Filippa K x Stinarand: A Collaboration For Circularity In Luxury And Creativity In Upcycling

By Cassell Ferere originally published on Forbes.com

Sustainable fashion brands are everywhere. This has given way for more acceptance of the concepts that lead brands to circularity. Out of Stockholm, Sweden, the Scandinavian minimalist brand, Filippa K has founded the label with the motto “Designed To Last.” Circularity can mean many things for a lot of brands, and for Filippa K it started in 1993, and now it goes beyond just the materials they use in their designs.

Recently launching Limited Edition and Preowned which introduced the brand's circular approach to fashion, Filippa K takes their slow fashion ideals out of minimal design into intricate avant-garde designs. The Swedish design house has collaborated with Stina Randestad, an emerging designer hailed for her innovations in material combinations and unique fabrication techniques. Randestad would transform the clean lines of Filippa K into one-of-a-kind statement pieces as a blueprint for circular luxury fashion.

Randestad recalls the culmination of the “project’s outcome [as] twofold for me – it shows an artistic approach to upcycling, but it also shows an established brand taking a leap of faith, investing in a designer whose aesthetic isn’t perhaps associated with the traditional Scandinavian look.” She has taken bold steps for Filippa K clothing in this direction but as an admirer of its aesthetic. She continues, “It’s been a dream to use Filippa K garments as the raw materials when creating new ones – it illustrates that when you start with a high-quality foundation, remade pieces can be luxurious and long-lasting.”

Filippa K uses sustainable fibers, organic, natural materials, recycled polyester, and mono fibers or mixed polymers. With the Filippa K x Stinarand collaboration, the label decided to upcycle some of its finest archival pieces, rather than use recycled materials. This approach to circularity explores Filippa K’s slow fashion concepts.

Second-hand Filippa K garments were examined and selected for their durability and vitality. Stina Randstad, or Stinarand for this collaboration, reconstructed those selected garments into six bespoke pieces that leverage imperfections into sartorial abstraction. Stinarand describes the final products as “sculptural yet wearable,” alluding to the couture-like revisions of the minimal designs of the Filippa K label.

Stinarand says of her experience collaborating with Filippa K, “I’m very impressed at the level of commitment Filippa K is showing with their sustainability work, as well as their investment in creativity. It’s vital for brands to engage in larger initiatives of course, but also to provide a platform for up-and-coming designers to express their vision. Filippa K has entrusted me with the unique opportunity to freely explore how second-hand garments, samples, and claims can be transformed into something completely different…”