MINNA PALMQVIST
Minna Palmqvist has been creating for her own design studio for 15 years. Some label her Fashion Designer others, an Artist; both are true but she does not care much for categorizing her work as either or. Coming from a BA in artisanal clothesmaking in Finland, her Konstfack Textile MA added a long longed for critical and artistic aspect to creating fashion, and took her work on a more conceptual path.
Minna works in the fluid space between fashion and art where her garments, objects and installations spill over into and build upon each other. Through the years, Minna’s work has centered around the female body, questioning beauty standards and the normative ways in which we define women. Over time and quite organically, this has come to include trans and non- binary bodies, questioning the binary gender system and beauty norms in general.
Current designs expand upon her art project ”No Body” (2015), where five tailor busts were re-constructed and clothes constructed thereupon, to break the cycle of garment shapes and body norms being endlessly recreated. Over time the most recent concept ”Under Pressure” has been integrated into the process, using methods of production in the studio exploring the idea of Pressure, creating garments through a sort of controlled coincidence. The project is an illustration on the absurdity of contemporary production, consumption and personal branding. There are no seasons for the clothing, no collections, and each item is made in Sweden in small scale or as numbered editions. Most material used comes from deadstocks of garments and fabrics. Minna Palmqvist has been showcased in a number of big fashion exhibitions in Sweden and internationally.