Spaks
Growing up in Iceland, most homes had a sewing machine, and housewives made clothes for the family; our households were no different. From an early age, we both had a keen interest in fashion and started to experiment with making our own clothes and eventually our own patterns. Perhaps if we’d grown up at a different time, we might not have taken such a heightened interest in fashion, but one could say that our creativity started with a need for garments that we wanted to wear.
Vala learned that pattern-making in Norway and earned a degree from the Icelandic Arts and Crafts College in Textile Design. Bjorg went to Copenhagen to study fashion design at the Mode and Design School.
We believe that orginality and fearlessness are two key factors to successful design. We feel that currently many designers in the fashion world are afraid of stepping outside the box and affecting their bottom line. Without the risk-takers, design becomes muted and other designers settle into the role of “follower” rather than “leader”… that’s when things start to look the same. We think that fashion designers really need to believe in the power of individuality and that’s something we pride ourselves on.
We’re inspired by our surroundings, the colours and textures of the Icelandic environment, and of course the people.
Our goal is to design classic utillitarian, yet beautiful and unique clothes that can be worn for years, rather than trend-based pieces. Our items not only work well together, but can also be used in a mulititude of ways. You can dissect a garment into many pieces and piece it back together for a completely different yet cohesive look.
The concept of “reformatting” our clothes allows for the adaption of the wearer’s individual style for different occasions, an idea that we have used from the inception of the brand. We are extremely conscious of the amount of energy used in garment production. One of our main aims is to lessen our eco-footprint by using high-quality textiles; we’re able to do this because we don’t mass-produce and we don’t follow the international fashion game of designing for seasons. For us, it’s about quality, not quantity.
