Anna Skodbo loves to take pictures of random things she comes across while walking through back alleys in London’s Homerton with its abound abandoned buildings. The English designer also draws idea from the edgy Hackney Wick area, where she has her studio since last September. From the iPhone the pictures will land straight on her collection pieces of her label phannatiq, making the most atmospheric prints.
I meet Anna in the Exhibition Space at the Somerset House, the main venue of London Fashion Week. ‚I like the subtlety of the different hues in my collection and the way the colours work together‘, she reflects, ‚My last collection was rather monochrome whereas now I have these greys with hints of colours.‘
The collection is named abeyance, a state that reflects the label’s main inspiration. Anna is paraphrasing for our better understanding: ‚It’s waiting, a temporary hold in moving on, like a new house waiting for new owners‘.
After graduating with First Class Honours from the University of Hertfordshire, together with her lovely assistant Katie Davies she set the focus on creating and maintaining a certain feeling of the brand. And the challenge they strive for with their clothes; challenge the wearer in daring to bring out its own personality rather than just to look nice in a pretty dress. ‚Pretty is such a cop-out‘ Anna brings it to the bottom line.
On the technical side it comes to mixing fabrics such as jersey, wools, silk and chiffons and playing around with the stiffness of leather. Playing she is also with the different personalities of the fabrics, as she puts it. ‚I want to keep the difference up, they are so far apart.‘ I love her imagination, she would make a great tale-teller. I’d be first to sign up for her readings that would take us to the stories of all the back streets yet to be discovered.
