Trine Lindegaard SS12

RCA's MA graduate show is undoubtedly one of the most exciting places to discover the fashion stars of the future. Last year, amongst a pulse quickening crop of graduates Trine Lindegaard's eccentric collection dazzled. The young talent drew inspiration from her childhood memories of being surrounded by weird and wonderful eccentrics and collectors when she grew up in Denmark. Her fabric choices of corduroy and waxed cottons along with the silhouettes recalled these rather geeky people, whilst the embellishments echo their collections. Lindegaard’s clothes were colourful with a light-hearted and playful approach to menswear. She used bold embellishment and innovative textile techniques as well as playing with shapes and silhouettes. I was hooked and have kept an interested eye on her development.

Now, 2011 has been some year for Trine Lindegaard. Shortly after graduating the design talent soon started her own own label and has been selling on ASOS since January 2011, collaborated with French textile designer Elisabeth Buecher on Move Me Shirts (which went on sale at the Tate Modern last week) and has now shown as part of Vauxhall Fashion Scout. "As soon as I launched the label I had a strong interest in the brand and ended up selling a lot of pieces from my collection. I was really surprised to discover that it was the most extreme pieces that people wanted. I had to produce everything at the studio, because there was a lot of embellishment which couldn’t be manufactured. This ended up taking a lot of time, and I had to focus on that for a while instead of creating a new collection." The hard work was rewarded the moment she saw men wearing her designs as she confessed "it was great though to see guys wearing these pieces that I initially had made as show pieces and never had expected that anyone would wear on a day-to-day basis. I am glad things turned out this way because I was full of energy when I finally got the time to start making a new collection for Spring/Summer 2012." The wait was well worth it. Having missed out on her well received Vauxhall Fashion debut, the design talent thankfully agreed to talk us through the collection before sharing her spectacular look book...

"I knew from the beginning I wanted to do something very crafty and decorative so my starting point was exploring different techniques and embellishments. For my graduate collection, I covered entire garments in thousands of gold rings or little plastic men and cars, which ended up making the garments very expensive to produce. So it was crucial for me to find much cheaper materials for the decorations. I experimented with a lot of everyday objects from paperclips to scrubbers and in the end I decided to keep it simple and focus on one material and quickly discovered the potential of the elastic bands."

Trine Lindegaard on the starting point for SS12.

"Tons of rubber bands, there is a whole world of rubber band art out there. Once again I was drawn to the geeky kind of individuals who obsessively makes these creatures. I am always interested in people’s stories, and the odder the character the more inspiring I find them." 

Trine Lindegaard on the contents of her mood board.

For SS12 Trine Lindegaard focused on what she does best; exploring new techniques and textile developments. Lindegaard simoly explains the collection as "a playful fun and colourful collection with some sporty elements and of course lots of embellishments." For this collection Lindegaard collaborated with an old English company called Ventile fabrics, who specialise in traditional performance fabrics and have a long history of supplying fabrics for the British army. "They make the most amazing quality fine cotton material which by their special tight weaving technique is 100% waterproof but completely untreated or waxed." It is a celebration of everyday objects. Lindegaard used ordinary elastic bands through out the collection, which she dyed and manipulated in every possible way. Rubber bands were cut, layered and stitched together adding texture and new dimensions to the garments. Colourful rubber fringing and crosses endlessly cover and embellish the collection and even appear as wigs. The rubber band patterns and textures were repeated as digital prints in more subtle versions. It is a bold and bright menswear collection which hints at sportswear. It is captured quite beautifully in the Nicole Maria Winkler shot look book....

Look book credits

Photography by Nicole Maria Winkler, hair and make-up by Nami Yoshida and modelled by Pace Chen

2011 has undoubtedly been an amazing year for Trine Lindegaard but I'm predicting even bigger things for the coming seasons and beyond. No doubt her talent will continue to be nurtured in the spotlight of Vauxhall Fashion Scout but she cannot be too far away from an on schedule slot. I'll leave you with the hopes of the designer herself.  "In 2012 I am hoping to be getting more stores on board. Currently what comes in gets invested in new projects and I am constantly working on other stuff to be able to get a regular income. I am doing a lot of freelancing as well as some teaching, which I actually really like. The goal would be to be able to focus more time on the brand Trine Lindegaard and to also expand the range of Move Me T-shirts. That would be nice."