb/designers/. The exhibition includes cutting edge designers such as Sweden's Sandra Backlund, Norway's Moods of Norway, Denmark's Henrik Vibskov, and Iceland's Steinunn, to name only a few.
Designers for the exhibition include:
Sandra Backlund (Sweden)
Henrik Vibskov (Denmark)
Ivana Helsinki (Finland)
Moods of Norway (Norway)
Barbara I Gongini (Faroe Islands)
Bibi Chemnitz (Greenland)
Guðrun & Guðrun (Faroe Islands)
Vík Prjónsdóttir (Iceland)
Hildur Björk Yeoman (Iceland)
Mundi (Iceland)
Steinunn Sigurðardóttir (Iceland)
Aftur (Iceland)
EYGLO (Iceland)
Vera Thordardottir (Iceland)
Aurum (Iceland)
Kría Jewelry (Iceland)
Julie Edel Hardenberg (Greenland)
Rammatik (Faroe Islands)
Spaksmannsspjarir (Iceland)
Jet Korine (Iceland)
Steinum Design (Faroe Islands)
Rain Dear (Iceland)
INUIK (Greenland)
Hringa (Iceland)
Skaparinn (Iceland)
Sirri (Faroe Islands)
NFB 2011 will also include an exhibition of still photography of street fashion from the Nordic capitals of Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, Reykjavik, and Stockholm, plus Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
The NFB 2011 will begin on September 30 with the two-day NFB 2011 Fashion Summit featuring top international designers and artists. The summit is designed to inspire conversation and exploration between master professionals, industry leaders, emerging designers, fashion students and trend setters. Key themes that are woven throughout the summit include slow fashion, sustainability and design, cultural heritage, and the business of fashion. Presenters include France's Yvan Mispelaere (Creative Designer for Diane Von Furstenberg); Iceland's Áslaug Magnúsdottir (founder of Moda Operand), haberdasher Orlando Palacios of Worth and Worth, and Sweden's Annika Axelsson (one of the founders of DEM Collective), among others.
Here is the list of speakers for the NFB 2011 Fashion Summit:
Cynthia Aherne (US/Norway)
Pauline Brown (US)
DEM Collective Annika Axelsson (Sweden)
Ragna Fróða (Iceland)
Katrina I Geil (Faroe Islands)
Julie Edel Hardenberg (Greenland)
Kirsi Laitala (Norway)
Áslaug Magnúsdottir (Iceland)
Yvan Mispelaere (US)
Mundi (Iceland)
Orlando Palacious (US)
Guðrun Rogvadottir (Iceland)
Steinunn Sigurðardóttir (Iceland)
Henrik Vibskov (Denmark)
A new element of the NFB is a fashion competition, North by Northwest, created to encourage talented designers to seek out new directions, and spark awareness of new trends in Nordic fashion. All entries had to be an original garment or accessory that was inspired by Nordic design.12 finalists have been chosen, representing California, Washington, Oregon & British Columbia. Their entries will be displayed in conjunction with the NFB exhibition. There will be two winners, one chosen by the panel of judges (judges are Ole Henriksen, Yvan Mispelaere, and Steinunn) and one chosen by an online vote (the “People's Choice”) so people around the world will be able to vote on their favorite. The prize is a trip to Iceland during Reykjavik Fashion Week.