Filippa K (Q3133)
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
No description defined
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Filippa K |
No description defined |
Statements
In advance of her Filippa K runway debut for fall 2025, Anna Teurnell, who was recently named the company’s new creative director, had designed a capsule that she imagined as “a little wardrobe that you can use whether you’re commuting to work or walking the dog.” (Both activities are part of Teurnell’s daily routine.) The collection gives a glimpse into Teurnell’s way of working. “I don’t want to see a thousand products—I want to see small coordinations” that look good and make sense on a rack, she explained on a call. “This is not how collections are developed often, but for me it’s super important,” she noted.At Filippa K, as at Teurnell’sown line, change comes in small but significant increments. She adjusts the silhouette by the slimming or widening of a pant leg, the weight or weave of a fabric. For this collection she has a feeling for corduroy suiting for men—likewise tailored two-pleat trousers worn with a bonded-leather shearling jacket and sneakers. For women, ’90s-inspired jeans are straight and slim and might be paired with a mohair sweater or a suede shacket (both with a soft tactility.) There’s a delicious banana-sleeve camel peacoat shown with a matching mini. (“I can’t think of Filippa K not having this kind of club-kid miniskirt,” the designer noted. “I had a few back then.”) Among the subtle evening options are sheer chiffon pants with a satin coat and an LBD with a deep V and bow sash of a quite generous length. “I like those solutions where you don’t feel that naked,” Teurnell commented. “It’s a bit charming as well, which I also think fits the brand.”
30 October 2024
Personnel changes at Filippa K mean that the spring collection started by Liisa Kessler was completed by the in-house team with input from the new creative lead, Anna Teurnell, who will also continue to run her tiny, mighty namesake label,Teurn Studios. Both brands tend toward the minimal, but by the looks of it, at Filippa K the designer is working toward a modular simplicity that builds sturdy bridges between the house’s dependable basics (such as fine gauge knits and denim) and its more fashion forward proposals.In contrast to Teurnell’s own three-year-old line, Filippa K has a long history, having been founded in 1993 byFilippa Knutssonto offer an effortlessly cool uniform for working women like herself. (Menswear followed in 1998. The brand was early on the wellness bandwagon, launching the now shuttered Soft Sport line in 2011.) Teurnell said that the fact that Filippa K has its own DNA will allow her to “use the past to go forward.” Yet part of what made this collection compelling is how Teurnell has made things personal by referencing her own experiences with the brand, iterating on her own first Filippa K purchases, including stretch denim. See Look 12, a pair of leg-lengthening jeans with a slight flare that skims the ground when worn with kitten heels and covers the foot if worn with flats, paired with an impeccable black leather blazer.As Filippa K has always been associated with work, tailoring is key. Teurnell has a special gift for tweaking proportions, and she brought in the waist on the opening look, a women’s pantsuit, and narrowed the shoulders on men’s suiting. The team’s preference is to pair suits with soft knits and loafers. More casual styles were shown with almost-preppy button downs and collared sweaters. More daring were city shorts, but this editor’s money is on the outwear, like Look 4, a nylon gabardine car coat with an embroidered logo monogram, or Look 30, a citified A-line jacket with patch pockets and side snaps that allow it to be worn open, a detail Kessler found in the archive that Teurnell will continue to develop. If there was something almost Langian about the styling and the pared back set, it’s probably because Filippa K’s heyday was also the ’90s. And there is a sense that these are clothes that work for and with you.
Teurnell, who said she aims to “take back this sort of attractive wearability, the elevated wardrobe, the products that you need and come back to,” didn’t originate this collection, but her mark is clearly on it, making Filippa K’s future look bright.
