All Backed Up

Following on from my bafflement over Victoria’s Secret, I thought I’d look at a entirely different and subverted take on that old chestnut – the “Sex Sells” trick.  I met up with Ann-Sofie Back when she was over in London two weeks ago to catch up with all things Back.  Things are still ticking nicely over at Cheap Monday, which she is creative director of but more importantly, she’ll be devoting more time to solely focusing on her own line BACK.  What was originally a “diffusion” line has now become a strong business, essentially combining what Back did with her own mainline shows in London and that elevated basics idea.  She had a higher end Atelje line for a brief period of time but decided to concentrate on BACK because for her it’s more interesting to see people actually wearing the clothes.

Earlier this year, Back was awarded the prestigious ““Torsten och Wanja Söderbergs” prize in Sweden which included a whopping £86k prize sum.  This enabled her to create a celebratory exhibition at the Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg.  “In a not too distant future BACK will have it’s own stand alone store in Sweden,” said Back.  “The future store will be more commercial, with the end consumer and sales in focus. The shop at Röhsska is the shop of my dreams, the one that would never work in real life.”  Back created a Pound Shop of sorts or an ”Allt ska bort!” in Swedish.  Her uncommon Swedish surname has become a way of logo-ing it up in recent BACK collections but used as visual word play in this exhibition is where you really get glints into Back’s dark sense of humour.  The chewing gum, condoms (glow-in-the-dark no less), toilet roll, dildos and lighters “Aquaback” bottles of water in Back’s pound shop all had this sort of punnery going on.

The exhibition re-explores themes that have always fascinated Back as a designer – notions of bad taste, the sexualisation of popular culture and our celebration of the celebrity.  The interesting thing with Back is that it’s never a judgemental or preaching commentary but a mere observation, mixing fascination with a faint  tone of mocking.  This is best summed up in the surreal appearance of a giant black lace thong, enlarged and stretched at various spots around Gothenberg to mark the exhibition.

Likewise her latest S/S 15 BACK collection is sort of like a greatest hits of Back’s repertoire.  Shredded textures, off-the shoulder tops, dungaree detailing, sheer fabrics, asymmetric fastenings – all physical reminders of Back’s work.  But it’s the way it’s paired together that really brings a freshness to the collection.  There’s nothing that says “diffusion” about what Back is doing now with this line.  It’s a solid array of genuinely interesting clothes with as much thought-provoking subtext as when she sent down skirts made of patched up thongs on the catwalks of London Fashion Week or when she passed comment on the normalisation of porn.  And in the process, wearability need not be sacrificed.  I’m hoping Back returns to the UK with a vengeance with a stockists or two here but in the meantime, her online shop, which has become something of a success in itself, will be my main port of call.