THE COMPLEXITIES OF SIMPLICITY LINIE

Interview Latoya P. Henry

In light of sophistication, complex detailing and simplicity, LINIE highlights the beauty of contemporary design. Focusing on one-pattern-piece theory to create highly detailed garments that express the sharpest shape and movement of the body. While the designer, Maria Hedmark’s goal is to create multifunctional-geometrical pieces, I’m most fascinated with the designer’s sharp attention to detail and how she completely focuses on cut, pattern and texture. Overall with Maria Hedmark's extensive grasp for what women want, LINIE is a brand the expresses the capability to be chic, strong and timeless. 

One of the most interesting parts of design is the capability to explore versatility, do you feel designers create an element of surprise that is functional and versatile and what’s your design approach? 

Well I’m not sure if you know about my pattern making technique. I work a lot with one-piece patterns, so I try to make it super technical. It’s more complex than you might see, there are less seams than normal, and with fabrics I usually also try to have a very interesting and versatile line up, using more soft and stiff fabrics, some that are draped. Combined with a mixture of different textures, it’s not only your eyes that you should look at it with, but also your hands, texture is the most important aspect of design. 

So what is your most favorite texture to work with in general?

I love heavy fabrics, from the beginning I started working as a menswear designer and tailor, preferably I love the texture in menswear suits. In terms of versatile clothing I create pieces that have multifunctional capabilities. I think it’s more now,... Also I think it would make you want to wear the same piece in a few days.

A lot of designers don’t do that?

I think it has a lot to do with smart design. For me it’s not so two-dimensional, just front and back. For instance I did this dress for fall 2014 and also Spring 2015, it can be worn with pants or an open skirt, with a shirt underneath.

Now is the pattern for the dress lace? 

Yes. It's fused lace with printed floral.

You’ve gathered inspiration from Man Ray’s 1916 masterpiece, what are a few important fundamentals you used in order to execute your Fall/Winter 2015 collection and in what way do these components affect the aesthetics of this collection compared to previous works?

Well, first of all I look a lot into the fabrics which is actually the most important. Then also from Man Ray, his art pieces that I based my collection on, he used a lot of negative space, he drew a lot of pictures and cut it out. What I noticed is that the pieces that were cut out from the negative space created a really nice pattern. So I wanted to work a lot with the negative space and try to get that into it and sometimes that could be what I want to have it like, but then in the end maybe it’s just the thought of it. The pants for example instead of cutting the sides off I actually made them into a design detailing, from what you could see it’s actually a square, but I seamed it as the shape of a leg and this creates a really nice design detail.

Well I always liked working with geometrical shapes and very sharp lines. I think in this collection I will still continue doing sharp lines and cuts. However, for next season I think there is going to be a lot of draping, but still keep the sharp geometrical detailing as well as prints. This season is also geometrical-abstract dealing with negative space especially when cutting out a blazer. 

In terms of aesthetics, I feel it’s very consistent and it definitely developed more compared to previous seasons, my current collections contain a stronger finish and value of the clothing.

Speaking of aesthetics, share a bit about your design approach. How do you normally build concept for a new collection?

So for each collection, I don’t research in trends; it’s more about what kind of artist I like and their work, I could feel almost as if we’re collaborating, but it’s actually not a collaboration. It’s me interpreting what the artist is trying to reflect, so the design process is always different. Going from the artist and seeing how he or she’s working, I then try to build my own concept from that. Usually the colors I select come from the artists as well as the prints. For the most part the fabrics are the most important. I think it’s so important to have something new and just not solid and basic. Even though a garment may have a simple shape you could really make it stand out so much more with an interesting fabric.

What do you want to distinguish with this collection compared to previous works?

Well with this collection, I think it’s definitely about being versatile and using a lot of different colors that merge very well together also that it has a lot of texture. It doesn’t just have to be monochromatic colors to make it work, it has more to do with how they are all together. Almost to the edge of being scary, like the yellow in the collection it’s very distinctive and not a lot of people would wear it, but it’s very daring and scary. At the same point, the prints for example are kind of bold. Personally, I actually I love to wear black, but I think the selection of colors work very well together in this collection. So just to make a specific concept I would ask suggestions from my husband who is a Retoucher and Video Editor, he works with a lot of color editing and I learn a lot from him. Sometimes I would ask his opinion on what colors are missing and then he could tell me, hmm… yellow.

So who is the ideal woman wearing LINIE brand?

It’s a very strong woman, independent but doesn’t need to be so independent, but definitely secure in her femininity. My clothes are not supposed to be sexy, its supposed to be feminine and you should feel like a female, but still you shouldn’t have to feel too cute. I think it’s very important that you should feel like you’re not below anyone else. You’re strong and you could pull this off.