Today I’m very happy to tell you something about Johanna Pihl, a swedish designer who studied in London and started improving a very personal style. We love her use of colors and materials, and her own representation of haute couture. Let’s start reading what she told to us!

Hi Johanna! First of all, tell us something about you, your education and your philosophy
Hi, I was born in Stockholm – where I grow up. Since I was young, I have always had a great interest in fashion. This interest has been enhanced by all women in my family who have always have had a big passion for sewing and fashion. I recently moved back to Stockholm from London, where I have spent 4 years studying fashion design, Womenswear at London College of Fashion and now I just started my own fashion label under my own name, Johanna Pihl. My philosophy is to design clothes that show a confident, sharp and elegant attitude. My ambition is to create garments with high quality and focus on tailoring, detail and finish. I design for the modern woman. To her with a strong, sharp and a stylish attitude, who likes to reflect her inner with her outer style.

I appreciate your womenswear because you use to mix and match a strong design with soft colors. How did you get this idea?
Thank you. Well, my inspiration for the S/S12 collection was built on an investigation into the relationship between the body’s anatomy and the fascination with genetic enhancement through plastic surgery, focusing research on the contrast of our natural form with the cold metals of machinery. This idea of nature against synthetic is a recurring theme. So while the colours are soft and mostly inspired from our body and it’s anatomy, the design is built to represent the harder part of the inspiration, which came from the engine, and it’s structure. With the collection, I wanted to demonstrate that our body is constructed and calculated like machinery and by altering and reorganizing out appearance through plastic surgery we diminish out human design.

Who are the designers that inspire you the most?
There are a lot of designers who inspires me, but the ones that inspire me the most are mainly Riccardo Tisci and Nicolas Ghesquière.

What are your favourite materials to work with?
I prefer working with elegant and natural fabrics, which I then manipulate with, in order to get a sharper look.

How has your education influenced your way to live fashion?
As I said earlier, my interest for fashion has always been a big part of my life, but study design helped me to develop my own style and to believe strongly in what I create.

How have you decided to become a fashion designer? 
Ever since young age my idea was always to be a fashion designer, despite that I actually first educated and started working as a buyer/production manager. Having done that for a while, I realized that this was not creative enough for me so I applied for LCF and moved to London. Which today I’m very grateful for.

Which are your projects for the future?
When I finished my education in London this June, I returned to Stockholm and participated in a competition sponsored by Mercedes Benz, called Young Fashion Industry Award. To my delight I won and I’m now in the making of my AW12 collection, which will be shown during schedule for the next Stockholm Fashion week Jan/Feb 2012.

Interview by Irene-Anna-Gasparello
Photography by Patrick Lindblom