Rave Review (Q8989)
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Rave Review is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Rave Review |
Rave Review is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
The dark, hard-edged mood Rave Review designers Livia Schück and Josephine Bergqvist were in last season has dissipated. Spring found them yearning to connect to nature and native crafts. The duo conjured the rustic Swedish country vibe they were after by working homey ginghams in different weights. They also transformed home textiles, including embroidered and often handwoven dishcloths, into tops and skirts. A nice flex was rendering the red check so common to such materials in embroidery. Puma sneakers were customized with thrift finds, and little friends hanging from waists were “scrap dolls.” The making of these friends from whatever is at hand is a Swedish kindergarten tradition, explained Berqvist. Now all grown up, the designers have adapted this make-do practice to creating clothes for flesh-and-blood women. Found materials remain a cornerstone, but the team plans to work more with deadstock to be able to scale.Rave Review’s take on the tank top was a pieced dress constructed using a sophisticated jigsaw panel. Pointed hems and asymmetries are always present in the brand’s collections; the gently draped hems of skirts made of swaths of different materials had movement, a recurrent theme this season. Shirts were hooded, as was a smart, tailored double-breasted coat that mixed glen plaids. All of this to say there was newness and relevance to the collection, but it felt like you really had to dig to find it. A feeling of déjà vu set in from the first look, a new-last-season sheer skirt. This is not to say carryovers aren’t a good thing, but at Rave Review, textiles change at a dramatically faster pace than the silhouettes, which seemed overly familiar; the result was that the show felt repetitive. Perhaps another format, maybe one as untraditional as the brand’s practice, would better serve the designers, who deserve praise for finding a new way to exist within a system that needs talents willing to lead the charge for change.
22 September 2024
Returning to show in Milan for fall, Josephine Bergqvist and Livia Schück expanded on what they term their “high-end remake” approach to fashion. As they work with materials in limited supply, vintage and deadstock, these Swedish designers have evolved methods of taking things apart and reconfiguring them in a sort of jigsaw manner. This season they had been reflecting on writer/philosopher Mark Fisher’s take on the concept of “hauntology”—about “how it’s getting harder and harder to picture a future free from the past” said Schück on a call—and thinking about how it relates to their practice of “bringing old things together… but making them into something new, but which will always be haunted [by the past/nostalgia]” and finding ways to expand on their techniques in a way that let some air in.They did so by separating fragments of fabric with strips of sheer organza (look 21) or suspending them on it (look 37). Mesh was used in a similar manner. The skirt in the second look is essentially a see-through panel framed at the bottom with a band of kilt pleating and at the waist with three scissor-handed layers of plaid. “It’s almost like we want it to feel that it’s torn down into nothing basically,” Schück said. “And we want to embrace the contrast between this quite raw and quite heavy or dry material and something else; and also just maybe showing a bit more skin,” Bergqvist added. The effect was dulled here by the choice to layer the mostly-sheer skirt over scrappy, raw-edged leggings made using donated materials from the designers’ compatriots at Happy Socks. Look 28, a satin and lace asymmetrical slip dress worn with patched plaid leggings hit the right balance.The choice to show the collection on street-cast models of different ages and shapes was a smart one that demonstrated how wearable Rave Review clothes can be. The designers’ take on the season’s asymmetric seamed mini, in denim and paired with a faux fur animalier print top, was spot on, and there were several reversible outerwear options including a duvet coat with a weatherproof lining. On the surface, this collection looked familiar, but the winds of change were blowing through those sheer panels. There is much potential for further exploration of this idea.
A lightening- and tightening-up of the collection could take it in a more “adult” direction without sacrificing sexiness or fun, as was evidenced by looks 23 and 24, which incorporated drawstrings to created a slight (airy) bubble effect and maintain the brand’s signatures with a cleaner, fresher silhouette.
