Reaching Out to New talents

We are proud to present the recipients of our New Talent Award. Ten award winners have been chosen, all of whom have graduated from one of the top two fashion design schools in Sweden – Beckmans College of Design and The Swedish School of Textiles. In collaboration with the House of Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0%
The award winners’ designs are worn here by the leading Swedish singers Sabina Ddumba and Janice.

The House of Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% has always represented a culture of finesse and style. This was epitomised with the launch of Peroni Nastro Azzurro in 1963 at a time when the creative expression is what the 1960s in Italy was all about. That decade marked a final liberation from the post-war years, as seen in Italian culture with films by Antonioni that showed a whole new direction in cinematography, fashion, and music, and with iconic cars such as the Fiat 500. Peroni Nastro Azzurro reflected this emergence of Italian fashion and design and was developed with the sharp, sophisticated beer drinker in mind. 

Today, The House of Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% supports creative industries and contemporary fashion, making it the perfect collaborator with whom to pick the inaugural winners for The Forumist New Talent Award, presented at the Stockholm Fashion Week in August 2022. 

The careers of this year’s awardees are all in their formative years when the designers can choose to either go to join an established fashion house or start their own independent fashion brand. And if they happen to choose to start their own brand they really need courage and focus. To make the leap from being a fashion graduate to a fully-fledged design brand involves many trades, such as PR and marketing, financial partners, and strategists, that seemingly have little to nothing with the work you do. In many ways, the fashion industry is very similar to the world of music, where you can either choose to be directed by PR and marketing teams or go your own way. To liberate yourself. 

The leading Swedish singers Sabina Ddumba and Janice Kavander, better known as just Janice, are known to always make their own decisions. Two strong women in a tough business, trusting their instincts. 

“Perhaps it sounds vague, but I don’t think about what is hip or not”, Sabina explains. “It just has to feel right. When I work with stylists, I share my visions and thoughts, so the stylist can interpret it in their own way.”

Today Sabina is a praised artist and music producer, and as passionate to make statements for independent fashion as she is about creating her own record label. She is often seen wearing young designer brands on stage. 

Recently she released the first part of her two-part EP Dear 27 Pt 1, a salute to her age and what lessons she has learned so far. One of them is an innate urge to create her own independent record label. The next part will have an even heavier R&B sound and, according to the artist, will be the kind of music she and her friends would listen to. Choosing to go independent marks a new beginning and, as it is part of her whole creative expression, it is crucial at such a moment to make sure all the elements of the business work together to make it ‘feel right’.

Janice, who today is one of Sweden’s most established young singers, has been recently trying to liberate herself from her old being and explore new horizons. 

“I have spent a lot of time reflecting about what I want to say and meditating with my music,” Janice says. “I have also thrown myself out there and done things I’ve only dreamt of. I see the light so strongly, it might already be there.”

Passion, creativity, and authenticity are still at the core of Peroni Nastro Azzurro and now live through the experiential platform House of Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% – a celebration of passion and style, but also a platform for future talent. 

Peroni Nastro Azzurro has a long tradition of working with the big fashion weeks around the globe and has been the main sponsor of Stockholm Fashion Week on several occasions since the event began. Fashion and style have always played an integral role in the Peroni brand’s DNA and are naturally linked to Italian heritage and style. Back in 2019, The House of Peroni Fashion Studio was launched and became home to eight of the best-emerging designers from across the UK and Ireland. The designers received industry-leading mentorship and a cutting-edge fashion studio to help craft their collections for a showcase during London Fashion Week.

“We always strive to bring purpose to the communities in which we work,” Ida Schramme, Peroni Nastro Azzurro’s Marketing Manager – Nordics, says. “With fashion and style being an important part of our brand’s heritage, it’s only fair that we try to give back to the industry by supporting platforms for future talent, in this case by sponsoring The Forumist new talent award. We see similarities between the designers and us as a brand by the passion they put into their work. Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% exemplifies the traditions of Italian craftsmanship, passion, and flair upon which it was formed”. 

It was not easy to pick our winners, since Sweden at the moment is bursting with creativity, released after the lockdown of all fashion events and gatherings. From our own experience, we are well aware of just how challenging the creative industries can be. It took a lot of hard work, but in a great collaboration with The House of Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0%, we have finally decided to celebrate the true talents of tomorrow – talents that are not afraid to seek outside cultural borders, that want to liberate themselves and the wider world of fashion. 

Still as stylish and contemporary as a cold Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0%.

Team Credits
Photography by Pelle Lannerfors
Styling by Amanda Hörlin at MauMau Collective
Makeup by Elvira Brandt
Hair by Rahwa Belaye at RB Hair
Photo assistant: Nils Löfholm
Styling assistant: Sofia Maté
Special thanks to TTV Studio.

1) Linn Stooss
Unisex fashion is often mostly male-coded garments. Linn Stooss proposes instead to use something neutral, such as a non-human object, to be able to gain perspective. Choosing a chair she explores how that object alters our preconceived notions of unisex.
BA Fashion, Swedish School of Textiles

2) Desirée Bjurinder Fritzon
Modular garments play with function as an exercise to find new perspectives on previously preferred design aesthetics. Bold and edgy meet the understated in deadstock denim, leather, and wool and the outcome is a brilliant kind of power dressing.
BA Fashion, Beckmans College of Design

3) Linnéa Dahl
Through abstracting flowers, Linnéa Dahl investigates how knitting can mimic the floral universe and add texture to knitwear. All garments in the collection are knitted in a full fashion and with minimal to no waste.
BA Fashion, Swedish School of Textiles

4) Maya Sundholm
The Ugly in fashion have in recent years created the concept Fugly. Maja Sundholm is intrigued by the contrasts between the beautiful versus the ugly and her attraction to kitsch, a playground where she has created a collection where imperfections are enhanced.
BA Fashion, Beckmans College of Design

5) Alice Gruvander
The absurdity to conform to national norms is confronted by Alice Gruvander as she mirrors perspectives from her own identity and journey as a transracial adoptee. The collection is as much a political statement as it is beautifully experimental.
BA Fashion, Swedish School of Textiles

6) Elmina Ekman
Rag paper is a sustainable way to reuse low-value cotton waste into a new product. Elmina Ekman mimics that technique in her collection to create an experimental surface expression and the result is beautifully mindful of our resources and creates a sheer yet edgy look.
BA Fashion, Swedish School of Textiles

7) Samuel Westerberg
Borrowing your partner’s clothes is a classic style play for straight relations. In a collection by Samuel Westerberg, male same-sex relations inspire fashion to become both more intimate and tender as well as reimagining the phenomenon.
BA Fashion, Beckmans College of Design

8) Miko Maya Olmedo Gabe
The longevity of garments versus the new is investigated in the collection by Miko Maya Olmedo Gabe. Classic styles have enhanced drapings that would appear on the clothes when worn, creating a subtle beauty.
BA Fashion, Swedish School of Textiles

9) Alice Svensson Brostedt
Nostalgia and childhood memories are explored in the collection by Alice Svensson Brostedt, bringing handwoven textiles into a contemporary fashion context. Several of the garment resembles armor and their fabrics are woven by the designer herself, in a melancholic colour palette.
BA Fashion, Beckmans College of Design

10) Elin Arvidsson
Garment types are understood by details such as decided cuts and seams. In the collection by Elin Arvidsson, those details play the lead and by rearranging those lines she has created new frames for what fashion is.
MA Fashion, Swedish School of Textiles