In another life, I used to love drawing and art class. However, I feel like I'd have to quite thoroughly brush up on my sketching skills before I even thought of attempting to be a designer. I am very impressed by designers who can convey the feeling of a piece and a collection with a few strokes of a pen or brush, and these sketches from Anna Österlund do just that. As do these words from Anna on the next Ravishing Mad collection:
This collection is all about going back to the core of my work, and become more true to myself. I used to do darker stuff before, but have recently felt that I lost parts of that, not listening enough to myself. It feels like a huge relief and like I can finally breathe again. My work now evolves around embracing the darkness that I have within and not putting on a happy face. I believe in letting those emotions out, even if some might be frightening, instead of suppressing them. I wrote on one of the sketches:
"I'll show you the darkness
Don't crawl and hide in dreams
Edges soiled
Don't hide in dreams of flesh and blood
Let it disintegrate
Scratch it, burn it, lick it, need it"
I want to take you to that secret place and show you how special it is. Those words that I wrote explains it so well and became almost like a manifesto. I've almost only been inspired by music and have been listening non stop to the Pornography album by The Cure, and Crime and Punishment by No Privacy. I know, Pornography has the reputation to being on of the most depressing album ever, but to me it's the quite opposite. I really want you to know that this is not about being depressed or sad, it's about embracing all feelings and thoughts and refuse to pretend. It's about living in true moods and seeing the strength in that.
...soon there will be a collection filled with this beautiful darkness. It's just reality.
