UP-AND-COMING: DESIGNER ANNE MARIE SKJOLDAGER JENSEN

I always find it to be a special treat coming across a designer’s notebook: little scrawlings loosely strewn onto a napkin, genius in its rawest, most primordial form. You kind of get the feeling that you’re looking inside of something slightly forbidden. That’s what I have to share with you today… okay well, perhaps these aren’t quite as raw per se as napkin doodles, but these collaged studies made for the first-ever collection by 28-year-old Danish designer Anne Marie Skjoldager Jensen are still something to marvel at, nonetheless. I love the execution of these ideas and how they translate so adeptly from 2- to 3-D. Particularly in the instance of the drums dress. Staring at this, I think to myself, this idea is so abstract that I can’t even fathom placing myself in the designer’s shoes–finding and then committing to one (right) path for it to reach materialization. And then, there it is: the dress. We see it, it works, it is beautiful; it stays steadfast and true to its original vision.

The audacity, the originality, the heavy sculptural endowment, and fun, playful nature of this collection has truly provoked my curiosity. Let’s all keep an eye out for Anne Marie this year; I’m sure we’ll all be well-rewarded for it.