Stairwell snap shots

This is my stairwell and my brother in law, Erik. He lives in Oslo. But since he is home for Christmas I just had to shoot some pictures of him in his brand new pair of Ravishing Mad Marv drop crotch jeans. You look gorgeous!!!

Just now

Listening to The Cure, sewing a power dress...

Buhu!

It's snowing and snowing and snowing...We were supposed to do a small photo shoot today and had to postpone it because of the weather!!!! We simply couldn't get to the location. What an anti-climax! And on top of it all the production is delayed because of the bad weather in central Europe. The last thing I heard was that the denim garments couldn't reach the washing mill in Romania because of the snow chaos. What a mess! There is only one road between the mills and we are of course not the only company that this has happened to. They are very good at sending updates on the situation though, so at least I know what's happening.

So instead of getting to see some fantastic behind the set pics today, this is what you got! Nothing.

I love you, I love you, I love you!

"Every Thursday, FADER style assistant Alex Frank asks employees and employers at our favorite shops around the world what their most cherished in-store item is at that exact moment. This week, we caught up with New York’s International Playground.

Johnny Pizzolato & Virginia Craddock, International Playground, New York. We normally go mad for all the sequins and shiny things in our shop, but our truly favorite thing in the shop at the moment are simple, but amazing Ravishing Mad Jeans. The high waist skinny jeans and the more loose fit Marv jeans are both unisexy, fresh and flattering. They feel like a fashion jean with Swedish influence without being too over the top. The designer Anna Osterlund, is beyond beautiful and wickedly charming, and the line itself is timeless, season-less and so Brit punk rock. Besides, the curved waistline on the skinny jean just makes you look, well, skinny."
Read the article at FADER

Those jolly words

I collect words. I don’t know when it all begun, but I find myself thinking of them every now and then. How did you fancy the little word “humbug” that I throw in yesterday? It just sounds so funny, and it could make just anyone look up. Then there is the word “villain”. I just feel sorry for the crook that would ever be referred to as a villain. Straight out from a comic book. Poor thing, who would ever take him seriously or be as afraid of him as he would have wanted?

But then there are the really cruel ones like “conformity”. That’s scary, and even scarier is “the army of conformity”. Please don’t ever let me become their victim...! And there is more: “suppress the dissident”. Isn’t that what the army of conformity does? All those sssses makes it sound like it’s said by snake in Robin Hood.

I sometimes name the garments in my collections after those lovely words. I give them a personality and decide what their characters are up to. The big pocket villain is one of my favourites. She wears black pants disguised in the few lights of the night when everyone else is asleep. She sneaks around stealing whatever she can get and stuffs her big pockets into a jodphur silhouette.

"Marv", the nihilist hero, he actually is a person more than just a word. I dedicated a pair of jeans to this lead character of Frank Millers comic yarns about Sin City. Marv is personifying the film noir genre, a hard-boiled fighter with a heart of gold. I decided that he needed a pair of combat inspired jeans with built in knees and a loose crotch, not to interfere with his movements during fight. His silhouette had to be wicked to make him look cool enough. The ankle width was made slim to make it look like the jeans were tucked into his combat boots. Last but not least, the waistband was made higher on the sides just in case he would need a place to fasten his suspenders.

The impostor's syndrom

I get thrilled every time somebody writes to me and tell me they just discovered Ravishing Mad. Really happy, dancing around, laughing out loud!!! And I'm not famous enough yet to get any negative comments, hehe...but yet I live under the constant worry that I'm not doing well enough or that I'll be seen through as a humbug. You know, I don't know what I'm doing...I'm just doing. A little here and a little there, let's make that crotch drop a bit more and let's add a bow tie.

If I would have measured my success in money, I would have had to quit long time ago so that's not fair. So how do I know if I'm on the right track???

I know it's a bit foney, but I check the statistics on my homepage VERY often, call it an obsession if you will. The amount of visitors has steadily been around a thousand every month and it's all good.

But then I raise my eyebrow...I must have a smaller crowd that follows me in Niue! I am totally excited but have no idea what that means!!! Niue is a 269 km² island nation in the South Pacific Ocean. Its three priority economic sectors are Fisheries, Agriculture and Tourism and listen to this: inhabitants: 1600 people. Niue stands for around 1 % of the visitors and I'm dying of curiosity! Who are you???

I salute you Niue!!!

