Latest news with #Borås
Forbes
4 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Ellen Hodakova Larsson Relives Journey From Swedish School Of Textiles
PARIS, FRANCE - MARCH 06: Fashion designer Ellen Hodakova walks the runway during the Hodakova Ready to Wear Fall/Winter 2025-2026 fashion show as part of the Paris Fashion Week on March 6, 2025 in Paris, France. (Photo by Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images) Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images In April of 2025, on the 23rd, The Swedish School of Textiles [SST] unveiled their rendition of the United Nations tour guide uniforms, designed with Swedish shirt maker Eton, a design collaboration between SST and the UN, designed by a handful of graduation students. The uniforms were presented in New York at the UN headquarters, marking a national achievement for the country of Sweden and its design acumen as a whole, representing fashion through functionality, sustainability, and fashion innovation, producing the next generation of design talent. A redesigned uniform for the United Nations tour guides at its New York Headquarters, created by students from the Swedish School of Textiles at the University of Borås. agaton strom More recently, on May 27, 2025, the Swedish School of Textiles, located in the city of Borås presented its Textile & Fashion Future celebration and forum, which included honoring the Bachelor's in Fine Arts and Master's in Fine Arts programs for graduating students. The EXIT25 runway show, named by former alum for their departure from studies to application in the real world. Featuring 17 student collections who showcased the Textile design and Fashion design program output, students' sartorial perspectives, exploring themes of identity, memories, and imperfection were defined by each graduate's design and culture of aesthetics. Zuzana Vrabelova; The project speculates on garments as beings or organisms - structures that emerge independently of the human body, yet engage with it. Using experimental knitting techniques and unusual materials like paper yarn, the pieces take on organic, animal-like, or botanical forms. The focus is on the material life of the garment itself and the intuitive, evolving process of making. Some works reference historical clothing, but these references become distorted and blurred through the act of creation. Courtesy of Swedish School of Textiles The collections featured BFA and MFA students, including Zuzana Vrabel 'Ova, Andrea Rehbein, Yuting Xia, Matilda Olofsson, Gabriela Arias Egana, My Willaume, Jonas Gustavsson, Frida Elise Henriksen, Susanna Soujanen, Margot Leverrier, Wictor Ljunggren, Siri Bratt, Lan Krebs, Anîas Dahl Perret, Josephine Jarlhem, Charlie Malmsten, and Pawel Robuta. Supported by Swedish entrepreneur and investor Paul Frankenius and his epitomes Foundation Stipendium, the phenomenal designs and creations revealed on the runway, students were awarded for their innovative approaches to fashion design. Andrea Rehbein; The Project proposes garments as an intimate field in which to explore the liminal boundaries connecting subjects, bodies, and space. Abstract, sculptural forms emerge from engraved cut leather, generating unexpected shapes beyond the designer ́s control. These volumes are traced and transplanted into archetypical garments through experimental pattern drafting techniques. The sensitivity of pattern drafting —where even minor changes reshape the whole— leads to ongoing iterations that alter both the garment and its relationship to the body. The focus is on the process of making: from deadstock materials to an abstract anatomy in a continuous state of becoming. Courtesy of Swedish School of Textiles The University of Fashion & Textiles award ceremony honored five graduate students from the Swedish School of Textiles. Recipient winners were Jonas Gustavsson, Zuzana Vrabelov, Kristian Falden, Ida Romme, and Wictor Ljunggren, recognized for their creativity and innovation. Each student inherently aims to fill the fashion gamut with their design perspective, finding circular process, defying textile material bounds, and aspires to have their unique voice reverb throughout the industry representing the Swedish design aura and legacy. PARIS, FRANCE - MARCH 21: Ellen Hodakova Larsson poses with her work during 'Liminal Objects' Preview at Maison du Danemark on March 21, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Foc Kan/WireImage) WireImage From being a student herself, to visionary designer crafting circular processes for designing avant-garde collections, the Swedish School of Textiles alum, Ellen Hodakova Larsson, recent LVMH Prize 2023 winner, revisited her design journey in conversation with editor Albam Adam, during the Textile & Fashion Future forum. Returning to her alma mater SST, she provided an in-real-life example of how each student can impact fashion through this institution's radical approach to fashion education. Gabriela Arias Egaña; This collection is an attempt of comprehension and idealization: How can diasporic identities from conflicting cultural origins be manifested in contemporary contexts to stay relevant. Courtesy of Swedish School of Textiles 'You never mention sustainability in interviews?' Adams asked during the public conversation with the Hodakova founder and creative director. 'It's not just a buzzword,' Larsson laments. 