Solitude Studios

Solitude Studios, known for its nature-inspired creations, is launching a new collection that shifts its focus from external natural phenomena to the internal nature of human memory. This collection, Missing (Memories), explores the ambiguity of truth and the fading nature of memories, challenging traditional design norms while evoking a sense of fleeting moments through its tangible designs.

hube: Solitude Studios is known for drawing inspiration from the interaction between humans and nature. What specific natural phenomena have a direct influence on your piece or collection?

Sophia Martinussen & Jonas Sayed Gammal Bruun: In the past, a significant amount of our work and personal inspiration has been centred on external natural events and a more literal interpretation or influence of natural phenomena. This primarily is the relationship between humans and nature, the different ways of interaction and the relationship between the two – and the interlinked reality that nature is one thing, interacting with itself.

But as we develop, we want our brand to follow. For this collection, we have surrounded ourselves with the nature of human memory, and with that, the notion of biases and truth. We like to call it the internal nature, in opposition to our previous inspiration.

h: Your studio is described as ‘unbound by systematic structure, expelled by energy and striving for balance’. What does that mean for you?

SM&JSGB: Existing on our terms, or at least the illusion thereof, is something that we have always wanted. Waking up and creating what comes to mind, and being able to consume all of your time chasing specific ideas, is our ideal life.

We also tend to go to extremes with anything, and often we go overboard with an idea or design. Over time, we started noticing it in our behaviour, apart from our work, in our daily schedules, relationships, etc. So balance is something we have always sought but never managed to achieve.

There’s this old Chinese curse: ‘May you find what you’re looking for’, which has always stuck with Jonas. So the idea of balance is this elusive goal, something to strive for – a longing that hopefully never gets fulfilled.

h: The Seaweed Bag, one of your designs, is made from leftover threads and dyed by hand. What inspired this design, and how does it reflect your overall design ethos?

SM&JSGB: The Seaweed Bag is one of our very first designs, from our first collection. What I touched upon earlier, regarding external nature, was what drove the inspiration for that. The collection served as a sort of anti-thesis in our brand universe. Titled Pollute Me, it was a story about pollution in its various forms. Extending beyond the ‘carbon footprint-esque’ pollution, we looked at it from an emotional point of view, and how we, as humans, pollute each other as well.

The Seaweed Bag was made for this collection. The idea was to evoke a feeling of wanting to walk around with a ball of grass on you. When making it, however, it looked much more like seaweed – hence the name. The bag started taking on its meaning and also inspired our view on many things. We thought it was important that the wearer carried something that looked like a piece of nature with them because a bag is also made up of natural resources. It was an attempt to bridge the gap between resource and final product, reminding the wearer of its origin: nature.

h: Solitude Studios is always curious and ever-changing. Each of your collections seems to tell a unique story. How do you conceptualise the idea of storytelling, and what role does it play in the design process?

SM&JSGB: The story is everything. The garments are a way for us to communicate our thoughts and stories. So, in the process, our collections stem from conversations we have, books we read, movies we’ve watched, etc. Essentially, they come from something we are curious about and want to explore. It often feels as if the story reveals itself through the sum of our current inspirations and curiosities.

Building the collection then becomes a question: ‘Does it tell the story?’ If not, we alter and expand it until it does. Usually, every look is its character, with a backstory.

h: Your collection Missing (Memories) explores the concept of fading memories and the ambiguity of truth. How do you translate these abstract ideas into tangible designs, and what techniques do you use to evoke the sense of memory just out of reach?

SM&JSGB: In this collection, we took an approach where we wanted the whole collection to be a story in progress. There is a starting point of a vivid memory, and from there, a linear story of it fading. The first looks are colourful and in rigid shapes, and as the collection progresses, it evolves into something fluid and vague.

The memories in question are a mix of our own lives and the memories of characters we’ve made up, weaving in and out of each other.

h: The idea of multiple truths coexisting and extending from one another is central to Missing (Memories). How do you see this philosophy reflected in the process of garment-making, and how does it challenge traditional views on design and fashion?

SM&JSGB: With memory, truth became a significant topic of conversation for us, because we all remember so differently, and perception is such a biased thing. Fact is not a given, and it seems that truth almost become a democratic practice. What is accepted as true is simply a question of what most people agree upon – a kind of common denominator.