25 February 2024
Since launching in 2017, the Swedish label Rave Review (which upcycles its name from a vintage tag) has been short-listed for the LVMH Prize and participated in the GucciFest and Gucci Vault programs. For spring, designers Livia Schück and Josephine Bergqvist took their collection on the road and showed it on the official calendar in Milan. “From the beginning, the Italian scene and the buyers from Italy have always been interested in our work,” explained Schück on a call.“We want to position ourselves with high-luxury brands, and Milan and Paris are the main scenes to do that in.”The show took place in a location on the Piazza del Duomo, and watching Rave Review’s pieced and patchworked designs parade down a runway jigsawed with carpets brought a different kind of panoply to the Duomo. The medleys on the catwalk were freeform and raw edged, revealing process and a celebration of “perfect imperfection,” whereas in the cathedral the opposite is the case. The tracery of stained-glass windows is set and the inlay of the stone floors is meticulous, befitting their purpose: the glorification of God. Rave’s remit, of course, is the responsible pursuit of cool.Rave’s definition of luxury is based on the scarcity of resources that comes from using existing materials and the time and curation that goes into finding them, whereas the Made in Italy idea of luxury is to a great extent focused on the polish of the finished product. All this to say that for Schück and Bergqvist, proximity won’t change their point of difference, which is based in sustainable practices—admirably, next to nothing was purchased to make this collection, the materials being sourced from the brand’s archives. Their design process favors asymmetry and a certain amount of offness. In fact, burning was one of the techniques the designers used for spring, and the patchworks, noted Schück, were “a bit naive, almost like craftsmanship gone wrong.”Rave Review operates between the poles of grunge and romance. Materials, rather than silhouettes, set the pace here. It was rewarding to see the designers stretch a bit in regard to the latter, in the form of boxy jackets, some monochrome, which had a harder and more graphic impact than their popular blanket-style ones. Pieced argyles were particularly successful, and there was a nice extension of that idea in the harlequin pattern that popped up here and there.
Schück and Bergqvist have been busy knitting as well; there were cobweb leg warmers and Shetland-style knits featuring the brand symbol, representing beauty and kitsch, the swan.
24 September 2023
A first glance at Rave Review’s fall lookbook might leave you with the impression that the brand is treading water. This is partly because their hodge-podge, homespun aesthetic is so at odds with fashion’s movement toward tightening and tailoring. These are maximalist and young clothes in a season where minimalism and sophistication are prevailing. But Josephine Bergqvist and Livia Schück have never been interested in trends; in fact the latter describes this collection as a continuation of what they’ve previously done. Chez Rave, form follows fabric. The nice shoulder shape in look 24 is an example of material-driven deconstruction, i.e. working with small amounts of material.The designers have an authentically hands-on approach that starts with the search for and selection of vintage and deadstock material, which is then cut up and embellished before being puzzled together into something new. Bergqvist and Schück wrote in their collection statement that they find meaning in the evolution of the patchworking technique that is central to their work and which they see as evolving from a necessity born of poverty, to a subcultural punk ethos, and then as an expression of sustainability. This fall Rave Review leaned into what they call “craftism,” with a greater emphasis on embellishments like wrapping, appliqué, and their signature technique of patchwork. Part of the appeal, explained Bergqvist on a call, is the connection between craft and women’s work. Plus, she added, there is a connection to the home textiles the brand often uses: Case in point, the reimagined bomber in the first look, made of a floral wool blanket.In addition to patchwork, there are many appliqués. In look 25 the same flower shape that decorates a medley T-shirt top reappears, beaded with pearls, on jeans. There is a greater emphasis on knitwear this season, with full spliced knit looks using “cheesy” vintage sweaters (the designers like to play with the good/bad taste dichotomy) as ribbon trimmed ones. Bergqvist and Schück teamed up with Swedish textile artist Anna Nordström, who handcrafted the scarves and legwarmers. (Note especially the fairytale aspect of the swan-embellished ones in the final look.)What really stands out, though, are the pieces that are most controlled, like a sexy maxi dress of red plaid bound with a white check, or a unisex floral shirt with similar binding and tie details. The neatness of such finishes makes these pieces look polished and mature.
And they were new to the eye here, a sign of forward motion. It would be nice to see more of this kind of work in the future, but the folksy craft feeling has its place, especially in this time of turmoil. “I think this soft expression is really interesting, kind of like being soft activists in a way, expressing things, but in a really cute or calm way,” said Bergqvist.“We wouldn’t say we’re activists,” she clarified, “but when you do yarn bombing, it’s not like you think you’re going to change the world, but you are going to change the day for someone that sees that out in an urban environment… something happy in the gray world.” Rave Review offers an optimistic way forward with their upbeat, dopamine-dosed designs.
