Fashion exhibition with connected garments
Photo, top picture: Norrviken, Lena Evertsson. The exhibition is produced by Norrvikens trädgårdar.
Nature is the starting point of the exhibition”In the Weave of Creation“running until November 2, 2025 at Norrviken Gardens outside of Båstad. It explores how fashion, art and nature can be woven together. The works were created exclusively for the exhibition by four Swedish designers: Bea Szenfeld, Frida Jonsvens, Martin Bergström and Linnéa Samia Khalil.
Linnaeus Samia Khalil's garment is called “Rosa”. She has chosen to work with white organza as the only material, and in this case she has used waste fabric that has thus been saved from being thrown away. The work is inspired by the organic forms of the garden.
At the garment there is information that the visitor can scan a piece of fabric. “A voice lives in the fabric. Ask it what you want -- about threads, thoughts, or the time it took to come into being,” it reads on a pole next to the extraordinary dress. For visitors, this means that holding it next to the piece of fabric on the pole opens a link in the mobile phone. The link leads to a function where you write or speak in questions and get answers about the work, process and material, using a technology created by Future by Lund's partner whatt.io. This is also a demonstration of the benefits that can be created by the digital product passport, the DPP, which the EU is expected to introduce as a requirement in the textile industry.
- Having a digital connection in the garments makes it much easier, says Linnéa Samia Khalil. On the one hand, I can protect my works against copies, and on the other hand, the customer can easily get all the information they may need.
Linnéa Samia Khalil designs special garments and drives Shop Pampas in Malmö. For the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in Malmö, she designed winner Nemo's stage costume and also the coat she wore on the red carpet.
- I also rent garments, and DPP provides an opportunity to tell us where the garments have been used, continues Linnéa Samia Khalil. It will be an added value for customers to know that the garment has previously been worn during, for example, the Eurovision Song Contest or at the ELLE gala. At the moment we are also conducting an exhibition of garments that tell a story and we are doing so with the help of the DPP.
One of the visitors to Norrviken's gardens who tested scanning the piece of cloth was Monika Andersson Kapeller.
- I think the idea of scanning and getting information was exciting,” she says. For me, sustainability is important and it is good that in the future you can mark the origin, find ways to repair and to sort for recycling by scanning the garments. It gives you a choice that makes you not only look at the price. But it is also a complex issue and I think it is better to use QR codes than chip, because chip can mean both environmental stress and work in factories with poor working conditions. It is also important to keep down the amount of digital information, it is also an environmental problem.
Future by Lund works together with whatt.io and Lostboyslab in the project MCRS, which examines the conditions for a sustainable manufacturing industry.
- DPP is the key that strengthens both the protection of design and increases consumer engagement through access to previously hidden information, says project manager Lars Mattiasson. Linnea's creation “Rosa” tells with the help of DPP and AI about the origin, material, sewing but also the story behind the dress and how it came to be. You can ask your own questions to the DPP and get answers. When this type of interaction is created, it will help the consumer make more conscious choices, while protecting companies' creative design and intellectual property rights. This provides a great opportunity to reduce the overconsumption associated with fast fashion.
Bea Szenfelds also participated in the exhibition with her work MIMAN, which is a garment made of paper. The work is inspired by Harry Martinson's space epic Aniara, in which humanity leaves a ruined Earth. Frida Jonsvens exhibited “The Love of the Forgotten” which consists of a magnificent floral cape in which each flower petal is handmade from recycled curtains, fabrics and crystal chandeliers. Under the coat rests a shimmering dress made of crystal, inspired by the architecture of the Victoria House. In addition, it was possible to see Martin Bergström's “Norrviken”, which consists of a 20 meter long jacquard woven fabric and wallpaper — the result of painstaking craftsmanship in which plants were carefully detached from centuries-old herbarium sheets, mounted on watercolor backgrounds and digitized to become a pattern to weave and print.