BASSO

Ok, you can almost only see the waistband, but still...! This pic is from the Finnish magazine Basso and they got my jeans from International Playground in NYC.
International Playground just opened a web shop filled with stuff from Ravishing Mad, Vibe Johansson, Wackerhaus, H. Fredriksson, Cut-it-out, and Chromat.

December pop up store in NYC

Our NYC agent International Playground is proud to announce the opening of HOLIDAY! -- an innovative concept shop bringing together some of the most exciting emerging and established international designers and celebrating the many traditions and holidays December brings.

December 1st-22nd,
186 Orchard (between Houston and Stanton, NYC)
Opens Dec 1st at 5 pm with ceremony at 8 pm

Opening hours:
Sundays to Wednesdays 12pm-10pm
Thursdays-Saturdays 12PM-12AM

Participants include Ravishing Mad (Sweden), Vibe Johansson (Denmark), Yarimaki (UK via Hungary), Wackerhaus (Denmark), Fjällräven (Sweden), CUT-IT-OUT (NYC via Moscow), Liz Collins (NYC), Claw Money (NYC), DLC Brooklyn (NYC), Study (NYC), Charlene Foster (NYC), Uluru (NYC), Chromat (VA), Recession Rags (NYC), Innocence and Arsenik (NYC), Nathan Thomas (NYC), Nest (VA), People Spaces Things (NYC), Hooker DB (NYC), H. Fredriksson (NYC via Sweden), and more from established New York favorites!

WELCOME!!!!!!!

Factory Girl

Soooo, there has been a while...but I'm back now! A while ago I visited the factory that produced my black and white striped jackets for the Berlin store Flex-Fashion-Interior. I received a mid season order and of course I didn't want to turn that down. To get a short lead time, I went to a local factory in Borås and I thought I'd treat you with a few pictures from my visit.

Here is what happens in a sewing factory: The fabric is spread in layers and then you cut.......with this hard core band knife.
Hang the cut parts in the clips, and fill the little bags with accessories like buttons and labels.
Off you go!
Your stuff is brought to the right machine on the rail in the ceiling.
When you have sewn what you need, attach the half made garment to the clip again, and send it off to the next machine.
This is an overlock machine, you know the one with all the threads that you find in jersey t-shirts for example.
And this is a one-needle machine, extra strong.
And here I am totally alone at Alvesta train station with an hour to kill. The timer function on my camera is so much fun!

New pics

I did a photo shoot a few weeks ago with photographer Magnus Österhult and models Ida Kyllerman and Simon Brentén. Here is parts of the result! It looks like they want to kill us, he he. We had so much fun over Simon's gaze. You crazy boy, I love it!

Most of the clothes on these pics will be out in stores and in our webshop soon...! I'm going to deliver the striped military inspired jacket to the boutique Flex-Fashion-Interior in Berlin in the beginning of November...and a German magazine is right now borrowing the same jacket for a shoot next week :-)

The rest of the garments you see on the these particular pictures will be sold in stores in Tokyo, New York and Edinburgh from January on.

Oh, I visited a factory last week and took lots and lots of pictures. I thought it might be fun for you guys to see some machine porn! I love the mechanic look of machines and I'll show you as soon as I have uploaded the photos!

take care xoxo Anna

Party Party

This pic is shot by photographer Maxime Ballisteros in Berlin. Recognize the top?

Please, won't you love me a bit more?

First of all I'll just give you this sneak peak from Spring/Summer-10. Will this be a bestseller? People pretend to like it anyway...well, I like it.

I am definitely an evening person and I dread for tomorrow morning! My train leaves the Central Station at 07.14 for Borås, the textile Mekka of Sweden. I have appointments with a couple of fabric agents and a sewing facory that hopefully will be able to help me with sampling. I'll bring the camera!

I've been at home not working for a while now and I'm booooored...and behind schedule! I don't have the time to get ill, and for that same reason I have ended up right where I am at the moment. These first couple of years with RM is a PAIN! I long for the day when I can afford a staff. Please, everyone out there, won't you love me a bit more? Or just give me a fucking chance!

Anyway, I'm feeling better now and I'm ready to get down to business!!! Yesterday I got an update from New York and was told that a couple of stores now have confirmed their orders for the upcoming Spring/Summer. On top of it all I just received a lovely e-mail from Wesley at Made From Plastic who loves my designs! Thanks W, you made my day!

