Approaching Oslo Opera House by the sea always involved a fascinating view changing dramatically from time to time with season, weather, daylight and dark of night. Something that always remained the same was the building’s impression of having crawled up from the ocean and suddenly frozen in its full bloom of white stone, timber, metal and glass, bringing together the city with the fjord by it’s position in-between. Having such a breathtaking illusion to start off the day, it was fortunate that the thin air felt so pleasantly easy to breathe.
Luca Sørheim
There were visible traces of the frosty night on the shoreline that morning, so knowing that the white marble carpet outside didn’t change its color when wet made a mild concern come to mind. The idea of the treacherous stones having become slippery over night then again disappeared with one small glance at the pink sky covered in soft hues of raspberries, ballet slippers and pink clovers, and with that the mood was romanticized back to coolness. Standing in front of the building entrance moments later, the dreamy atmosphere unfortunately turned into a little nightmare when the doors refused to be opened.
«We have focused on how the Opera House in may ways functions like a body, and how the materials are absorbing all the outside noise and sound from the foyer.»
-Susanne Holzweiler
Searching for the Holzweiler press day event around the Opera House walls turned out to be quite interesting. Catching glimpses of everyone engaging their skills together to one great power in the different workrooms and studios visible from the ground floor windows was a nice bonus. People moving around in a medley of coffee cups, colorful fabrics and stage props filled the building with so much life that the walls seemed to be nearly bursting with energy. Peeking into the world inside made every last fragment of sleepiness vanish with the effective visual work motivation, and few moments later the monDieu team stood together in front of designer Suzanne Holzweiler who enthusiastically explained Holzweiler’s aim to reflect the Oslo Opera House in their SS17 collection and answered every little questions.
@lucaisme
What immediately stood out to us were two handmade knit-pieces in a delicate but rich three dimensional texture in a multicolored pastel palette dominated by blue with touches of pink, green and colors in-between. Our fondness of these quite unexpected collection pieces grew by learning that the oversized scarf and the sweater were composed by leftover silk fabric from the other pieces in the collection. We also fell in love with Holzweiler’s collaboration with Aurland Shoe Factory having a simple but delicate approach. The beautiful floral patterns and pleats were another thing that caught our attention, bringing out memories of traditional Norwegian clothing and decor reflecting Nordic nature in a way that made us feel like we were holding the Norwegian version of orchids on typical Oriental silk kimonos in our hands.
At the beginning of the event, the Norwegian fashion designers had arranged a Opera House tour where their guests had been shown around the different work spaces and studios and specific areas of the building. During the tour they had explained how they had tried to recreate selected interior parts in prints on some of the pieces. For the monDieu team, the conceptual highlight of the collection was definitely Holzweiler’s wise move to focus on artisans that don’t call themselves artists. When it comes to the implementation of Oslo Opera House in their collection, some very interesting pieces were two beautiful swimsuit. One that reflected the golden aluminium walls and one with print from a photograph of the painting studio floor where the Holzweiler AW16 fashion show was held. The floor had been partly covered with leftover paint in random patterns, and because of our strong love for contrasts, we really enjoyed the detail that the paint were traces of preparations to the National Ballet’s popular Christmas show The Nutcracker. monDieu gives our congratulations to Holzweiler with a strong and beautiful collection.