'It has to be at the core of a brand. Embrace it as a practice, making it the new normal that shapes every conversation and action.' Wictor Ljunggren; Cinched In-Functional Silhouettes; This degree project investigates transformable garments using cord systems, drawing inspiration from the functional design of hiking garments and elastic cords with stoppers. Aiming to revalue cord systems by proposing adjustable garments that can shift in silhouette and functionality, in alignment with the kinaesthetic structure of the human body. Courtesy of Swedish School of Textiles Larsson's rise to the fashion echelons has been meteoric in that she has defined a novel silhouette in fashion through unconventional means. Deconstructed, upcycled, architecturally crafted garments have put her on the path to sartorial royalty while grounding her talent in meaningful, intentional, conscious design. MY WILLAUME, BA FASHION; Assemblage: Pistacia A series of peeled layers This project positions itself as a quiet form of activism in creating 'something out of nothing', challenging the accelerating pace of the fashion industry by advocating for slowness, material intimacy, and the value of making by hand. The exploration phase insists on the relevance of tactile processes by applying the philosophies of –knowing through making– and using time as a design component. Courtesy of Swedish School of Textiles Conversing with Alban Adam in the studios where she first learned to dissect garments, Hodakova reminisced, "I started textiles in 2016, and it was the best time. It gave me the force to believe in my visions. Before that, I studied sculpture, but I was more interested in sculpting on the body than in abstract forms." Matilda Olofsson; This project focuses on the construction of bridalwear and challenges traditional silhouettes. Instead of centring design around the torso, it explores how volume and cuts can be distributed across the body to create new expressions. Through research into historical and contemporary bridalwear, common cuts and forms are identified and reinterpreted through experimental construction techniques. The result is a collection of five bridal garments that redefine the silhouette by shifting volume and altering garment architecture. While retaining recognisable bridal elements such as white tones, the designs offer a forward-thinking approach that balances innovation with tradition. Courtesy of Swedish School of Textiles Her education became the foundation for her signature approach. Hodakova and Larsson blend conceptual thinking and hands-on craftsmanship, attracting the likes of celebrity style influencers like Kylie Jenner and Cate Blanchett. She recalls, "I learned to dissect garments - understanding their construction, from maximalist shapes to the tiniest details. That combination of technical skill and artistic vision shaped my work." HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 06: Cate Blanchett attends the "Borderlands" Los Angeles Fan Event at TCL Chinese Theatre on August 06, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Photo byfor Lionsgate) Getty Images for Lionsgate Larsson's unconventional path was recounted in her description of her post-graduation hustle. Partaking in the random styling gigs, set design work, and the pivotal DIY video that landed on Vogue Runway, these efforts spawned her blossoming era. "That video ended up on Vogue Runway and sparked a lot of interest. The belt bag was a turning point—a product between art and fashion that led to meeting investors." Lan Krebs; JERSEY DIVERSITY; reinventing application of single jersey material Jersey is often perceived as a simple, plain fabric, functional and modest in its appearance. This work challenges that assumption by transforming jersey into a dynamic material language. Using machine-made tubular knits, I explored the potential of layering, wrapping and sculpting fabric directly on the body without imposing rigid definitions of what a garment should be. Courtesy of Swedish School of Textiles 'The belt bag crystallized the brand. It was a clear product between art and fashion, and it helped me meet investors,' she notes. She described working with men's wardrobe to the delight of the SST graduating class presenting their EXIT25 collections. She mentioned, "I was deep-diving into the men's wardrobe because those pieces had more material to play with. Dissecting and reshaping them became the foundation." Susanna Suojanen; TRANSLATING WARDROBES; Exploring dimension altering sewing techniques in upcycling post-consumer garments. Translating Wardrobes is a study of transformation, of how worn garments can be reshaped into something entirely new. Through draping and sewing techniques that shift structure and silhouette, the collection explores how clothing can move beyond its original form and meaning. At its core lies a fascination with the dialogue between form and texture, and how their encounter can dissolve the familiarity of a garment and invite a reimagined identity to emerge. Courtesy of Swedish School of Textiles Winning the LVMH Prize in 2023 has launched Hodakova into the global spotlight with designs that remain defiant and unique. As luxury brands operate to mass produce, Larsson embraces scarcity and slow fashion creation. "We can't just push a button and make a thousand pieces,' Larsson said. 