Interview: Crafted With Care
We spoke with Catja Beck-Berge, Kopenhagen Fur’s Head of Design and Production about our new Studio Collection for 2018/19.
Kopenhagen Fur: Catja, you supervise our design innovation centre known as Kopenhagen Fur Studio. What’s the purpose behind making this collection?
Catja Beck-Berge: As fashion and design is always a matter of continuous development, we find that one of our most important tasks is to serve as a source of inspiration and innovation not only towards the fashion industry, but in particular for our auction customers and their customers, the manufacturers who transform our beautiful skins into garments.
One of the ways we aim to generate inspiration is through our yearly Studio Collection. Consisting of both techniques and styles, in every new collection we strive to push fur design to new heights while still maintaining a commercial and fashion-relevant focus.
KF: What was the focus of the collection this year?
CB: This year, we have focused on sustainable elements which celebrate the beauty of natural skins. Natural colours underline fur as a green choice and showcase the endless possibilities for making contemporary design from nature’s own eclectic palette.
The collection also uses fur in new ways so that it can be worn over a longer season, and so that more can be produced with less material.
KF: What inspired the range of garments in this collection?
CB: Sustainability and craftsmanship have been our main inspiration as well as designing for Nature’s Catwalk. We have joined classic styles with new artisanal elements for a fresh and sustainable twist.
KF: Don’t customers do their own designs?
CB: Oh yes indeed, our customers and manufactures make great designs, however we all need inspiration to continuously reach new levels. Developing new designs and collections consists of many complex steps. For example, pattern construction requires skills outside the classical work of a furrier and not every manufacturer has access to these skills within their own production team.
As a new initiative, the patterns from our Studio Collection will be available to our customers, and together with our techniques we hope that they will serve as useful inspiration.