18 June 2024
In corporate culture (at least of yore) the first three months of employment is probationary. At Filippa K, Saint Laurent alum Liisa Kessler’s first three collections were the equivalent of corporate months, but the designer has clearly eased into her position and found her footing with her new collection for fall 2024, which feels confident and less self-conscious than those that preceded it.The current craze for all things office andWorking Girldovetails beautifully with the brand heritage—founded in 1993 Filippa K created soft suiting for women climbing the corporate ladder—and with Kessler’s own strength as a tailor. The first look—an icy gray oversize alpaca-wool blazer worn with the brand’s best selling merino-knit cardigan worn as a shirt, and pants with a twisted seam that opens into a vent—set the tone and showed that the designer means business. The jacket has an ’80s-style width, yet, as Kessler explained, she focused on “a super soft buildup in the shoulders... that really gives you the movement and the softness.” Some of the men’s suiting is similarly constructed; a shearling jacket for him, in two tones of brown, features the inverted triangle shape associated with the Me Decade.Like many designers, Kessler is currently fascinated with the transition between the ’80s and the ’90s, a time when Gordon Gekko gradually gave way to grunge. She landed on that throughOffice, a 2002 book by Swedish photographer Lars Tunbjörk, who, in the ’90s shot empty office spaces (many built in the boom ’80s) in New York, Tokyo, and Stockholm. The palette was pulled from its pages and the photos’ shiny desks and piled carpets encouraged texture play. A cold shoulder top and midi skirt, for example, come in a cozy fleece-like material.There’s been lots of post-pandemic talk about what to do with now unoccupied corporate real estate, so it’s interesting to see Kessler engage with the topic via a different entryway. “For me, it’s always interesting how these physical spaces interact with the humans that are moving in there,” she said. “I was thinking a lot about how the Filippa K woman and man inject these spaces with their energy, with the brand’s signature effortlessness and ease, and the Scandinavian freshness and this youthfulness.”Here a pinstripe button-down was paired with darker pinstripe pants, a look that was sharp, yet approachable. White turtlenecks under tailoring kept things more casual, and the classic briefcase was edited into a small east-west bag.
For after-hours there are washed denim pieces featuring a three-button detail pulled from the archive. Work life has changed, but the desire to work a ’fit rages on. Filippa K’s collection keeps the fire burning.
17 January 2024
Time and light are the themes that illuminate Filippa K’s spring collection. This year marks the brand’s 30th anniversary, and Liisa Kessler and the team have been contemplating the passage of years. She abstracted the idea by adding a time-worn patina to the clothes, and also introduced a new quatrefoil logo formed from a 9 and a 3, denoting the year of the company’s founding.The spring 1993 season is remembered for bringing grunge to the runway, but that script never played at Filippa K. During its ’90s golden age the brand established signatures of relaxed tailoring, activewear, and denim that spoke to a generation of health-conscious working women. That decade continues to fascinate, but we can only see it through the filter of today; the 1990s have become fiction. Kessler’s challenge is to translate elements of the past so that they speak to the way we live and dress now. She’s doing that both through reissued pieces and by revisiting a long-lined silhouette, one example being a low-slung, gray tailored secretary skirt that’s paired with a cropped sleeveless V-neck sweater and headband. This isn’t a derivative look, but fans of Narciso Rodriguez’s Cerruti collections will get the vibe immediately.As to light, the designer’s aim was to capture summer’s golden hour, that short amber-colored sliver of time between day and night. It’s reflected both in the lighting of the set and the palette of the lineup, which (roughly) progresses from light to dark. Kessler said she was thinking of the summers she spent in Finland, where “you get these crazy looks because you go out, maybe with your swimwear… and then it gets cold and you put a nylon parka on top, or your cashmere sweater, and pull on clogs or sandals. It’s this weird mix of garments in a way.” The clogs were there (a collaboration with Swedish Hasbeens), but it might have been interesting if she leaned into that offish real-life vibe. Maybe that was what she was getting at when she sent logoed underwear down the runway. When asked, she explained that it was a continuation of the long john theme introduced in last season’s ski-inspired collection. Here, it made the model look vulnerable rather than confident. In contrast, a moldable viscose and steel tank was alluringly suggestive and strong—in all senses of the word.A black slip dress with transparent black trimming was also in this vein, and it was nice to see a total look in this separates-strong collection.
