Suddenly she was there

Japke van Uffelen writes about the sudden appearance of Ann-Sofie Back Atelje.

Suddenly she was there. Suddenly her collection was there. Like she had never shown a collection before, like she had just begun designing. Why did it took us so long to notice her?

Have we been diverting our eyes, did we not want to see her work before? Is it because her clothes look simple at first? She rarely uses colours other than black, white, or similar: did her collection go unnoticed before because of the absence of colour? Or is it, in fact, this simplicity that suddenly pulled us to her work?

Nonetheless: her seemingly simple designs are in fact far from simple. Did we suddenly notice her because we started looking at her work more closely and noticed all of the details? Details that could tell us more about her? And what do they want to explain to us? Her thoughts, her vision, something about her personality, her outlook on the world, or even more? Is this the reason for her sudden appearance?

Or is the sudden fashion rise of Sweden responsible?

We can only guess what the reasons are for her recent visibility. Maybe it was just a combination of the right time, place and people.
But what we know for sure, is that we are not nearly finished solving the mystery of Ann-Sophie Back Atelje.

Fashion fanatic Japke van Uffelen is a Language and Culture student from Utrecht.