Fashion and print designer Martin Bergström’s imaginative creation, Arty Farty, has found its way to Nationalmuseum. Between August 13, 2019 and January 19, 2020 it was on display in the Design Depot in the museum.
The Arty Farty dress consists of a 15 meters long piece of voile, into which a collar and sleeves have been sewn. The construction is inspired by medieval ways to cut clothes and the whole piece of fabric has been used without any waste. The dress is accompanied by a pair of boots and a hat. The latter created in cooperation with Tim Mårtenson.
For the pattern Martin Bergström sought inspiration in the bloodstream and metabolism of the human body. From a number of sketches he chose different details of which he created a pattern in the computer. With the digital printing technique it is possible, for a reasonable cost, to print unique patterns on large surfaces without being forced to repeat it.
Wind catcher
The garment Arty Farty was originally designed for the exhibition Baroque at Kulturhuset Stadsteatern, Stockholm, in 2014. For this exhibition, Thomas Klementsson created a film where the dress was used by Kenneth Kvarnström’s dance company, under the creative direction of Kvarnström. The printed pattern and the transparent materials of the dress – voile and silk satin – caught the dancers’ movements.
Star power
The dress has been worn by the American singer and actress Jennifer Hudson for her outdoor concert at the Hollywood Bowl. It has also been used for fashion photography and exposed in various exhibitions, for example at the Textile Museum in Borås and at The Residency in Los Angeles. From 2019 it is part of Nationalmuseums’s collections.
About Martin Bergström
The fashion and print designer Martin Bergström works in a number of different areas such as fashion, scenography, dance, interior design, furniture, glass, ceramics and jewellery. With his hand-drawn sketches he creates an idiom based on the deconstruction and abstraction of natural phenomena. This results in organic patterns and materials that almost live their own lives. There is often a touch of black, both metaphorically and literally.
Martin Bergström was trained as a textile artist at Konstfack in Stockholm and at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. Bergström works in Stockholm and in Helsinki.