It’s clear that the designer, who worked with Anthony Vaccarello at Saint Laurent, has a mastery of tailoring and flou; sometimes these skills seem to get lost in over-complicated narratives aimed at a too broad audience. Just where are those short suits being worn?Kessler has a feel for tailoring, as the opening look proves. It combines a sharply tailored miniskirt suit in a shimmering golden hue with a reeditioned knit top and an armband made in collaboration with the Swedish jewelers RAV featuring amber, an extension of the sundown theme.As for the denim, there’s a smart pair in a glossy black laminate, and railroad stripe options for men and women. Bandeau tops were a theme, but the variety of separates suggested an interest in representing product categories rather than setting a clear direction.
20 June 2023
“Snap back to reality/Oh, there goes gravity.”Those two lines from Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” started playing in my head as I sat down to review Filippa K’s fall collection, which translates an escapist fantasy into clothes for everyday life. Creative director Liisa Kessler rewatched Werner Herzog’s 1974 documentaryThe Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steinerbefore she designed a collection that, unsurprisingly, is strong on skiwear references, specifically those from Sweden in the groovy ’70s. (The brand even paired with another Swedish company, POC Sports, on technical ski eyewear.) In Steiner, who describes his sport as “ski flying,” Kessler found an escape. “I started to question why this film is so fascinating for me,” she said on a call. “And I had this feeling that the world feels so heavy and there are so many anxieties around us, and when I saw him flying, I felt like there was a sense of freedom.”Hired in January of last year, Kessler’s debut collection landed well. Like many other designers, she decided to borrow cues from the slopes this season; it’s a smart move that builds on the rugged motocross sports aesthetic that’s been around for a while now, as well as offering something new and seasonal. Second-skin ski-style pants with a bootleg in a vanilla color reference the aerodynamics of Steiner’s ski-jumping suit. Another version, in pastel yellow leather with reinforced knees and zips, will glide nicely into a city wardrobe. Kessler leaned even harder into this active theme, but went off-piste instead, which makes perfect sense in terms of brand heritage, reissuing a waffle knit, and translating ski under layers for casual wear. A ribbed sweater and matching snood and long-john-style pants ensemble is ideal plane attire. Kessler also focused on the coziness of après ski, with fluffy coats made either from teddy bear fabric from Steiff or recycled fake fur, and cozy sweaters.1990s Filippa K is Kessler’s North Star, and there are references to that time in sheer crinkled skirts and corset tops. As for ’70s references there are “fur” lined coats, carpenter pants, brown-washed denim, and crushed corduroy. A good part of the collection has a “teenage dream” aspect that should especially appeal to Zoomers and millennials. The “Black Diamond” looks in this collection are the tailored pieces and two evening dresses (sheer slip dresses with floating panels).
It’s easy to see these as elements Kessler brought with her from her time at Saint Laurent, though Filippa K has always done suiting, and as the creative designer notes, co-founder Filippa Knutsson was one of the first to advocate “wearing your suit with sneakers—this whole approach of mixing dressed up with dressed down and keeping an effortless, laid back attitude.”
21 January 2023
Memory and nostalgia are imperfect but seductive forces, and Liisa Kessler corralled them both when designing her solid debut collections (spring and resort 2023) for Filippa K. A German-Finn, Kessler leaned on her own childhood memories of nature-filled summers in Scandinavia at the same time that she explored the company’s extensive archive. The first look, a pair of cropped white stretch jeans with gold button details, was a reinterpretation of a 2006 design. The company was founded in 1993 and there are plenty of references from that era as well, some specific to the archive, like a long jersey dress. Other designs seemed to owe something to Helmut Lang, whose work has had a shadow presence in the spring 2023 menswear collections.Previous to becoming the first successor to co-founder Filippa Knutsson at Filippa K, Kessler had been senior designer of flou for Anthony Vaccarello at Saint Laurent. Those looking for traces of the designer’s past might point at the snappy smokings that closed out the collection, one worn over a sheer, floaty tunic, and a lone neo-Renaissance dress. Otherwise the looks ping-ponged between casual wear and tailoring. An asymmetric maillot-inspired top worn with brown leather jeans was pleasingly precise; yak was used to create knitted “sweatsuits” with leather pockets. Tailored jackets had wide shoulders, and shorts were cut small and high, as was a midriff-baring sweater vest paired with tuxedo pants.If the collections’ denim and jersey themes originated in the archive, its minimalism had roots both in the brand and Kessler’s youth.From Back Home,a book of photographs by Anders Petersen and J.H. Engström, provided the framework for Kessler’s thinking; the collection is full of modular pieces that can be worked into an existing wardrobe. Broderie anglaise tops, inspired by the square-patterned tops found in books of regional dress, along with furry clogs, acknowledged Filippa K’s Swedish roots. Overall, the collection put out a welcome mat to anemoiacs who are aligned with idealized ’90s and ’00s aesthetics, and who want to build a subtly sexy minimalist look that meets the needs of today.
