Henrik Vibskov SS24 and Designer Interview
It was a disapprovingly hot summer day in Paris and we all gathered in excited anticipation for the 20th anniversary collection from Henrik Vibskov. To make this moment truly special his team passed around ice cream bars and champagne to celebrate this milestone in the designer's career. I was lucky enough to sit down with Henrik before the show and we discussed everything from ending up in Paris because of a girl to his other pursuits in music and architecture. If it wasn't for the fact that his show was beginning shortly I most definitely could have carried on talking to him for much longer. This multi-dimensional artist is genuinely an intriguing visionary.
Your designs and the way you present them seem to be very art-based, who do you design for?
It's a bit mixed clients. We have some, which are very young, who's buying the stuff. Then there's some, who are very visual, who likes more colorful stuff. And then there's also a big group of little bit old culture. So it's all kind of mix of young and old, and boys and girls.
What do you prioritize in your design process?
It’s not really like I know exactly how it should start. But this came a bit out of a slight nightmare or a little dream about how we box things in as human beings. We put so many things in order and in systems and we box them in. You see kids who are two years old [and] are moving all the red cups over here and green [there] and it's a big part of our brain and also how we survive is actually how we systemize stuff.
And then it went from the boxes, very literally, [to] how we fold boxes but then also to boxing as the sport because it was kind of [a play on words]. And then so it's kind of a mix of patterns taken from unboxing stuff, folding boxes but also the sport element, but we didn't want to do the, you could say aggressive part. So it's more… a little bit fluid. There's no fighting. They go into the boxing ring, but it's kind of this face off where they look at each other and that's a very big part of real boxing. When they have this face off thing where there's a lot of psychological [standoff].
How did you get started in fashion?
I somehow ended up at St. Martin’s because of a girl and that's kind of yeah… many years ago I started at menswear and then I finished it and it went pretty well and then someone was actually like, “Hey, you made it, have you heard about the [fashion] festival in France?” And I went 20 years ago. It was amazing and I met a lot of people from the Parisian scene who were like, “Hey, you should meet the president, Didier Kombak from the federation and you should come to Paris!”. [I] got a press agency in Paris and met all kinds of people who helped and then I've been doing it for 20 years.
If you weren't a fashion designer, what would you be doing?
Architecture, film… I actually do quite a lot of music, but mostly people think I'm doing fashion. You can find the music, it’s under my name and also with bands and stuff.
This is a big anniversary for you and thinking back to when you were starting out, what advice would you give your younger self?
I don't know what I should do differently, but I've been also pushing things. Okay, we have to try to make stuff and sometimes a little bit too much maybe. Also, going to Paris every six months is a bit crazy. Yeah. But, Yeah. What should my advice be? Be to chill out a little bit more. I don't know.
Is there anything new that you'd like to explore in the future?
I'm gonna do more, exhibitions, gonna do a lot of costumes and set designs coming up. Make some exhibitions, talk about them in Korea and Berlin. But I would like to think it would be healthy for me to also just take a little break and enjoy it a little bit more...because [it’s] always like, okay, go go, go!
