Trine Lindegaard is one of the talented young fashion designers of the new London scene, her unique vision of men's sportswear and great sense of humor is reflected in each of her inventive and colorful collections.
Born in Odense, Denmark, Trine studied industry pattern cutting and manufacturing at Istituto Secoli Carlo in Milan. After that she moved to London to study at Middlesex University in London first and at Royal College of Art later, where she got her MA in Menswear in 2010. Soon she decided to create her own menswear brand and one year later she was selling at ASOS. Besides that, she created together with the textile designer Elisabeth Buecher a collection of t-shirts called Move Me Shirts, again with her playful and colorful touch.
Her Fall/Winter collection is more sober but equally colorful. This time she uses hand painted prints, fleeing the ubiquitous digital methods today. Again she shows skills on a plastic collection where color and texture are the protagonists.
How did you decide to design menswear?
I got bored of doing womenswear. I started making clothes from an early age and at some point I needed a challenge. When I was doing womenswear I would always design garment that I would wear myself and by swapping to menswear I got a different approach to the design process. I enjoy the restrictions of menswear; you are more limited. I find it very exciting to work within these boundaries.
How is your creative process? What inspires you?
I am always working with new materials and techniques. I often use materials and objects that aren’t necessarily related to clothing. For example for Spring/Summer 2012 all the clothes were embellished with ordinary rubber bands, which I manipulated and dyed.
How was working with this material?
Quite randomly. In England we get the post delivered with a rubber band holding it all together. And I started noticing all these rubber bands laying around on my street and thought maybe I could do something with them. I ended up buying 50 kilos of rubber bands, which I used throughout the collection. I played around with them a lot and discovered different ways of dying them to create a different texture.
Tell us about your Fall/Winter 2012-2013 collection, what was your inspiration?
I wanted to create something that was easy to wear with less embellishments than my previous collections, but still keep some of the crafty elements. Everyone is doing digital prints at the moments so I also wanted to stay away from that. I ended up hand painting fine silks to create texture on a flat surface. The inspiration for the collection came from studying old photographs from the 60’s that captured the freeness of child’s play, with children dressing up as classic childhood characters. I also used the backdrop and landscape of the great American desert as inspiration to create the color palette that runs throughout the collection – dusty pinks, mustards, emeralds and sky blues, are recreating the innocence of the child’s universe whilst keeping a dreamlike mood.
The colorful palette is always present in your work and in this collection you use hand painted garments, how did you create them?
First I painted the fabrics by hand, and while still wet I ironed them dry, with a very hot iron this left the fabric feeling very stiff and almost paper like. I then bound/fused it onto foam to create a light material that still had the thickness required for autumn/winter. I then waterproofed the material by waxing them.
This collection seems to be for a matured but cheerful man, do you think the man you have been designing for has changed? Who is headed your brand?
Slightly, maybe. I am always trying to keep the balance of creating something interesting and yet wearable. I like your description of a matured but cheerful man.
Are you planning to explore any particular material in your future works?
I am working with weavers from little villages in Ghana and the Ivory Coast at the moment. Their fabrics are amazing and really colorful. There has been a lot of African prints around the last couple of seasons, but mainly digitally printed. For me it is really important to show and appreciate the craftsmanship that has been handled down for generations. And most importantly support the people who came up with these amazing patterns. In contrast to the African fabrics I am also using a lot of sporty and technical fabrics, which I am ones again dying into strong colors.
What are you doing next?
I have a few exciting freelance projects and collaboration lined up. I really enjoy doing these kind of projects at the moment. It is nice not to be creating something all on my own for a change.
A dream, a goal for the near future.
To be able to focus on just one project for a longer time, or maybe I would get bored.