22 June 2022
Last season, Filippa Knutsson, who had stepped away from the day-to-day running of the business that bears her name,staged a comebackwith a runway show inspired by the 1990s, the decade of the brand’s debut. For Spring, the designer underlined her presence by choosing the company’s very first boutique as the location of her show. “It’s part of this whole movement of coming home,” explained Knutsson, who succeeded in creating the relaxed and celebratory atmosphere she was after. A ravenous fashion pack set upon the pizza and wine offered in one room, and visually devoured the collection in another. Later, the models mingled with guests on the street outside the shop.Welcoming ease describes both Knutsson’s hospitality and collection. “For me,” the designer said, “Filippa K is about a certain style and aesthetic”; that core is filtered for the season and evolved to incorporate what feels right at the moment. This time the collection developed around a palette of natural tones, “safari beiges,” and pastels, added to which were contrasts of textures (silky versus rough) and structure (flow versus tailoring); ergo a soft shirt might be paired with linen shorts, a sweater with a slip skirt. The men’s looks were preppier than those for women, and many could segue seamlessly from the office to a weekend by the beach. A color-blocked suede jacket was the most fashion-y piece.
29 August 2018
Filippa K went back to the future for Fall 2018 with a confident collection that underscored the brand’s core values of “style, simplicity, quality.” The clothes were designed by Filippa Knutsson, who returned to the company she cofounded 25 years ago after taking some time away from the atelier for personal reasons.In a recent interviewKnutsson spoke about how fashion has come full circle since the label launched in the early 1990s—the decade fashion can’t get enough of. Without giving in to nostalgia, Knutsson brought that point home in layered ways. Yes, there were slip dresses. There was also a stellar cast: The first look (presented to the strains of Portishead’s “Sour Times”) was worn byGeorgina Grenville, a cult 1990s model who is once again enjoying time in the spotlight. The rest of the music was provided by Say Lou Lou’s Miranda and Elektra Kilbey-Jansson, who also walked in the show. In a preshow interview, the sisters said they wanted to “include a soundscape and music from the ’90s,” a time when their mother wore the brand’s “iconic spaghetti-strap tops.”Knutsson’s personal investment in the line keeps its minimalism from becoming flat, boring, or ascetic. A perfectly cut and affordable navy peacoat is something a lot of people can get excited about. Ditto the way Frida Gustavsson turned up the volume on a turtleneck sweater and skirt. Knutsson has described Filippa K as an “intelligent alternative to extremely high-priced brands,” and with this collection she proved once again how very smart her wardrobe essentials—from a pantsuit to an asymmetric silk skirt—can look.
21 January 2018
Founders: Filippa Knutsson and Patrik Kihlborg Year established: 1993 Known for: Scandinavian minimalism Stocked by: Liberty, de Bijenkorf, NK, Stockmann, Illum, andfilippa-k.com
25 August 2015
Founders: Filippa Knutsson and Patrik KihlborgYear established: 1993Known for: Minimalism—Swedish styleStocked at: More than 600 retailers, including Liberty, De Bijenkorf, NK, Stockmann, and Illum, as well as onfilippa-k.com
26 January 2015