2 March 2023
Rave Review flipped the script on Swedish Midsummer traditions when framing its spring 2023 collection. Lore has it that a maiden would dream of her future husband if she slept with seven flowers under her pillow on Midsummer’s eve. Josephine Bergqvist and Livia Schück instead imagined day-after looks for a woman who might not have slept alone—and who quite possibly borrowed her lover’s bed linens.The pair launched their upcycling line five years ago and for this, their 11th collection, the idea was to focus on brand signatures in terms of cut, silhouette, and fabrics. To that end, spring’s line-up featured what Bergqvist described as “heritage” Swedish bedding with a “worn-out, very romantic vibe,” which was used also for their debut. It’s not surprising that love and chintz are in the air at Rave Review: Bergqvist recently got married, in an upcycled look for her own line, of course. Her wedding florist worked with a set designer to create the floral arch used in the collection’s look book.Playing up the prettiness of the looks was the designers’ use of frills for wovens and stretch lace featuring flower prints, countered by the staccato rhythms created by the collage effect of the spiral and panel cuts Bergqvist and Schück developed to be able to work with limited runs of vintage and deadstock fabric. (This season Rave Review also made use of new materials made of recycled fibers.) The designers’ decision to dye crochet tablecloths and other materials acid yellow also helped things from getting saccharine, as did keeping denim and their signature plaids in the mix.This was a dress-focused outing from Rave Review, and the relative simplicity of zip-front shirred coat dresses might tempt new customers; the cropped jacket and skirt sets were more demanding and less convincing; less raw than overexposed. Bra-like straps on an enticing minidress with a side train gave it a hint of a ’90s vibe; bedazzled Bebe-style logo tees played directly to the Y2K-loving crowd as did crescent bags. Those sparkles were more effectively used as surface decorations on printed fabrics, a new development.As their work makes use of vintage materials, Bergqvist and Schück have always maintained that their pieces have a sort of built-in nostalgia. In addition to that, much of their output mines their own youthful experiences. Spring’s collection was somewhat more meta, in that it looked back at five years of work.
One of the most personal touches was the jewelry, assembled from old “Majblomman” (May flower) pendants that the designers, as schoolgirls, sold to raise money for a now 115-year-old charity established to end child poverty. What a lovely way to gild the lily.
30 September 2022
Almost everything about Rave Review is upcycled—including its name, which was borrowed from a vintage label. Said moniker is an endless source of mystery to journalists; Josephine Bergqvist and Livia Schück report that there’s nary an interview in which they aren’t asked about it. Since most people assume “rave” refers to dancing, the pair decided to run with that this season, as it also related to their own back story. “We went to a lot of raves together and our friendship became more intense when we started partying together,” said Bergqvist.Referencing their own memories, and digging into a book about the late 1990s Stockholm club scene, the designers continued to develop themes they introduced last season. The addition of workwear elements, and yes, rave pants, makes the collection feel more personal, as if the pieces came out of Bergqvist and Schück’s own closets.These two love tartan and they aren’t afraid to play up the pattern’s association with punk by adding bondage-like straps, some with metal eyelets for a hard edge. Fall’s news has to do with texture, particularly the use of fleece and faux fur alongside or mixed with plaid and the brand’s signature blanket coats.Speaking of signatures, the designers are using the look book for a soft debut of their new logo. “The whole idea and the feeling was to create something quite futuristic,” notes Schück. The reposition of existing things in a contemporary light is an overall motivation for the brand. “Since we’re working with vintage,” adds Bergqvist, “it’s so important to have the contemporary look with everything else, like the silhouettes, the styling and set design; everything needs to be very new.”NFTs are the novelty of the fall 2022 season, and having found an energy-efficient cryptocurrency, SOL, Rave Review will soon be coming to the male-dominated metaverse with a series of “crytopanties,” based on actual garments that were then translated for the web with the aim of retaining the tactility of the pieces, which was such an important part of the furry fall collection as well. “We wanted to do this project with a feminist point of view,” explains Bergqvist, “because if the metaverse is as powerful as a lot of people think, then it’s really important that women take a place.” Hear, hear.