In truth, we were very inspired by one of Hegel’s works, where he describes this extension of truths that coexist in their existence, rather than refuting one another. So what was once truth does not become untrue, but a previous truth, essential to the new truth. He uses a fruit tree analogy for this, where the bud disappears when the blossom breaks through, and then ultimately the blossom gets replaced by the fruit. Perceived by us to be the final truth of the tree, but impossible in its existence without its preceding truths.

We took this notion quite literally, as we saw the connection between the fruit tree and garment-making. In making garments, we often start on paper, then move to sewing toiles, and lastly to the garments in their final fabric and trim. We would like to challenge the perception of the final garment and claim the paper and toiles as equally valid pieces – an extension of truth.

h: In Missing (Memories), you question the traditional notion that the final garment is the most important outcome of the design process. How does this perspective influence your approach to creating each piece, and what message do you hope to convey through this reinterpretation of fashion’s value hierarchy?

SM&JSGB: Perhaps redefining longevity is what we are aiming at. It’s uncertain for us as well, but we have an immense amount of questions about it, and asking questions holds more value for us than providing answers.

h: Your collection touches on the ephemeral nature of memory and material. How do you reconcile the transient qualities of certain materials, like paper, with the expectations of durability in high-end fashion?

SM&JSGB: When we started working on this idea of using paper, it raised the question: Is longevity the goal of fashion? With the supposed sustainable rhetoric that is on everyone’s minds these days, longevity has been equated with what is considered great fashion.

For us, storytelling is more the goal than the ‘perfect’ garment that will last generations. That’s not to say that we don’t value quality – we do – but it is not the sole purpose of fashion. You could then just go to a tailor and have something of immense quality made. But fashion must also be an expression. There has to be something ingrained in it that you won’t find at the tailor’s – something metaphysical. Fashion should be a relationship between expression and quality, and often some expression is sacrificed or altered in the process to create longevity.

Therefore, we wanted to explore the opposite end of the spectrum, where there is no longevity – solely pure expression.

This exploration raised even more questions for us because we do believe in the value of embedded memories over time in garments. We believe both expression and embedded memories are what create the soul, so it’s also an exploration of whether the soul can exist with less time to create embedded memories (longevity) and an overpowering expression (pre-set story).

Having made these pieces, we believe that it can. We think the cardboard trench coat belt top that is featured in the campaign is one of the pieces that resonates the most with us.

h: Looking ahead, what new materials or techniques are you excited to explore in your future collections? How do you see Solitude Studios evolving in the next few years?

SM&JSGB: Paradoxically, we talk a lot about making clothing that is easier to wear – creating a deeper divide between showpieces and ready-to-wear. We’ve reached a point in our process where we realised we were trying to balance in the middle, making fewer showpieces and slightly too complicated ready-to-wear. So now we’re going to the extremes, making more conceptual showpieces and simpler, yet very Solitude, RTW.

We also have a goal of making our concepts bleed even further into our brand, in new aspects. Making it an even more immersive experience. Hopefully, this will be apparent sooner rather than later.

For materials, we always use a lot of materials that we find along the way. In this collection, there was a lot of wine corks and paper – both of which were trash that was meant to be thrown out. The cork came from a local wine bar. So we look forward to where our path leads us with new materials.

We will continue to choose objects and fabrics that add metaphorical value to whatever story we’re telling. For AW23, we placed more than a hundred coins on the collection’s pieces and accessories, telling the story of our hibernating hopes and the wishing well. This time around, we chose paper and wine corks. The paper serves as a communicator of both the philosophy of truth and our truth in the process of garment-making, but also as a simple remedy for remembrance – for writing notes, letters, or even just a phone number. The wine corks act as a metaphor for blurry memories of nights out, while the champagne corks symbolise memories of celebratory occasions. Long before this collection, we began collecting celebratory champagne corks and marking them with a pen, describing the date and occasion for which they were popped.

The next evolutionary step for Solitude will be to establish some production of our pieces, allowing people the opportunity to be a part of the stories we’re building, and to build upon them. At the moment, nearly all pieces are made in-house, which makes it a challenge to share our creations further with the world. So, that is our current dream and the next step for Solitude.