HAiKw/ FRANZ

!!!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.

HAiK
HAiK is a Norwegian clothing brand created in 2011 by the designers Siv Støldal, Ida Falck Øien and Harald Lunde Helgesen. They were brought together by their shared interest for the social meaning of clothes and appearance. With a fascination for people's personal and collective dress references, they re- search different approaches to clothing, dress codes, do's and dont's. Together they create multifaceted bodies of work, revolving around a chosen subject matter. HAiK means to hitch hike in Norwegian and the brand operates as a collaborative platform inviting people from a potentially wide range of working fields - so far including artists, writers, anthropologists, other established brands, manufacturers and designers. HAiK products are sold in among other places Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Bergen and Oslo.

Franz Petter Schmidt
Franz Petter Schmidt is a men's tailor and a textile artist. He lives and works in Oslo, and is currently Re- search Fellow in the Norwegian Artistic Research Fellowship Program at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Department of Visual Art. His practice is multifaceted, and emphasizes the understanding of production and craftsmanship. Schmidt is deeply engaged in research on the history of the Norwegian textile industry, and he is particularly interested in the production of fabrics for clothing in woollen mills. His research recently brought him back to Sjølingstad Uldvarefabrik where he worked as the head of the dyeing and finishing section for almost two years from 2000.

Sjølingstad Uldvarefabrik
A/S Sjølingstad Uldvarefabrik began operations in 1894 with production of yarn and woven fabrics, until regular production ended 1984. It re-emerged in the late 80s as a working mill and a museum factory. The spirit of days gone by still linger in these buildings where the whole production process from raw wool to finished fabrics is presented to the public. Being a living museum factory Sjølingstad contains and restores machinery and keeps knowledge of production tools and manufacturing alive for the present and the future. It plays today an important role in communicating industrial history and bears a great potential for further exploration of this field. This is a unique resource for both the general public and for the national and international textile area of expertice.

In 2012, I met the designers working together as HAiKw/ (53). At the time the company consisted of Siv Støldal, Ida Falck Øien and Harald Lunde Helgesen. Støldal left the group in 2017. The fundamental idea behind HAiKw/ is to collaborate with designers, artists and people working in other disciplines, and develop ideas and production methods based on these meetings. HAiKw/ also focuses on Norwegian production, and has collaborated with several local manufacturing companies, such as Aurlandskoen and Lillunn.

My motivation to collaborate with HAiKw/ was to allow my method, thinking, knowledge and, in particular, my relationship with Sjølingstad to come into contact with other people's attitudes, methods and energy. It was also interesting for me to gain experience working within a commercial framework, and to see how the material I present in an art and craft context is perceived from this different perspective.

For the winter collection in 2014 we worked together at Sjølingstad. We decided to start from a standard quality weave that the mill has in production - a twill woven using yarn spun at Sjølingstad from Norwegian class C1 wool. This material is used for the mill's version of cloth. From the raw fabric in ecru we developed new qualities and textures. Almost all the machines at the factory were used when Harald Lunde Helgesen and I completed production - spinning, weaving, dyeing and finishing.

I developed the colour range at KHiO based on conversations with HAiKw/ about the overall colour expression in the collection. Some of the fabrics were treated before dyeing, creating holes and threadbare parts. This effect was a continuation of the theme HAiKw/ had explored in previous collections, about healing and repair.

For the design of the clothes we examined the locker rooms at Sjølingstad, and found a lot of worn workwear. HAiKw/ based new designs on these clothes, especially on an overall that I used when I was employed at the mill.

The fabrics from Sjølingstad were combined with two series of printed fabrics - one developed by Ida Falck Øien from hand-painted chequered patterns, and another series developed by Falck Øien and the anthropologist Charlotte Bik Bandlien, responding to healing exercises by painting with watercolours. The collection was shown at Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo in March 2014. The garments were produced in Estonia at the clothing factory HAiKw/ was collaborating with at the time. The collection was sold in stores in several cities, including Oslo, Tokyo and Beijing.

In summer 2014 the garments and photographs from the collection were exhibited at Sjølingstad. The clothes were presented hanging on assemblages of old weaving equipment, tools and machine parts. Photographs of the clothes worn by models were shown in the exhibition arena and at different locations in the workshops of the mill.