Due to its location on the globe, all Norwegians have to deal with the absence of the sun during the winter months, but some choose to lean into the gloom more than others. Among them are 1313selah’s cofounders—Tomás Silva, Duy Ngo, and Erik Spanne—who, true to form, were all wearing black when we spoke over Zoom on the eve of the brand’s debut. Their plan was to present their First Communion collection of 13 looks on Friday the 13th at the 13th hour in their hometown of Oslo. Clearly the trio is unaffected by triskaidekaphobia, or fear of the number 13.
There are certainly elements of darkness in 1313selah’s collection, though on first read one might see the Catholic imagination at play in the religious icons handsewn onto a double-breasted suit or the tearstained face of the Madonna that appears on a T-shirt. The look book was shot on the Hill of Crosses in Lithuania in a nod to the jacket art of Cypress Hill’s Black Sunday album, which was playing last Halloween when they locked themselves in an isolated cabin and started to put in motion today’s brand launch. Among the Latino slang in the lyrics, the gothic references, and “everything kind of dark,” the trio found their “common ground.”
The three friends are alums of Holzweiler—the family-run Norwegian ready-to-wear brand that recently recieved major funding from Sequoia Capital China—and for various reasons, all identify as outsiders. Ngo is of Vietnamese and Chinese heritage and a graduate of London College of Fashion; he was head of menswear at Holzweiler. Born in Chile, Silva moved to Norway as a child and became enmeshed in Oslo’s club and fashion scenes; he founded Holzweiler’s in-house content department. Spanne—a.k.a. DJ Drippin and Onleash—is a multidisciplinary artist who was Holzweiler’s head of prints and graphics. Personal losses compounded by the isolation of COVID brought the friends close together and, says Ngo, “made us really think about what we wanted in life.” Together they share a desire to personify change in the industry. “For us it’s important to be a new beginning and a new voice and represent something that hasn’t been really done here. So that’s kind of the big mission for us: to inspire people,” Silva stated.
Though their menswear doesn’t fit into the Scandi minimalist box, they believe there’s an audience for what they’re doing. Like Andreas Melbostad, who launched his own brand out of Oslo this year, they see development in terms of a more open approach to dressing. “I can see it’s changed a lot in the last five or six years,” observes Spanne. “Younger people don’t care so much about Janteloven [an ethos that values modesty and fitting in], and Oslo and Norway are becoming more and more multicultural.”
Visually, 1313selah’s collection has more in common with Willy Chavarria’s work than with their fellow Scandis at Our Legacy. “Willy tells the same story as us, but his point of view is growing up Latino in America—our point of view is growing up in Oslo with a multicultural background,” says Silva. He points out that the first look, a tunic-length T-shirt paired with rave-width pants, is “a very typical Latino thing and super influenced by LA.” Also connected to the City of Angels are the pointy shoes in the look book; they are vintage Stacy Adams, a brand Snoop Dogg sings about. A leather coat is bonded in jersey, and a mohair jacket furthers the hard-soft dichotomy throughout. There is also a generously cut denim shirt shown with jeans pieced in a cross-like pattern that come in black or red (referencing blood). The back of the Madonna T-shirt reads “No Jueges Con La Muerte” (Don’t Play With Death), which comes from one of the last exchanges Silva had with his late grandfather.
The brand name is as symbolic as the lineup. The cofounders write that 1313 is an “angel number” representative of a “new and exciting phase” and translate selah as “forever; God has spoken.” What seems to be powering the brand is a combination of reflection and action. “This is not us finally becoming ourselves,” said Spanne. “It’s more like looking at ourselves in the mirror, and now finally we can do something where we feel like it’s totally ourselves. Now when we are in control, we want to tell our story.”
