Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The Moon and Mars

the moon and mars, edinburgh, ravishing mad











I recently delivered the new collection to the boutique The Moon And Mars in Edinburgh and it's now available on their webshop. Half of the garments are unisex, even though they are shot on a girl in this case. I just love their descriptions and the photo shoot I think captures the feeling of the collection perfectly. This kind of shops with a very personal touch is very much what I had in mind when I decided to start Ravishing Mad. I'm so happy and delighted that things are turning out the way I dreamt.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Top notch and right on target, bitch!

It’s about time I gave you an update on Paris fashion week. That was a while ago, but I didn’t really know what to write about when I came back. Now I know, it really doesn’t have to be that complicated. I finally have the chance to use some of those words I’ve collected for some time. It was the shit, mega, uber, and gorgeously wick-ED! Things are starting to happen for me…I think. Oh, and I filmed everywhere I went, hehe (not always appreciated, I’m such a pain when I get a hold of a camera). I’ll post a video next week or so, Mårten, aka my music guru, promised to pimp it for me as soon as he gets back from India.

Ravishing Mad
showed at Rendez Vous Espace Cardin together with Vibe Johansson, Wackerhaus, H. Fredriksson and Study under International Playground. I didn’t really need to be there, IP took care of everything for me, but I thought it’d be a good idea to meet the press and the buyers to get some feedback. We spent the whole days at the fair, the evenings visiting exhibitions and the nights at parties, slept about 3-4 hours every night, OD’ed on coffee and accordingly I got a very high fever the last 24 hours. It was hectic and wonderful. And it changed my whole perception on where I’m going. Wow, I need to go for it…immediately!

The collection is still pretty small and I’ve consciously kept it that way. I had to make sure production would work out and that I’d be able to handle the factory minimums. Also the orders were so small that I had to choose a few styles to produce and I therefore didn’t offer more than 20 styles in each collection.

I started my business in a different way than my peers. Most designers I know didn’t contact factories when they first started out, they sewed by themselves or let local producers and seamstresses help them out. I did the quite opposite and contacted factories all over Europe already from the beginning and made sure to go trough all production mistakes immediately. I aimed to start a brand that would be prepared to grow quickly the day orders would start dropping in. And yes box, am I glad now for having solved that bomb already???!!! It’s starting to pay off. So many buyers have asked me what my production limits are, or if I can handle bigger orders! Man, that’s the least of my problems. Just bring it on, I am so prepared.

Ok, next level. I’m doubling the collection for S/S-11. And the denim: finally approved! I do think my jeans styles are pretty top notch, can I say that? They fit my arse at least, but then again it would be pretty sad if I couldn’t at least make a jean that fit myself well, wouldn’t it? Bla bla bla, never mind my babbling. I hereby announce Ravishing Mad a denim based brand. I looooooooooove to work in that good old fabric and thank you Sirs and Madams, for welcoming me!

Lots of kisses and hugs from a happy Anna

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

To john and yoko

ravishing mad, anna österlund, truls bråhammar, paraphrase john lennon yoko ono, paraphrase, annie leibovitz




















Here is the first out of 10 paraphrases from Ravishing Mad. My husband Truls Bråhammar and I made this poster/video with our dear friends André De Loisted and meconium aka Mårten Charlie Stener Damgaard. I just sent out the press release so I thought I'd just put it up here on the blog too. And yeah, the video that comes along with this photo is on our homepage www.ravishingmad.se or below in the You Tube clip.

The new era of fashion videos
The Swedish fashion designer behind the label Ravishing Mad, Anna Österlund, is announcing a new project called Paraphrase. Ten different interpretations of known photographies will be released in the name of Ravishing Mad, and with each photo comes a video.

First out is a paraphrase of Annie Leibovitz’ photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono for a Rolling Stone magazine cover in 1980. Husband and wife Anna Österlund and Truls Bråhammar, co-owners of Ravishing Mad, have been portrayed in their own home by photographer André De Loisted. A video was made simultaneously to show the process of taking of the photo, and was then edited with music composed by meconium aka Mårten C.S. Damgaard.

Showing you the behind the set photage is our way of telling you what our work really is about. We are just a bunch of artists thattry to make it. And we have fun along the way.

When watching this serie of videos and photographies you are given a glimpse of the entity we are in the beginning of creating. By working with these paraphrases we are allowed to collaborate with friends and artists within photograpy, music and film and the borders between the art forms become blurred. In the middle of that muddle, our world of fashion is revealed.

Ravishing Mad is showing their Autumn/Winter –10 Collection at Rendez Vous Paris (Espace Cardin) 4’th – 9’th of March.

“to john and yoko”
a ravishing mad paraphrase 1/10
photo by andré de loisted www.bildbyran040.se
music by meconium www.illphabetik.com
clothes by ravishing mad
design by anna österlund

Monday, March 1, 2010

Fashion videos

Saturday Ravishing Mad started a new project that I'm so very excited about. We're making paraphrases of 10 different known photographies and each of them comes with a music video of the making. The first one will be released tomorrow I think...We did everything ourselves together with our friends and in this particular one, me and my lover/partner in crime/husband Truls have the leading parts on screen. André is in charge of the camera as always, Mårten has made the music, and Sofia helped with the filming. And we're all certainly wearing Ravishing Mad.
Last week André and I went to check out locations for another of our fashion videos. We found some great garages that might work, and while we were at it, we thought we'd just play around with the camera a bit. We bumped into this metal grid wall and tried out the compact camera together with the big flash.
anna österlund, andré de loistedanna österlund, ravishing mad, andré de loistedanna österlund, ravishing mad, andré de loisted