'Our garments take time—they carry a history, a soul. That's what makes them valuable." JONAS GUSTAVSSON; MFA FASHION DESIGN; ASTRAL PROJECT; Addressing alternative perspective on gender, knitting and dress This collection explores gender beyond binary limits, reimagining identity through knitwear as both material and metaphor. Drawing inspiration from Charles Fourier's vision of a third gender—and its echoes in global spiritual traditions—the work challenges traditional constructs by centering the abstract body and the being within. Courtesy of Swedish School of Textiles The Hodakova process goes from sourcing deadstock fabrics, vintage garments, and discarded materials, to transforming materials into high-fashion statement pieces. "I'm not capitalizing on 'sustainability',' she remarks. 'It's just how I work. Recontextualizing materials change their value from nothing to something extraordinary." Paweł Robuta - Master in Fashion Design 2025; Liquid Relics; Staining as a form to explore body relations in fashion design Liquid Relics is a collection of nine experimental draped silhouettes exploring the concept of the stain. Stains, often seen as marks of guilt or imperfection, are reimagined here as symbols of presence, intimacy, and transformation. Bodily fluids, typically the source of stains, can elevate garments to artifacts - like the Shroud of Turin - imbued with reverence. In this project, destruction is seen as creation; stains become a beginning, not an end. Courtesy of Swedish School of Textiles Without diluting her vision for marketability, she flips the idea of sustainability's inability to market itself to mass markets, Hodakova is setting a new trend. She divulges, "There's always an easier path, but I choose the hard one because it gives purpose. The industry needs change, and I believe in doing things differently." Anaïs Dahl Perret; Morphogenesis in Motion; Shaping Transformable Fashion through Modularity, Circularity, and Connection This project reimagines garments as living systems. Inspired by cellular behavior, the collection uses knit and laser-cut techniques to create modular, transformable garments adaptable to individual needs and tastes. Each textile module, connected via drawstrings, enables users to personalize, reshape, and disassemble the pieces, fostering emotional durability and supporting circular design. Courtesy of Swedish School of Textiles "The demand has grown, but we won't scale artificially. Our pieces are about time, thought, and reinvention. Not endless growth." Currently employing a small, yet, dedicated team, Hodakova teeters between creativity and business, calling her method "controlled chaos." Wictor Ljunggren's design details. Courtesy of Swedish School of Textiles She concluded, "Building something from scratch means understanding every part; the mistakes, flexibility, and knowing when to scale. It's about staying true to the vision." While Hodkova explores material experimentation, inspiring the SST students to do similarly in the blurring of art and fashion boundaries, Larsson left a lasting note for novel design, and the fashion-hungry listeners, "Luxury isn't about logos. It's about what you do with the materials, and the stories they carry." Hodkova is one of many designers who have traversed the walls of The Swedish School of Textiles and has shown what limits can be reached, in efforts to create further bounds for creativity and impactful, circular design.
WIRED
29-05-2025
- General
- WIRED
A Swedish MMA Tournament Spotlights the Trump Administration's Handling of Far-Right Terrorism
May 29, 2025 2:14 PM A member of a California-based fight club seems to have attended an event hosted by groups with ties to an organization the US government labeled a terrorist group. Will the Trump administration care? While the Trump administration carries out a mass deportation campaign against undocumented immigrants allegedly involved with 'terrorist' organizations and targets foreign students with granular social media surveillance, at least one American member of a neo-Nazi fight club has connected with a group linked to a far-right Scandinavian organization listed by the United States Treasury Department as a terrorist group. In September 2024, at least one American affiliated with the 'Active Club' movement—a transnational alliance of far-right fight clubs that closely overlap with skinhead gangs and neo-fascist political movements—appears to have traveled to Borås, Sweden, to participate in a mixed-martial-arts tournament with members of other affiliated fight clubs from across Europe. Social media posts from Tvåsaxe and GYM XIV, the Swedish skinhead organizations that hosted Holmgang 2024, claim that at least one member from the Southern California Active Club was in attendance. Photographs of the tournament were also published online by Media 2 Rise, the American ACs' media wing. While the identity of the American (or Americans) who traveled to Sweden last fall are not publicly known, the groups they are part of are key components of the Active Club network. On October 2, Media 2 Rise posted a series of eight watermarked photographs from the Holmgang tournament, essentially putting the American Active Club's signature of approval on the Swedish event. Media 2 Rise was created by Active Club founder Robert Rundo in collaboration with an pseudonymous individual named "Lucca Corgiat," whom the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as Montana neo-Nazi Allen Michael Goff. The organization specializes in propagandistic, high-energy video edits of similar far-right combat sport