Since graduating from Beckmans School of Design two years ago, Amanda Borgfors Mészáros has been participating in talent competitions. She has a lot of fans in Stockholm, including Martina Bonnier, who wore a floaty dress and molded corset by the designer when she announced her editorship of Scandinavian Vogue.
At Stockholm Fashion Week Mészáros presented her clothing and objects (the name she’s given to her leather work) in an exhibition setting. The small collection, which Vogue previewed on Zoom, consists of dresses, blouses, and a leather belt. All the garments are hand-worked in natural fibers and they have a light, floaty feeling that combines the airiness of the drapery in Botticelli’s Primavera and the rustic quality of a 19th-century men’s nightshirt. Not surprisingly folklore is one of the designer’s interests.
Central to Mészáros’s work is the dichotomy between soft and hard, volume and control. One of the ways she describes it is “romantic, sculptural minimalism.” This collection is the first that the designer will offer for purchase on a made-to-order basis. Dedicated to sustainability, she wants to avoid overproduction while at the same time sharing her “idea of responsible beauty.”
Here, Mészáros talks about the relation between fashion and art, what luxury means, and more.
How did you decide to pursue fashion design?
It’s actually a fun story. When I was 14, I told my father that I was going to study art direction or copy writing; something within marketing. My father is a copywriter, so when I was a little girl I was always following him into his office thinking it was really amazing. And I fell in love with the composition of text and pictures. So when I told him I was going to do that, he said, ‘No,’ because he saw something in me when it came to clothing and designing that I didn’t see. He actually convinced me to try one year of fashion design. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to do it because I’d heard so many bad things about the fashion industry. At first I was very negative about it, but after a while I was like, yeah, there is something about it and it’s an industry that needs to be challenged because it’s very boxy. There weren’t as many ways of doing fashion as there are today. So I was hooked after that one year, and then after that I just continued and studied for five years after that.
You have said you work “in the field of fashion and art.” Can you expand on that?
If I could describe my brand in two words it would be fashion and sculpture. I’ve always been very pro mixing the two because I think fashion is art. I really want to [express] a natural and timeless viewpoint. I’m working with all-natural materials, [and there is] always a very sculptural identity [to my] work, both in the craftsmanship and also in how I drape my clothing. It’s always been about a contrast between very sensual and flowing fabrics in natural materials, mixed with a lot of leather sculpting. It’s a big contrast, and that’s one of my signatures.
The sculptures are all made with leather, which is a sensitive subject today because of the emissions and all the bad things that the meat industry is doing to our world. I’m working with a Swedish tannery, and know the whole process of making the leathers and how it’s done. I’m always working with leftover materials; I never buy new skins, and that’s important to me.
Can you talk about the use of contrast in your work?
Working between the vacuum and volume, that’s one of my signatures. Vacuum is really about the molding of the leather and really showing off the female curves. It’s about representing the body, but also I have the opportunity to really shape the clothing as I want it to be. I would say it’s about hard romance in a way; tough romance. An armor feeling meeting a very romantic sculptural blouse.
Is there anything biographical about your work?
Absolutely. When I went to Beckmans College of Design and also before that I was really into exploring identity and heritage and things like that. When I did my graduation collection I chose to do a DNA test on myself because I wanted to ground the work, surrounding that question about identity and heritage.
[That collection] was also very much about folklore costumes, because [the way they are made is about] craftsmanship and heritage and where you come from. It’s a very sensitive subject, folklore costumes and identity. It’s absolutely something that triggers my way of working with silhouettes and shapes. My goal with that collection was really to create my own kind of folkloric costume because there is something that’s so interesting about our planet and the population, because we’re all, I think, very mixed, from different countries.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Does your work have any connection to Scandinavian minimalism?
I have always been working in a monochrome, simple way with my colors, and so in that way, I think absolutely that I’m taking a lot of Scandinavian minimalism into [my work]. But the shapes are much more dynamic. I put a lot of effort into the shapes and the structures of the clothing. I think my aesthetic is really a mix; it’s a romantic, sculptural minimalism, I would say.
What do you want to communicate through your clothing?
My goal is really about empowering people by sharing my idea of my responsible beauty, because I think both me and the customer have a responsibility to really contribute to our industry in a good way, a sustainable way, and a smart way. I’m really trying to give people the opportunity to do that by being a part of my brand. I want to be a part of shaping the future of fashion through my craftsmanship. It’s very important to me to work that way, with sewing by hand and doing very slow processes. It takes time to do the pieces that I’m doing, and I really enjoy that. I think it gives me time to really qualitative things, [and] that way of working is really beautiful because it’s a lot about the beauty of waiting for things.
How do you define luxury?
I’ve always enjoyed working on demand; it’s about quality over quantity. For me sustainability and responsible working is in a way luxurious, because it means that it’s thought through. For example, couture is very handcrafted, and a lot of hours and thoughts have been placed on the garments. And I think it fills it with more value.
How did the editor of Scandinavian Vogue come to wear your clothes?
She wore one dress from my graduate collection, and one dress that I made as a personal project. That’s the beauty, in a way, of my clothes and my objects; they are kind of timeless. Simple, but very dynamic. It really made me happy that she thought those pieces represent Scandinavian fashion. It means a lot.
