Driven by music, individuality and sci-fi culture Asger Juel Larsen has taken design to an entirely different level. Surely in a fashion industry that is constantly searching for the “Hot New Thing” it is always refreshing to come across a creative mind that can combine the likes of past trends with a futuristic flair. Mixing ideas that have been loved and designs that can be definitely labeled as “up-and-coming” Asger has a very clear idea on how to make a proper statement. Chasseur was lucky enough to sit down with this talented individual and find out what makes this brand so special.
There is a sense of futuristic influences in your pieces. How are you able to conglomerate trends from other eras, cultural references and such bold patterns so smoothly?
Personally, I like blending materials and styles while attempting to move the line in different directions. A single inspiration concept is never enough for me and often becomes trivial. Therefore, I aim to work from a rather wide perspective without eliminating any options, treatments and patterns. The process is rather holistic and normally leads to an end product completely different from what we started off with, without losing its sense of meaning, utility and cohesion.
Does your inventive outlook come from a certain time period or happening in your life?
Both my childhood and youth serve as a foundation. Each collection has a different outlook, borrowing elements from music, travels, colours, scents or memories. It is important to develop each collection conjoint with different inspirations. It is hard to generalize, but I do have a profound love for military tailoring, 1980’s sci-fi novels and cartoons.
Gothic accents are pretty obvious in all of your collections. What is it that attracts you towards this path?
This is based on the premises that most people perceive Goths as outcasts of the society. The clichés surrounding Goths can be quite entertaining to work with. Basically, this derives from my admiration for people who step out of the group / normality, equipped with an attitude saying: ‘F##k you, here I come and I love it’
Since we are on the topic of Goth, have any aspects tied to music led you to to produce such thought provoking pieces?
We constantly listen to music when we work in the studio. For me it is more important to note, that for instance for each runway show we work extremely hard to set the exact mood by making the runway playlist from scratch to go with the collection.
We were pleasantly surprised to see that in your AW13 short film, you decided to put the focus on a woman, despite being primarily a menswear designer. Should we expect a full womenswear line soon?
The story focused on a beautiful girl dancing in rainy Daegu located in South Korea while being observed and admired by a local gang of South Korean boys. Every season I use a girl or two in the shows, for me this contrast, adds some additional muscular strength to the guys. Nonetheless, our diffusion line A.J.L MADHOUSE is unisex, so let’s see how this continues before venturing into a full womenswear line. So far we have kept these strictly separate and maintain our focus on menswear for the mainline.
You have a clever manner in which you combine art, emotion and fashion. Is there an area you feel that has been untouched in your designing journey?
There are plenty. My entire body shivers just thinking about these voids. Personally, I feel that I have so much creativity bustling inside continuously. I cannot help myself from getting all excited for the next collection long before the current season is finished. Making short films and costumes for movies is definitely something I would like to be doing more in the future.
What changes in the fashion world do you feel may occur in the next few years and where do you see yourself in it?
The fashion industry seems to be in turmoil. Especially when it comes to sustainability, quality and longevity. Elements from the 1990’s, cheap plastic and twenty-four-hour-party-fashion have been recycled so many times the past five years. One starts to feel this fast fashion movement is slowly coming to an end. According to me people shift towards quality and well fitted garments. In the future, hopefully more and more girls or boys will feel the need to buy a quality tailored heavy wool coat that will last them for many cold winters than opt for disposable mass marketed garments.