tournaments and the movement more broadly. Media 2 Rise did not respond to WIRED's request for comment. When SPLC contacted Media 2 Rise on its publicly posted contact email address in an attempt to seek comment from Goff, it received no response. Also on October 2, Tvåsaxe's Telegram account posted a photo of nine people holding the group's flag with the caption, 'Borås at night! Aktivklubb Smaland, SoCal Active Club, Active Club Scotland…waiting for the storm! HOLMGANG 2024!' The SoCal Active Club, which is the first Active Club in the United States and is closely associated with Rundo, is also linked to the Hammerskin Nation, one of the largest neo-Nazi skinhead networks in the United States. Two individuals whose photos have frequently been posted to the group's Telegram channel, Grady Mayfield and Robert Wheldon, testified last spring at Rundo's bail hearing during a convoluted legal saga that ended in him pleading guilty to federal Anti-Riot Act charges first filed in 2018. According to Swedish and American researchers, Tvåsaxe is aligned with the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM), a pan-Scandinavian neo-Nazi group that was designated as a 'Specially Designated Global Terrorist Group' by the American State Department in summer 2024. Counterterrorism sanctions bar Americans from associating with or providing support to listed groups; ban members from banking, owning property, or conducting business with American financial institutions; and expose anyone found associating with or supporting the sanctioned entity to possible criminal charges. Jason Blazakis, an extremism researcher at Middlebury College who ran the State Department component that makes FTO designations from 2008 through 2018, says that any level of tangible support to a listed terrorist group, be it sharing an event invitation or buying an item of clothing, could be the basis for a support-of-terrorism charge. 'Folks could be looking at possibly 10 to 15 years if convicted, seizure of assets,' he says. 'There are very real consequences for violating these sanctions.' These types of terrorist group designations are determined by the State or Treasury departments, and along with Foreign Terrorist Organizations are included on a formal sanctions list published and maintained by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which imposes financial sanctions and freezes assets. The Justice Department is responsible for prosecuting material support for terrorism violations for Americans or foreign nationals deemed to have violated the proscriptions. The DOJ has used the statute in a broad range of cases over the years, from charging French industrial giant Lafarge and its subsidiary for cutting business deals with the Islamic State in Northern Syria over a decade ago to six Bosnian-Americans accused and later convicted of providing material support to ISIS fighters. The statute often comes under criticism for its overbroad provisions, exemplified by a 2010 series of FBI raids on activists in Chicago and Minneapolis seeking evidence of ties to designated FTOs in Palestine and Colombia. NRM, which seeks to create a fascist ethnostate through violent revolution, dates back several decades and is considered one of the most violent neo-Nazi groups in Scandinavia. In 2017, three NRM-linked men were sentenced to prison for attempting to bomb one asylum center, and successfully bombing another as well as a left-wing bookstore. Two of the perpetrators received paramilitary training in Russia from the Russian Imperialist Movement, which was declared a global terror group during the first Trump administration. While the Holmgang tournament's host has a different name and history than the banned Swedish group, former State Department official Blazakis believes the difference is semantic, given Tvåsaxe's participation in closed NRM conferences and the long-standing relationship between NRM and the Active Clubs. 'They're trying to get around the listing and relevant consequences by changing their name and symbolism. Law enforcement sees right through that, and it also shows willingness and intent to evade these restrictions,' he says. A current State Department staffer, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals, also believes American participation in the September tournament could represent a potential case of support for NRM. Rundo, a self-professed longtime fan of NRM, seems to have modeled Active Clubs and the Rise Above Movement (RAM), which he also founded, on Europe's extreme right-wing scene. Since 2021, Rundo has appeared at least twice on an NRM podcast, including an April 2023 episode devoted to Rundo's labyrinthine federal case for Anti-Riot Act violations. NRM also conducted banner drops over freeways and held demonstrations protesting his detention outside the American and Romanian embassies the same month following Rundo's arrest on an American warrant in Romania. The 2024 Swedish tournament mirrors similar extreme right-wing martial arts tournaments hosted elsewhere in Europe for years. It also indicates the success of the Active Club model in spreading to the European continent. There are dozens of the fight clubs throughout Europe, including more than 50 in France and several in the United Kingdom, where they came under new scrutiny following a February 2025 ITV documentary connecting members to terrorism and violence. The European Active Clubs are also networking increasingly