When Ann Sofie-Back moved back home to Sweden, in addition to recently taking on the role of creative director of denim brand Cheap Monday ('The Queen of Jeans'), we were curious as to whether she would take up a 'bi-coastal' lifestyle, shuttling between two countries. It seems Ms Back has every intention of doing just that. With the presentation of her Back diffusion line now out of the way, she is currently putting the finishing touches to the mainline collection, which she has described as "exactly what I want it to be."
The forthcoming AW10-11 collection is inspired by the 3D game The Second Life - and an avatar who is a lonely striper, which she named after herself. She told Dazed Digital how the fashion and the people within the game influenced the mainline collection, which she will show at London Fashion Week later this month. "We looked at the aesthetics of this computer game The Second Life...what's interesting is the fashion," she said. "We looked at the fashion there, but strangely what people mostly want to do is look like a Page 3 girl, which was quite surprising but fascinating."
Ann-Sofie Back, the Swedish designer who gave everyone a fashionable scare with her horror flick-inspired fall collection, has plenty on her plate for now. The queen of knitwear is taking over as head designer of Cheap Monday, where she'll handle "everything that isn't jeans". That ranges from dresses to jackets to eyewear, and has her designing nonstop for summer.
Independently of her street cred, Back - was also at Acne before launching her own line - is someone we'd all want to hang out with. And we kind of love her for giving the most honest (and comical) answer we've gotten so far about when she's inspired to work.
Indie-denim fave Cheap Monday has a new head designer: Ann-Sofie Back, the Swedish knitwear designer who had relocated to London for the past eight years. Her shows are always hotly anticipated at London Fashion Week, so we're sure she'll be a great pick for extending the Swedish company beyond its roots.
Back tells Rodeo magazine: "I have not even begun. But there has been much focus on jeans so far, and my task is to create a stronger identity on anything that is not denim."
