Ann Sofie-Back's relocation back to Sweden has been well-documented due to her high-profile appointment to the creative directorship of denim giant Cheap Monday as well as her notable absence from London Fashion Week last schedule. As it turns out, she's keen on keeping one foot in London and the other in Stockholm as she presented her A/W 10-11 Back diffusion line collection as part of Fashion Week by Berns and gears up to show in London again in two weeks time.
Her role at Cheap Monday has enabled her to see what the customer is really after and with Back, she has reinforced the idea of it being an updated and more evolved interpreation of what she has done with her mainline collections. "The mainline is exactly what I want it to be and we really push the boundaries of our ideas. With Back, it's more the solution of those ideas. We think more about wearability as well as price points of the collection," explains Back. For A/W 10-11, we see previously explored motifs such as wrapover zip detailing, shoulder pads in the knees and upturned shoulders. On a range of knits, blouses, cardigan-style jackets and draped trousers, the little motifs don't immediately jump out which makes them all the more wearable.
When probed about her pending A/W 10-11 mainline collection and what it is inspired by, Back gave an intriguing reference point as we found out that out there on the 3D virtual world of The Second Life, there exists an Ann Sofie-Back avatar, struggling as a lonely stripper:
"We looked at the aesthetics of this computer game The Second Life. It's a really crap game, not very well programmed and it's very slow. Nothing much happens. What's interesting is the fashion - it seems to me, most people are there buying things for their avatar person. We looked at the fashion there but strangely what people mostly want to do is to look like a Page 3 girl which was quite surprising but fascinating.
We created 'me' in this game and as it turns out, nobody wants to be friends with me! I make money through stripping. This is the easiest and quickest way of making money in this game. People come to these clubs and you can hear people watching me and going "What the fuck is that? Can someone get the freak off the stage?" So most of the time I get thrown out of the strip clubs and I have to find another to get by.
So the collection is inspired by the "people" that I meet there."
