Two weeks ago Swedish-based L’Homme Rouge presented their Autumn/Winter 2017 collection ’Stompers’ during Stockholm Fashion Week. This brand is only a few years in the game, yet they are already making menswear much more interesting. Look for unconventional details mixed with Scandinavian minimalism.
John-Ruben Holtback, Jonatan Härngren, Carl-Johan Holtback and Axel Trädgårdh are the creative minds behind this brand and they are reminding us the value of conscious design, high quality fabrics and components. Worthy of attention: materials, prints and patterns. All this combined with the skills to transform the most classic uniform pieces in unexpected ways are stirring up some enthusiasm along the front-rows.
PAUSE decided to have a little chat with them…
A fresh new brand on the Scandinavian fashion scene. What is the plan?
L’HOMME ROUGE has been developing a lot lately and 2016 was a real breakthrough year for us in various regards. We decided to take a few extra steps with the brand so we debuted Stockholm Fashion Week as well as opened our first store on Krukmakargatan in Stockholm. The next step is to establish ourselves outside the Scandinavian borders. London and the UK feels very aligned with what we are trying to do with L’HOMME ROUGE.
How did it start?
L’HOMME ROUGE started as a creative hub in Lund, southern Sweden, a few years back. The idea was not really to start a clothing brand. The hub turned into some kind of business and then naturally developed into a designer brand since we all had a confluent interest for design and art and in particularly the expression through clothing. L’HOMME ROUGE means the red person and is a reminder to be alive in every moment in order to live your life to the fullest and simply follow your passions. In the campaigns we often focus on interesting faces and we feature young Swedish artists with interesting approaches.
The DNA of your brand?
The L’HOMME ROUGE ambition is to challenge the conventional and conservative menswear norms through poetic expressions, we do prints in the borderland between arts and commercial design. The design DNA is not very fitted and we work with playful and innovative detailing.
AW2017 ‘Stompers’ showed two weeks ago at Stockholm Fashion week. Source of inspiration?
The story was developed by our designer Jonatan Härngren and for this collection the inspiration came from a group of young Swedish harbour workers who deconstruct and reinvent luxury goods they find in abandoned shipping containers. With their do-it-yourself and rebel like mentality they create their own vibrations and interpretations between workwear, luxury and rebellion. We’ve continued to dwell in some 70’s inspiration as well as discontent related rebellion, areas that for us feels highly relevant for the time being.
Your first show was back in August 2016, showing SS17 ‘Garden Group’. We remember a great location and casting of models. This was your second show. Any thoughts?
For this second presentation we wanted to push the design and the styling a bit more and had the opportunity to work with the very talented stylist Nicole Walker, we casted young models. The idea was to have that younger/older sibling feeling to it. We’re really happy about the show and the reviews have been really good from Vogue Runway, Bon Magazine and so on.
See the full L’Homme Rouge FW17 collection which showcased at Stockholm Fashion Week here
SS17 ‘Garden Group’ is finally released. What is it about and where can we get it?
‘The Garden Group’ collection is in some sense similar to Stompers but a lot more romantic. It’s inspired by the green wave. A time when people decided to move to the country side and grow their own crops, live in collectives etc. This happening was actually so significant in Sweden that the urbanization went backwards for a period of time. A unique happening that we might not come across again in quite some time. First drop of the collection is now available in our Stockholm store and soon with our stockists and online.
See the full L’Homme Rouge SS17 collection (now in store) which was showcased at Stockholm Fashion Week August 2016:
Credits:
Backstage photos: Emma Svensson @emmasvenssonphoto
Runway photos: Mathias Nordgren @nordgrenmathias
