About clothes and textile craft

Linus Brodén

2019/05/19

My name is Linus Brodén. I have worked with clothes as my main craft, for over 10 years now. It has been a bumpy ride, with many ups and downs and a lot of confusion. Mainly concerning economy, motivation and purpose. I rejected fashion a few years ago, as it is so dominated by elitist and shallow values. It is driven by capitalism and have great influence in creating unhealthy bodily and behavioral ideals.

However, I have come to see what it was with clothes and fashion that I fell for in the first place. It is so much more than unhealthy ideals, capitalism and elite. It is also about individual style and personal growth. It is about human interaction and communication. A much more organic, rooted and traditional system, much harder to see than the squarish system of big business which pray on or needs and desires.

I realized that the only way to change the squarish system is to enforce the organic one. To be a part of it and change the culture. So, instead of rejecting fashion and being grumpy about it I decided that I am in the middle of it, and that I get to decide my own meaning of fashion. Which to me is simply style. Style adapted differently to different situations. It is a dialogue with self, through material, a conversation about needs and desires.

I desire to be able to make and sell clothes on my own terms. To have a studio where I can indulge and explore the secrets of textile craft, as well as being at service with my knowledge. Both about textile crafts in general but also specifically about clothes. I have started to develop my own way of making clothes and doing textile craft, and my mission is to develop it further.

My vision is to create a space, where craft and making is celebrated and alive. Where products are made with genuine intention about usage and long-lasting appreciation. I want to make clothes that resonates with the needs and functions of the user as well as the desires to communicate individuality and belonging. I want to offer my competence and skill where it can be useful for others, but also to where I can learn from and ad to my knowledge and skill, weather it is for making structures, clothes or teaching.