Stockholmfashiondays.com - A chat with Anna Holtblad

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Anna Holtblad was, together with Camilla Thulin and Filippa Knutsson, among the first to start her own fashion house and also to profile herself as a Swedish designer. On Friday night this was awarded with the Elle Honorary Award. Our man – Jean Pierre Barda – sat down for a little chat with Anna.

JPB – Honorary Award – so early – it is so great!

AH – What can I say? I really feel honored; especially in comparison with previous winners of this award.

Jean Pierre has a chat with Anna Holtblad. JPB – It feels like it was with your class at Beckmans that it all started happening.

AH – I can´t really explain why but something was happening at the time. I remember when I started and put Stockholm next to the label. People at the time thought I was crazy. All other labels had cities like New York or London and people really thought you were nuts putting Stockholm there.

The attitude towards Swedish fashion has changed so much during the years though and now it is normal, even a positive thing, to promote the Swedish heritage.

JPB – What makes Swedish fashion so Swedish?

AH – In general Swedes are very practical. This goes in most things and not the least how Swedes dress. It is probably the reason why the Swedish jeans labels are so “natural”.

JPB – Why is this?

AH – It does of course have with culture to do; as well as climate. Swedes have never really had the tradition of dressing very elegant.

Anna - can look serious but always quick to laugh.

JPB – Do you feel kinship with the new designers?

AH – Perhaps not in the design but definitely in the way we run our businesses. Sweden is a small and tough market and you almost have to go on export to be able to survive; especially with more elegant clothes.

It is very nice to see more of show pieces during the Fashion Week though. It means the interest and the market for this is growing, also here in Sweden.

JPB – What did you think when you started?

AH – It was all about getting the clothes I wanted to see out there. I had created so many pieces on my own that I wanted to get out.

Everything was so different then. My first collections were really small. It was very few that wanted Swedish designer clothes. The few that could afford were not really interested.

JPB – In what way do you think you have been a role model?

AH – I believe that I have been a role model by showing that it is possible.

Anna with another one of her poses. JPB – Are Swedes as trendy as people say?

AH – It can seem that way but I think trendy is confused with well dressed; which most Swedes are. This is probably done by the fact that the big retail chains are so quick to copy a lot of good things.

JPB – Timelessness is one of your signatures.

AH – I was actually looking through pictures of my old collections the other day. A retrospective show just would not be possible to do for me because the clothes from my first collections do not look “unmodern” enough; they still work.

JPB – Will we ever see a men´s collection from Anna Holtblad?

AH – I have done a few pieces for men. Some of them have been on sale in Japan. I have also had requests on some of the knitted jackets and I might do a few specific pieces but there won’t be a full men´s collection.

JPB – I guess us men will have to survive with just keep seeing your lovely clothes on women. Another big congratulation and I hope we will see you receiving another honorary award in about 20 years. Thank very much for the chat.