!!!TEST!!!

Artist Franz Schmidt and design collective HAiK have worked at Sjølingstad Uldvarefabrik, developing wool qualities for the HAiK, winter 2014 collection. They started from a standard white fabric the factory produces regularly, a wool twill on wool weft traditionally used for outer wear and nowadays mostly used in Norwegian national costume. Together with technical experts at Sjølingstad, Einar and Gunnveig, they were able to explore and develop qualities from this fabric. New textiles were made in a variety of textures and colours. Practically all the machines in the workshops at Sjølingstad were used in production of the woollen fabrics. This includes the looms in the weaving workshop, the dyeing equipment and several machines for finishings. For the design of the clothes Franz and HAiK went hunting in the factory locker room and found worn out work wear used at Sjølingstad and made patterns for various garments based on these, then they re-made them in the very fabric that the machines they were worn around produces. There is a feeling of a circle completed. A story of usage, function and reason of a garment emerges and keeps developing as it travels into the world in its new found shape.

While visiting Sjølingstad in july 2013, HAiK was in the middle of an ongoing research process about repair of clothing, under the project title Keep it. They were looking at how the industrial meets the human touch, specifically in clothing, such as in darnings, patchings and alterations for longevity. The Sjølingstad visit further inspired and fueled conversations between Franz and HAiK. In the old workwear at the factory they found the task specific wear and tear to be connected directly to the body, manual labour with its repetetive operations at the mill. An obvious insight perhaps, but only experienced by HAiK fully after a week of training with Franz at the looms. With Franz being an expert at the Sjølingstad machines he shared his hands-on aproach to fabrics. Through working at the factory the connection between manual labor and self-help appeared - confirming the work and research already done by HAiK on the topic and leading to a strengthening of the collaboration.

In the year long process Sjølingstad provided the weaving fascilities and the expertice. They generously opened the factory doors to the visitors, HAiK and Franz. Franz holds a unique position in the textile field with his production experience combined with his artistic approach and sensitivity. He has a background of working at Sjølingstad wool mill and has been the main link between the production and the visiting designers. Franz shared his knowledge of fabric construction as an expert weaver and developed the color palette. HAiK brought their unique approach to clothing and the design process including on site workshopping - developing by particapation. Coming in as an outsider with limited knowledge of the full weaving process opened up for happy accidents. Through the HAiK network and connection to the international fashion scene the products are brought into a far reaching context, with the collection being sold in countries like Japan, China and USA. In the HAiK w/ Franz w/ Sjølingstad Uldvarefabrik collaboration, production, knowledge and new ideas came together to form a new and higher entity - all parts dependent on each other to create a whole.