Interview with Vibe Johansson

I have long followed the works of Vibe Johansson, so when I met her at the Gallery Fashion Fair I took the chance to chat a little with her about the fashion business and of course her own. Falling in love in one of her styles made us follow up on the talk on email as Vibe have been home with her newborn child (Congratulations!). Below you have some of the talk about her process, the size issue and the more personal stuff. Afterwards a look into the styles, you should be dreaming about until the spring arrives, the leaves are green and the sun warms your body again!

Enjoy!

Vibe Johansson herself, the beautiful woman in black!

When you begin on a new collection, how do you find your inspiration and do your work with a theme/mood board?

When starting a new collection I prefer to keep an open mind – which means I don’t know where I'm going to end up. I don’t do themes or mood boards, but try to experiment with fabrics and follow the directions of the shapes they create while draping. The collections evolve over a few months, and always go through a lot of changes until I'm finally finished, often at the very last minute before photo shoots or showings.

For which woman do you design your clothes for?

I don’t have a specific character in mind while designing – however I believe my clients are strong urban woman, who aren't afraid of a little edge. I have clients ranging from their twenties, all the way up to their seventies, which I think is amazing!

There has been a lot of discussion about the fashion business and the models (health, size and BMI); do you think about the models you use for your look book/campaign images? And how do you feel about the discussion?

I think that this discussion has been long under way and finally the industry has been forced to deal with it, which I think is great! It is absolutely necessary to have some guidelines to assure the models health and the Ethic Charter issued by Danish Fashion Institute recently is a good start. Unfortunately it is very difficult to make change happen in an industry this big. Everyone still expects sales samples to be a certain size, and models to look a certain way. But I think it is slowly moving in the right direction.

I generally try to choose models that don’t look too young and fragile!

Five words or less that describe your own style

Black, black and more black...

Before I die…

My goal is to see as much of the planet as possible before I die! Travel is the greatest inspiration, and when I don’t travel I read a lot of books, which allows me to visit different places, times and mindsets as well.

My philosophy of life is…

Make the most of it!

When I was younger I would waste a lot of time trying to figure out the meaning of it all, which only ended up making me quite depressed. Now I just try to do what makes me and my family happy, which is much more satisfying J

One of my flaws is...

I’m terrible at finishing ideas. I always have a thousand things in working on, but I find it extremely hard to go back and finish them… I get bored with my own ideas very easily.

As you can see on the styles here, they are really my style. Drapings, black, white and delicate colours, cool cut outs and a feminine touch. What I first noticed about this collection was the beautifully draped dress and draped skirt with leather details. Then I noticed the item I really should have in my wardrobe, the most amazing silk and leather patterned bolero! It's really a statement piece and would look great on top of simple dresses and also on a top with jeans to top off a simple and casual look going out.
Next year, I will be visiting Mildh Press, to take a look at the bolero and trying it out to to whether it fits me, which I am really hoping for!