3 March 2022
Every six months, Rave Review’s Livia Schück and Josephine Bergqvist (who work with secondhand and deadstock fabrics) are faced with the challenge of making something new out of something old. Now that many brands are jumping on the upcycling wagon, the duo also have to maintain their distinctiveness in the market. So far they’ve managed well; their fall collection is part of Gucci Vault, and their spring collection offered plenty of novelty through the pair’s further expansion into separates, their exploration of sporty elements, and a bit of sex appeal.In the past, these two Swedes have found inspiration in their travels. Having been limited to the boundaries of their studio for over a year, they took cues from music scenes—rave, punk—as they developed a collection that was more hard-edged than earlier ones. They got to that place from a calmer one; the text print used throughout was made up of affirmations of the sort you find floating around on Instagram and with which Schück pushed herself along. It contributed to what she called “a new age vibe” that’s indulgently kitsch.This was anything but a meditative collection. Rather, it sizzled with energy. This new attitude was partly derived from the designers’ decision to explore separates, which allowed for more styling and curation than the full-look coats and dresses they’re known for. Separates seemed to have opened the door to a more casual, and customizable, offering. The use of home textiles to make sporty silhouettes was inspired. Cargo pants, zippers that convert track pants into board shorts, and wide-leg and strapped jeans with a JNCO-like fullness and the shortest of flies, inspired by the Fornarina jeans of the designers’ teenage years, spoke to trends we’ve been seeing this season while maintaining the brand voice.Schück and Bergqvist always say that because of the materials they use, their designs have a sort of built-in nostalgia. But it’s the way the pair filter their designs through their own memories that makes them distinctive. The look book pictures are cut out into silhouettes of the kind you might see in a high school yearbook or locker. Yet at the same time this collection, noted Bergqvist, was “even sexier” than the others, though not in the revealing way that’s trending now.“Our idea of sexy is not a supertight jersey dress necessarily—it’s baggy pants, but with a supersmall top,” said Schück. “It’s not the stereotypical sexiness,” interjected Bergqvist.
“It’s this really oversized look, but you have these zippers so you can decide how you want to reveal your body.” Selective self-expression is a nice option to have.
29 September 2021
With travel restrictions still in place,Perseverancemaking it to Mars, and the boundaries between the material and digital worlds disintegrating, there’s growing interest in outer space escapism. It’s a theme that’s touched on in Rave Review’s fall collection, which designers Livia Schück and Josephine Bergqvist conceived as an updated contribution to the Golden Records depicting life on Earth that were sent into space in 1977. “We are floating through the phygital spaces of our time, like the Voyager Mission through faraway galaxies,” their collection notes explained.Having made it their mission to work only with deadstock and upcycled materials, this duo’s material explorations are earthly, but their practice is fueled by fantasy. Soon after founding the brand in their home city of Stockholm, they found themselves needing a larger orbit than their home market currently allows. Semifinalists for the 2020 LVMH Prize and #GucciFest participants, Schück and Bergqvist join a number of designers presenting their fall collections off schedule and independent of any organized fashion week.Change is necessary and exciting, and Rave Review is built on innovations around sustainability. The designers’ commitment to using existing materials has resulted in a collage-like aesthetic and puzzle-like patternmaking. This season, the latter came to the fore in monochromatic looks, a draped and shirred white lace dress, ultra-voluminous pants, and a black evening dress. The designers debated about these pieces, especially that inky frock. We had “mixed feelings when we did this black garment,” admits Schück. “Obviously, it’s always good for a collection with something calmer, and also nice for the design idea to be even more clear in black...but it also felt so strange.” The pair needn’t have worried. With cut-outs at the waist connected by metal rings, the look gave dimension to the lineup and suggests new ways of looking at the brand.Rave Review’s fall collection does more than build on the one that came before; happily it takes the designers’ work in a more grown-up and sophisticated direction. Most evident is the transition from spring’s Disney and cartoon characters to Star Wars, One Direction, and Justin Bieber motifs. It’s like a move, says Bergqvist, from the kid’s room to the teenager’s room. The collection does capture the deliberate disorder and kitschiness of adolescence, minus any angst.
