Rave Review upends Swedish Midsummer traditions in framing The script for their Spring series. Legend has it that if the seven flowers were sleeping under the pillow on Midsummer Eve, the maiden would dream of her future husband. Instead, Josephine Bergqvist and Livia Schück imagined later finding a woman who might not have slept alone — and likely borrowed her lover’s sheets.
Five years ago, the duo launched their upcycled recycling line, and to that end, their 32th collection, the idea is to focus on the brand’s signature in terms of cut, silhouette and fabric. To that end, the spring collection features what Bergqvist describes as “traditional” Swedish bedding with a “shabby, very romantic vibe”, which was also used for their debut. Not surprisingly, the Rave Review is full of love and chintz, Bergqvist recently married, and of course, her own line is upcycled. Her wedding florist worked with a set designer to create the floral arches used in the collection’s lookbook.
In the beautiful design, the designer uses frills for woven fabrics and floral prints of stretch lace, echoing the choppy rhythm created by the collage effect of spirals and panel cuts, Bergqvist and Schück have developed a fabric that works well with limited vintage and dead-end fabrics. (This season’s Rave Review also used new materials made from recycled fibers.) The designers decided to dye crochet tablecloths and other materials an acid yellow, which also helped avoid saccharin, keeping the denim and their signature plaid.
This is a dress-focused outing from Rave Review, and a relatively simple zip-front parallel Crepe coat dresses may attract new customers; cropped jackets and skirt suits are more demanding and less persuasive; more original than overexposed. Bra-style straps on the glamorous miniskirt with side skirts give a “90 vibe; the dazzling Bebe-inspired logo tee goes straight to the Y2K-loving crowd as does the crescent bag. These glitters are used more effectively as a surface finish on printed fabrics, a new development.
Due to the use of vintage materials in their work, Bergqvist and Schück have always maintained that there is an inherent nostalgia in their work. Beyond that, most of their The pieces all tap into their own youthful experiences. Spring’s collection is more meta because it looks back on five years of work. One of the most personal styles is jewelry, assembled from old “Majblomman” (Mayflower) pendants The designer, as a schoolgirl, sold the pendants to raise money 115 a one-year-old charity aimed at eradicating child poverty. What a great way to gild lilies.
