In fashion today, there’s a hunger for designs that elicit excitement, challenge the status quo or embody a sense of play. Even perversion. A pair of lace underwear tacked onto a pencil skirt, for example, a bouquet of roses encased inside a tulle gown, or outsized outerwear that turns the wearer into a real-life paper doll. This ethos is embodied in the work of Ann-Sofie Back, one of Sweden’s most influential fashion designers, who’s known for exploring status, class, shame and beauty standards through subversive design. She was ahead of her time, and as such her collections are as relevant today as they were ten to 20 years ago. Luckily, the public can now dive into her rich archive through a new book and exhibition called ‘Go As You Please – Ann-Sofie Back 1998-2018’, on view at Liljevalchs in Stockholm.
Back was always fascinated with fashion as a tool of self-expression; particularly, its ability to project certain characteristics about oneself to the world. In the sleepy Stockholm suburb of Stenhamra, her parents paid this no mind, which only piqued her interest further. ‘I discovered at a very early age that the main reason my parents were not accepted socially was because of their dress, their complete disregard for how others perceived them and the way this really made life harder for them,’ Back wrote in reference to her A/W 2005 collection ‘Dress for Success!’. ‘It mortified me and made me ashamed of them. I think this experience is what made me become a designer. Fashion and shame have always been linked for me.’