The Johns

Hey, look what I found on Facebook! My dearest John Pizzolato (3'rd from the left) is wearing Ravishing Mad from head to toe! You look gorgeous, baby! This is the disco punk band The Johns and the pic is shot by Jeff Yiu right after their recent show at Lower East Side of NY.

Behind the set

I got together with photographer Magnus Österhult and models Simon Brentén and Ida Kyllerman today to have a god time and to shoot some photos. It all took place in Malmö at an old printing factory and I'll show you the result soon! In the meentime I'll give you this:

Ravmad street style

Check out this picture that I found on Facehunter! She is wearing our High rise jean with the RM Shellie shirt and I think the whole outfit looks gorgeous together with the shoes from Juan Antonio Lopez.

New York Fashion Week

Our agents and saviours, Johnny and Virginia, at International Playground are showing the S/S-10 collection at Rendez-vous during New York Fashion Week this weekend!!!

And if you want to be the first in the US get a hold of our blue jeans, you just have to get in touch with them. They are just starting a shop in NY and got their first jeans delivery just a few days ago!

Please visit our homepage to get more information on Rendez-Vous and how to book an appointment with International Playground.

Party in mind

This weekend was amazing. My dear friend Hanna Hedman brought her friends and stayed with us over the weekend. Saturday night we went to Rust Din Røv at Rusk in Copenhagen, where my friend Johannes with JoJo DJ team played with Carsten Holm. It was pretty fantastic...dance, dance, dance and something in between rock, electro blip blop, Rage Against the Machine, and some oldies. On Sunday, after just a few hours of sleep, we dragged ourselves to Malmö Konsthall to have jazz brunch and to take a look at the Sonic Youth exhibition. We got to record a single with reversed Caraoke, where I played the drums. Too bad none of us could play...hmmm, it sounded pretty experimental...I have to get a hold of that cd, so I can play it for you. In the meantime I'll just show you a pic from the tired, but yet joyful ;-) brunch.We're thinking of doing something in Berlin soon...A party with great music, great people and fashion...I'll definetly keep you updated! I love mixing fashion with other art forms and this will definitely be something independent and outside of fashion week.

I'm meeting the photographer Magnus Österhult tomorrow to talk about it. We're going to do a photo shoot next week with mixed RM stuff in this old printing factory just to get some nice pics together. He's going to Berlin too, and right now we're talking to a whole lot of people to get it all together. I have a special band, that I just love, in mind. And I hope they like us too ;-)

see you soon!

Something to brag about

Hi there,
Today I feel like doing some bragging...might be because I have dirty hair, the trucker suit on and those old slippers that always seem to manically attract all the little threads from the floor.

Sooo...what is there to brag about? Listen to this one: I was recognized as "Reinventor of denim" by fashion editor Alberto Caselli at the Italian fashion magazine Collezioni Sport and Street during Berlin Fashion Week in January 2009. (I have to bring these old stuff into the bragging or else there won't be much...please be a little forgiving.) But anyway, it resulted in this four page mono brand feature (in issue no 52) of Ravishing Mad that I got to style as I wished:


I covered this wall with some of my sketches at a gallery in Berlin in April and I liked it:
I trimmed the left side of my head the other day and it looks good. Well, maybe not perfect, but I did it before the weekend, so it's not completely fresh:
It is perhaps questionalble if the background of the last pic belongs to the bragging section, but with this one I simply had to choose which part of the photo to be happy about.

Visitors on the homepage!

Listen to this: I just found out that we had a function on our homepage that counts the amount of visitors we get each day! Me and computers are a hopeless match, so this is completely new to me!!! I can't see who you are though, but I do know that around 1000 people visit us each month, isn't that amazing?!!! And I thought no one cared about Ravishing Mad...You are going to get soooo many updates from now on, and I just love you all!!!

xoxo Anna

Meeting the customers

Yesterday was a crazy day! We woke up early after a wild night party at my friends wedding and loaded the car with boxes filled with clothes for the outlet.

One year ago, when the first collection from Ravishing Mad was released, we over produced some of the garments of the collection. It's so hard for a new label to get buyers and to be discovered... so in order to get the stuff out there, it's usual to sell on consignment in the beginning. The down side to it is that some shops tend to ask for a lot more than they can actually sell and we didn't know that. So now we had a stock of clothes from last Autumn that we needed to get rid of. Consignment is hopeless unless the shop uses it to try out a new brand and has the intention to buy if everything work out well. The stuff we had was fortunately pretty timeless, so we can continue the outlet on our web shop that is opening very soon.

