INTERVIEW: WOOD WOOD COPENHAGEN
“The term STREETWEAR is bullshit and over used - redefine the current aesthetic zeitgeist in style with one word? ”
“Possessional”
Welcome back the dynamic duo - so why now ? What stimulated the return?
Back in '16, we decided to show in Milan and then London instead of Copenhagen, as we wanted to challenge ourselves and try to explore new cities across Europe. We have experienced and learnt a lot by doing so, and it's been a very inspiring and motivating journey. Now we felt the time was right to return and show Copenhagen how we've matured as a brand, it’s great to be back.
You are a brand that cites the necessity of evolution as a means to being able to change and perform - what stage of evolving would you say you are at now?
I mean, right now is a pretty exciting time at W.W. as I feel we are working towards defining and directing how our collection and brand will look in the future. Especially our women's range that is currently undergoing some radical changes as we decide to create a smaller yet stronger visual range that reflects the "new" W.W. girl, this will start with AW20, and further in SS20. For the men's collection we have been focusing on the product, working around each product in-depth to make sure the foundation is right to build on for the seasons to follow.
You took the WW show to other cities - what was the primary reason for this - had you fallen out of love with CPH?
No, we own this city. We started the scene here and we just needed to leave for a while, get stimulated from other cultures, we always knew we'd return.
Or was it to engage other cultures in key metropolis' such as London where you showed 3 times on schedule?
Something like that.
Copenhagen has for a long time been home to a revolutionary punk rock modernist design attitude guided by the liked of yourselves, Soulland, Tonsure, Han Kjøbenhan - why do you think this is?
The only other brands I know here are Soulland; they are good friends of mine, Norse too. I can't speak on their behalf, for Wood Wood I can say I don't think we are too pretentious towards what we do really, I guess that's a strength within our brand.
In your absence the evolution of Copenhagen is almost palatable let alone incredibly visible - has this encouraged your return?
No, I liked the way CPHFW decided to focus 100% on sustainability. Back in the days, the hype around Copenhagen fashion week was Scandi fashion, and you'd see all these lame Swedish and Danish brands coming together trying to make everyone look alike. Luckily all that is gone, and there's a new scene and new goal to make brands understand they have a huge responsibility to get their shit together and put focus on their CSR strategies, that's one reason, the other one was as I mentioned, we own this city, so it was time to come back.
More eyes are on CPH than are on London FW - discuss / agree / disagree?
Yes, I feel so, better people, better vibes, a clear vision of the week and way better-organised logistically for press and buyers. I mean, London surprised me! I felt a sense of arrogance, not once did any official people from the BFC reach out and thank us for our participation. After all, we put a lot of work and money into it. I think that was an extremely amateur situation.
Copenhagen is a city now finally governed by democrats and in turn has the ability to be guided by youth and their enthusiasm to change things both aesthetically and politically - was this always the drive of Wood Wood - to make people see and think differently?
Wood Wood started in 2002 when there was basically nothing here really, and I'm not sure NOMA was even open yet. There was not any New Nordic restaurants, no Acne stores, no Meatpacking district, No Mikkeller beer bars or other brands or stores like us. We just wanted to combine stuff we had seen in New York, LA and Tokyo at that time, we wanted to make a space that reflected who we were as individuals. Having our roots in street culture and merging into fashion, back then Copenhagen was the world’s smallest biggest city.
The term STREETWEAR is bullshit and over used - redefine the current aesthetic zeitgeist in style with one word?
Possessional.
Finally - what has changed the most since 2002 with regards to woodwood the brand and your relationship as Karl and Brian… mates?
We are mates, but like any other constellation, whether it's a band or other business, we don't hang out outside the office. I think Brian is disgraced by me sometimes, and vice versa, but we still love each other massively. We've become Dads with families and stuff, so we don't party hard anymore :-) Wood Wood is still the same somehow, you know I tend to say that Wood Wood hasn't adapted to the time we live in, it’s the time we live in that has adapted to Wood Wood.
