Stockholmfashiondays.com - God loves fashion too

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As we speak, the fashion barometer in the church of Sweden is racing towards the sky. Being more or less non existent until a few weeks back in time, I would say fashion is now a steady church goer.

I was recently offered the chance to be stylist and producer for a fashion show in one of the most dramatic and impressive churches in Stockholm, Högalidskyrkan. There was no way I’d pass on that. The church of Sweden was eager to win the hearts of its young members, namely the 15 year olds taking their confirmation. I am a true fan of communicating with young people and believe they need clever dialogues aimed at them, so that combined with the location was fantastic news.

God Loves Fashion Too. Not being the most popular hang out for young people, the church wanted to break new ground and escape the fate of being eternally dismissed as prejudiced and outdated. They set out to raise a relevant dialogue using the sharp and wise tool of a subject highly relevant to their target group. Fashion.

It is not every day that I get the chance to be part of building the brand and image of a religion. Like any company or person, all religions need to be self critical and let go of old and bad habits. Instead they have to charge themselves with modern and attractive values. In the not so odd case that they want visitors to keep coming that is. This scenario is conceivable at least in a democratic environment where people can act on their own free will and not be forced into belief.

I got clear instructions that the church expected the show to be a full on fashion show with all parameters included that make a fashion show…a real fashion show. Their theme for this dialogue opener was Fairtrade which handed me multiple perspectives to work out of creatively.

Envision the visual, musical and internal trip that staging a fashion show inside a huge church means. That vision gave me the chills and appealed to me in a way few other assignments do. Image how charged you would be with house music pounding in that acoustic atmosphere surrounding you and the crucifix. Instead of the general organ sound you’d connect with that space. On top of that the fact that fashion has had no place in church and the intellectual aspect that the church let this happen. This triggered me in a big way.

God Loves Fashion Too. The deal here for me I decided was to develop the brief of fairtrade eco garments on the catwalk into a wider perspective on the matter of fashion and fairtrade. The audience at this event is often waved off as young and ignorant, regarded as outside the fashion consumer circle. Big mistake. This is the next consumer group gearing up towards adult life. They should be highest priority when it comes to the ambition to influence and affect values and consumer behaviour.

Therefore I chose to give them inspiration from different angles. The show needed to be relevant and specifically aimed at them. My main angles became that you can take care of our world through consuming already consumed garments, buy quality and invest in fewer garments, consume less quantity by styling one garment in various ways, reuse materials in our surroundings that at first look don’t make you think of fashion like paper or plastic bags and be attentive and demanding when it comes to the conditions of production and transport when consuming your fashion.

On the 8^th March the show took place and all I expected to happen happened, and a little more. The audience was raving as if they were at a mad party. Some grown ups gave other reactions that were as surprising, but hey, they were bystanders at this event. I was there to please the 15 year olds and the groundbreaking priests that engaged me for the job and they were thrilled. So was I. Now give me a mosque please.

Jessica Mittelton
Stylist, fashion show producer and image builder.