It was especially nice to meet the customers! Surprisingly the the ladies liked the big pocket jeans more than the girls, and the men and the children tended to like our prints more than the women. I remember this boy of maybe 7, that kept asking his mother to buy him the black and white striped top from a/w-08 because he wanted it for his soccer practice. There were quite some guys that fell in love with the jeans and I'm delighted that this beautiful boy bought the last piece of the oversize knitted blue sweater!

Tomorrow is the preview fabric fair in Copenhagen and I'm going there together with Nette from the label Lagom.

Home from Sthlm.

Preview fabric fair in Stockholm this week. Found lots of good denim and knitted fabrics for Autumn/Winter-10. Now weekend...which in this particular case means that we might bump in to each other. Outlet on Sunday in Malmö on S:t Knuts Torg where we have rented a space for the day at Stajl by Malmö. Old collections, samples and lots of jeans and cash is king! I can promise you VERY good prices! Opening hours are 12 am to 8 pm.

xo Anna

Wild mood swings

What a fabulous life I live!!! I know I was down a bit today, but I got right up again. And that's that about that!

I spent the evening volunteering at the Victoria Theatre serving film people wine at the 20'th Century Fox's Midsummer theme evening. Everyone was cheerful and jolly (always wanted to use that word but I never seem to say it as spontaneous as those who get it right). The quote of the night was when I answered one of the guest that the snaps was finnished. A few minutes later I realized that he was the producer of the film of the evening (we had especially saved a few snaps for him and his crew since they were arriving late). I turned to him and said: -Sorry, I didn't quite understand that you were acutally you! And he answered with a laughter (and a hint of embarrasment): -Oh, I don't understand that half of the time either!

Humbleness within stardom makes me smile! So after a very successful evening with fantastic people, my temper is for the moment plesant and let's see what happens tomorrow!

Cleaner, but not clean

I'm trying to find a ticket to Stockholm...and the stupid last minute auction didn't have any tickets for tomorrow! I'm going to work it out somehow. I have booked some meetings in Stockholm this week to see new fabrics for A/W-10.
I'm in the middle of my twice a year swinging mood disorder that always occurs when I'm about to create a new collection. What a PAIN! I don't believe I'm av very pleasant person at the moment. At least we cleaned up the working space yesterday in a vein effort to please my heavy mood. Parts of the floor is actually visible now, which is a humongous step forward.

Who are you?

I always wonder who is wearing Ravishing Mad....Who are you? I received this photo from Matthias in Berlin yesterday and I think he looks great! If you have a Ravishing Mad garment, you are more than welcome to send me some pics and comments!

"First it was a little odd to wear them but now its one of my favorite" Matthias, Berlin

Extra tank top for S/S-10

I wore this tank top from the S/S-09 collection during Copenhagen Fashion Week and received some nice comments. So I decided to just add it to S/S-10, never mind that it didn't make it to the catalog!

You just wait and see!

So...I decided to start a brand. It wasn't the easiest way to go, but I did it. Two years later I suddenly felt the urge to tell you about it. I want to tell you the naked truth about it all and just skip that happy shiny facade that is so easy to put on. I am most of the time happy, but sometimes destroyed, and I do take the time to have a few moments of bitterness too. Nothing to brag about, but I promised the truth, didn't I?
I decided to write in English, which (obviously) isn't my mother tongue. But you see, no one really cares about me here in Sweden. Here I'm just one in a million...-If you're a Swede, start a brand! Sounds like a tautology!
But I will be someone to remember, you just wait and see!

xoxo Anna

Rebekka Maria

The Danish artist Rebekka Maria fell in love with our big pocket jeans from the upcoming A/W-09 collection! Of course we wanted her to have a pair and she got them just in time for the MTV party in Copenhagen.

We just got her new record and it is so good, I dance to it almost every day!!!!

Jeans delivery to Vibskov

It's wonderful that so many of you love our jeans and I want to thank you for all the nice e-mails :-) You make me so happy!!! Marv and High rise will stay with us for many seasons and we'll add new colours as we go along.
Here is a list of shops that stock the High Rise women´s jeans and Marv men´s jeans:

Henrik Vibskov boutique in Copenhagen, Denmark
What about the Future? in Vienna, Austria
Bespoke Boutique in Norwich, UK

xoxo Anna