The newfound maturity was communicated not only through the inclusion of monochrome pieces, but also in the balance achieved in a piece like an oversized trench with Star Wars insets at the side. A pieced plaid dress features a pleated front panel and the romantic puff sleeves the designers love. The floral pattern, adapted from one of the vintage textiles Bergqvist and Schück found (this is a way of being circular too), is achieved not through spray paint, as in the past, but through a bleaching process. The end result is maximalism through subtraction. That might also describe the brand’s approach to fashion: low impact used to great effect.
24 February 2021
Rave Review’s Josephine Bergqvist and Livia Schück have been on quite a roller coaster ride. They’ve experienced the high of being semifinalists for the LVMH Prize and the lows of pandemic. Both designers got sick with COVID-19, one with a confirmed case and the other with a suspected one. Thankfully they were back in fine form when they gaveVoguea Zoom preview of a diverse spring collection with many sections.One of those sections featured the spray/stencil technique that the designers often use to ensure that their upcycled fabrics don’t feel too retro. “Spray really makes them more modern,” noted Schück who has the youthfulness to carry off a stenciled shirt from an earlier season. Overall, the collection had a salad days vibe. The most grown-up looks were the outerwear pieces, one of the brand’s strongest categories. A coat made using an astronomical-themed blanket was especially fetching.Upcycling, which is the beating heart of Rave Review, lends itself to a cut-and-paste sort of aesthetic and it requires the designers to be creative about construction. Bergqvist and Schück puzzled oddly shaped panels together using intricate seaming that looked great up-close, and took advantage of natural asymmetries when placing closures. Things got a bit complicated when cut-outs were thrown into paneled pieces where there was already a lot going on; pieced dresses paired with patterned stockings hit a better balance.Some of the best looks, informed perhaps by Bergqvist’s recent trip to Brazil, had a getaway theme and made great use of terry. The pair’s use of sunsets, palm trees, and tourist motifs added an air of permanent vacation and the frayed edges on these summery pieces gave them the feeling of the homemade.Home textiles are the basis for many Rave Review designs and for spring the team made use of patterned sheets from the 1970s. These were in abundant supply, explained Berqvist, because the decade was a “prime time for good quality [linens] made in Sweden,” and people saved them. The colors and patterns of those materials naturally lent themselves to languid 1970s silhouettes—there were nods to the ’80s and ’90s as well—but more importantly they spoke to the larger themes of the collection: nostalgia and escapism. Looking back at the 1970s, noted Schück, “with the hippie movement and free love, it seems like a very nice time to live.
”Nostalgia is built into everything that Rave Review does, but this season the designers’ reminiscences were more personal; they went back to their own childhoods, while at the same time looking at the idea in a broader way. Disney princesses inspired puff sleeves, and also appeared with other cartoon motifs on some of the standout pieces, probably because they spoke most strongly to the urge to break with reality. “I guess it’s like an escape back and into something almost like a fantasy world,” said Schück of the season’s mood. At its best the collection was a one-way ticket there.
25 August 2020
A very familiar, very angry voice came over the speakers at the start of the Rave Review show today in Copenhagen. It was the 17-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, speaking from the podium of the 2019 U.N. Climate Action Summit. “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words,” she said. Donald Trump’s voice was heard next, criticizing Thunberg and her cause as righteous and even whiny. The message from Rave Review’s designers Josephine Bergqvist and Livia Schück came through loud and clear. Even before Thunberg’s powerful moment on the global stage, this Swedish fashion brand focused their efforts on building an upcycled fashion collection.Bergqvist and Schück use only deadstock fabric and recycled textiles in an effort to reduce waste. For fall, they turned pastel and sepia-hued grandma-style floral bedspreads into oversized coats and cropped bomber jackets, and transformed old velvet curtains, tapestries, and upholstery jacquards into skinny, low-slung trousers and body-hugging corsets. The tailoring was sophisticated, especially the way the coats were nipped and tucked just so at the waist. Rave Review’s clothes this season had a DIY quality to them without feeling unfinished, which can be difficult to master when working with upcycled materials. The fact that their clever designs speak to the pressing issue of sustainability makes them worth paying attention to all the more.
28 January 2020