Where are those who were before us? This seems the special leitmotif for UBI SUNT, a crisp menswear brand from the North. Their vision: to create garments beckoning to all, excluding none. How they do it: by focussing on understatement, amazing italian and japanese fabrics and elaborate tailoring. A sharp and composed look, much like the founders Moa Wikman and Aidin Sanati. We invited them to speak on Nordic aesthetics, slow fashion and sophistication without frills. Meet UBI SUNT.
Dear Aidin and Moa, pleasure speaking with you. How are you today and what is happening?
All well! Thanks for having us, we are excited, as we just received our samples from Italy for the coming Spring/Summer 15 collection and we are much looking forward to Paris mens week to present them.
Lets get gritty: Could you explain the connection between the name of your brand and the aesthetics, as they seem seamlessly connected?
Ubi sunt is a literal motif used in poetry to celebrate the achievement and endeavors of one from the past, this is our foundation. How can we strive forward and create from the point we are today if it wasn’t for the achievements of previous generations? Our ambition is to be a forward thinking wearable brand, but with a strong respect for craftsmanship and tactile construction. Our aesthetics can be found in traditional tailoring, great architecture or fantastic textile creations, all of which have been refined over centuries and now it is our time to push things forward.
For AW14, you crafted a very sharply tailored and monotone collection, could you describe your creative process and inspirations, prior to creating the collection?
For us it is all about being relevant and finding a balance within the collections. We wanted to further develop gradually, using ‘texture on texture’ ideas instead of ton sur ton. The development for each collection starts by using light reflection in bold shapes, sculpting textures on top of each other and creating wearable silhouettes with a UBI SUNT touch. Our pieces often have small details that would only be visible to the careful observant and we like to use shades of a more monotone and sober colour palette.
Hailing from Stockholm, in how far do your surroundings influence you designs? Do you incorporate elements of Nordic functionality, or are Japanese silhouettes and Italian tailoring more prominent in your work?
There is a sense of functionality in UBI SUNT but it’s more about wearability rather than for instance having six gadget pockets. The Japanese and Scandinavian approach to design have a few things in common, mainly the idea of reduction and attention to detail. Italy is of course the strongest production country and how can one work on menswear and not include the Italian tailoring principles in their collections. For us these are pivotal conditions to creating quality menswear.
During your recent Paris AW show, we couldn’t help but notice that you like to challenge the male wardrobe a little. How do you see men dressing and how do they get the basics right?
There has existed a base note in menswear based on centuries of product development and tailoring, we do not care that much about standing out or forcing things to be different. Instead we suggest a modern take on traditional menswear and in some cases this translates the basic pieces to entire shapes by tweaking the proportions and using unusual materials. UBI SUNT is not here to provoke, it is here to suggest relevant sophistical cool menswear all together.
As UBI SUNT, is the brainchild of both of you, Moa and Aidin, how are your dialogues on design and who shapes what in the collections?
Well, after having worked for years together, the aesthetic directions come naturally for us, we have our foundation and it guides us while moving forward from one collection to another. As a design duo, we are in tune with what we should develop further, what parts we should reinvent and how we can make the collections interesting and relevant. For us, duality leads to completion.
How do you see the ever revolving ball, that is fashion? And what are its main future challenges?
The main challenges for fashion is to justify the fact that it is actually art and to show what it really is about. Fashion has been polluted by too many morally wrong directions, it has been driven into, the fashion term, scene and expression are so overused in contexts that have nothing to do with fashion. In the best cases they are clothing brands, however it doesn’t mean they actually have anything to do with fashion. This hurts the tailoring, the embroiders, the craftsmen, the artists, the mills, all those that actually creates real fashion. We aim for a return to the source.
Lastly, we love your textural interplay and selection of materials, could you give us a sneak peak on what to expect for the Spring/Summer15 collection?
In short, without revealing too much; expect further developments on the interplay of bold shapes and wearability , dusty colours , subtle textures and a range of exclusive jerseys and knitwear.