across national boundaries—Swedish Active Club members were present alongside their Dutch and French comrades at a May 10 fascist march in Paris, and engaged in an outdoor training in the Jardin du Luxembourg with Active Club members from Germany and French far-right extremists. Though a number of the Swedish Active Club participants are older veterans of other extremist groups, they have had notable success in recruiting younger participants, some as young as 15. In the past year, Swedish authorities have started to connect Active Club members to assaults and hate crime incidents. Jonathan Leman of a Swedish civil society group that tracks far-right radicalization and organizing, attributes the formation of Sweden's Active Clubs to Oskar Engels, an Estonian former member of NRM who left the group in 2020. Per research from Engels set up a fight club in 2020 that closely imitated Sweden's burgeoning soccer hooligan subculture, where violence and criminality occasionally crosses over with neo-Nazism, particularly in the support base of Stockholm's main clubs of AIK, Djurgården, and Hammarby. Recently, American Active Clubs have combined with other far-right extremists like Patriot Front and the Hammerskins to hold their own mixed-martial arts-tournaments in Southern California, Texas, and elsewhere. The State Department's listing of NRM, Blazakis says, was notable since it was the first large-scale neo-Nazi movement the American authorities were able to tie to criminal acts with a terrorist motivation. Previous efforts to sanction the UK's National Action, which is banned by the British Home Office and, according to media reports, has more members convicted of terrorism offenses in the UK than the Islamic State, did not get traction. 'The Nordic Resistance Movement, relative to Active Clubs, are far more organized than your typical ACs and have a high level of criminality that is quite reminiscent of the Rise Above Movement,' Blazakis alleges. 'When you have people that are engaged in criminality move towards terrorism, that's very dangerous,' Blazakis says. 'They're evolving in an ideological direction, and in most cases you tend to see groups move in the opposite direction.' Leman, who has tracked the evolution of Sweden's Active Clubs and their interactions with the rest of the burgeoning Swedish far right, says the September 2024 tournament was hosted by Tvåsaxe, an organization that has been invited to closed NRM conferences in the past two years. 'Tvåsaxe are part of NRM's network. They want to have a good relationship with all the groups in the environment,' Leman alleges. Prior to being listed as a terrorist organization by the Biden administration, Leman says, NRM had far cooler relations with rival far-right groups in Sweden. However, following a 2023 change in leadership and the terrorist entity listing, the group altered its stance and attracted a lot of sympathy and solidarity from other far-right organizations. 'Many groups felt that terror designation from the US was unjust, and that brought the Swedish scene together,' says Leman. 'You'd think that the Swedish scene would be reluctant to have anything to do with NRM, but in a way, it's them calling the Americans' bluff.' A security analyst close to the Swedish government, who asked not to be named to discuss law enforcement matters, noted that the country's security services are closely tracking the evolution of the far-right fight clubs. 'Active Clubs have become very popular because they can recruit younger cadres to the movement,' they say. 'I know that this is high on the radar for security services—[they're] much more concerned with these types of activities than they are traditional skinhead groups.' The participation of at least one American in the September 2024 tournament in Borås, the analyst says, reflects a long-standing North American fascination with NRM's organizing model and Scandinavian mythos. 'The Americans are definitely in bed with NRM when they're going over to Sweden and participating in the tournament,' the security analyst alleges. 'You're already providing material support and making key connections.' (This was included in WIRED's request for comment sent to Media 2 Rise, which did not respond.) 'The question is, are there financial transactions taking place?' The State Department refused to comment on the association of Americans with NRM in spite of the anti-terrrorism sanctions. It is currently unclear how the US authorities will handle cases involving far-right extremists who violate federal law, particularly in light of reports that the State Department is minimizing its use of terms related to far-right violence. 'The question is, will there be true enforcement of associations with a far-right [terrorist group]?' Blazakis says, pointing to the presence of Darren Beattie as the State Department's acting under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs. In 2018, Beattie was fired from his position as a Donald Trump speechwriter after it was reported that he attended a white nationalist conference; CNN has similarly reported on his social media presence, which often espouses white supremacist beliefs. Beattie's office plays a major role in shaping the State Department's messaging on counterterrrorism and violent extremism. (The White House did not respond to WIRED's request for comment.) 'I think we're going to see reluctance at best, outright reversals at worst,' says Blazakis.
