Tourist Magazine

Today, Amanda has collaborated with the likes of photographers Lina Scheynius, Richard Kern, Roberto Rubalcava and Ana Kras as well as many more artists. She is also working with The Red Cross, of which the first product was a collection of 40 dresses that were sold in aid of the “Save the Mothers” project. dreamandawake is a friendly, ethical, exciting and endlessly creative label that emits a youth and beauty spoken through the dresses, photographs and Amanda herself.
She believes her early exploration into the world of the past, a place full of discarded, forgotten dresses and second hand treasures, laid the foundations for her work today. She says, “it surely began before I knew it, during the time spent playing with photo, filming and clothing. Then, while growing up observing and participating in different fields of fashion and production, I dug into the theories and logistics of sustainability. And within days and nights, dreamandawake evolved and became the offspring of yesterday. To simplify, it began with a dream and then I woke up and it was reality.”

Amanda left home at 19 and worked briefly as a model. She describes the time as new and exciting, but she soon became disillusioned with the often wasteful, consumer-driven nature of fashion. She says the experience helped her to gain an “insight into image production from many points of view,” but in the end she felt she had to do something to try and change what she was seeing. “Fashion almost always repeated itself so why not re-use what the industry had already produced and what people had discarded?” “My waste paranoia eventually saw the day and I felt sad that all these people’s time and resources were placed into the game of selling and buying products with often dirty origins and histories. After some time I decided to study textile engineering instead, to learn the basics of production. Maybe it was the urge to create images that forced me into building up my own pictures with the people, circumstances and means that were around me at that point.”

Amanda lived for a while in Hong Kong, where the high-speed pace of daily life directly influenced her, mostly because it was so tiring. “After having studied and worked in this city I got extremely fed up with the fast pace of relentless production and consumption and I was exhausted”, she says. “However, on one of my many strolls around in the dark I came across these wonderful, wonderful second hand dresses which were just too beautiful to leave behind and again, the play that had been sleeping for some time started all over again. It was in Hong Kong that she met Yin John, whom she describes as her dear soul sister, and with whom she has shared “a rollercoaster ride of finding a way of shaping new production chains and to communicate the ideas of recycling into China.” So with the help of a few close friends, in this place, this sleepless city, she began to move towards a more sustainable way of working and living. Part of this means giving herself the freedom and time to live with her ideas, with the dresses too, and create something extraordinary. “I like to decide over my own time and to shape my days and nights together with what is happening around me and in me at the moment because dreamandawake is a day and night occupation. I deeply appreciate and will strive to keep the freedom inside it which is why I aim to find flexible solutions and to do this a dose of discipline is needed.”

Discipline is also needed when it comes to sustainability. Amanda limits the amount of materials and circumstances available to her, which she says gives her more inspiration and creativity. “I also believe that this is an important challenge of our time, how to create something with the least impact on the environment and with responsibility for the conditions under which something is put together.”

The ever-changing tide of fashion and trends is something she does not consider when creating her dresses. Amanda prefers to steer her own course, and does so beautifully. “It is indeed fascinating to see how some things all of a sudden in our mind turns old because of fashion and changing trends.”

She believes fashion is the perfect tool to improve ethics and sustainability in today’s consumer society, because “we are all consumers and trend and information sensitive in one way or another. It all comes down to match production and consumption together to make a change in how things are produced. However, there has to be a demand in the streets for it at the same time as companies have to supply and promote it for the streets. Hen egg, egg hen.”

Since making the first book for dreamandawake in 2008, Amanda says, “the structure and where I want to push dreamandawake has become clearer. I am still playing around to try out the paths forward but within some boundaries of focus. Spending time with the dresses, living with them is a long-term research project in patterns, fabrics, shapes and also problem solving.” Her new collection, for example, has been developed from dresses with minor faults or stains.

When I ask her why someone should choose a dreamandawake dress over something mass-produced on the high street, Amanda carefully replies, “if mass-produced high street clothing was Goliath and dreamandawake was David, by choosing a dress from dreamandawake you could be part of the little rock hitting Goliath in the head. And if that is not appealing, why not tribute your grannies by wearing part of the past, or tribute the children of the future by being part of the change in the next industrial revolution where the customer is king again and every little step and decision is political…”

Who taught you to sew?
My mama.

Can you tell us about the world you grew up in?
I am from a little village in the middle of Sweden, small town blues and black and white. And at that time with the best second hand shops I have ever been to.

What is dreamandawake's manifesto?

"IN ONE WORD: EPHEMERALIZATION"

In a few words: To refine and play with the past for the future.
In some more words: Recreation of old into new

— Use old materials and revive and transform them into new products/materials/events/experiences/installations. 
— To use raw materials which have already been produced for other purposes, e.g. secondhand clothes/textiles, garbage, dead-stock and other discarded objects.
— Communicate our belief in sustainability and re-production creating the future of fashion. Work for a new commercial way of creating fashion and clothing doing good for people and planet. 
— Collect, preserve and share our dream. Step by step.

Is there a special meaning behind the name?
The name talks about something from the past but for the future...and this is it, we take something from yesterday and shape it today for tomorrow.
Keyword...= “inbetweenness”




What is important to you?
Family and friends. Love.

What is missing?
Nothing. Maybe some more discipline and clearer mind sometimes.

Where do you call home?
Sweden.

What inspires you?
Markets, objects, terribly good music, fabrics, patterns, good discussions, sleeping, resting, my home in London, train rides, coffee, baking, photography and little trips and journeys.

Where is your favourite place in the world?
My little cottage in the forest in Sweden.

What do you look for in a potential dreamandawake dress?
Good fabric, comfort and this little something that triggers me.
Alternatively it can be a trigger enough that someone has discarded it...

Where do you look?
Everywhere everywhere, flea markets, second hand shops, antique dealers, peoples wardrobes, basements and attics.

What is the process behind making a dreamandawake dress?
Hunt, harvest, let mature, wash and trim. Ready to eat. ENJOY!

Are there any designers that influence or inspire you?
Most of the time I am really in my little bubble and I do not often get influenced by other designer's already made out works. Nevertheless, there are many creators’ stories I enjoy very much, Vivienne Westwood, Katharine Hamnett, Henry Ford to namedrop a few...

You collaborate with other artists and photographers. How important is creating a visual world around your clothes?
It is essential for me. This is an ingredient that is inspiring me to continue. Clothes are clothes and by adding some imagination they become a language of their own.

Which is your favourite dress or look?

"RIGHT NOW, I AM REALLY INTO HOURS AND HOURS OF LOVE-MAKING SO, THE NUDE LOOK?!"

What do you wear?
A red dress or a green dress or a black dress...and exactly right now, a blue dress.
...
dreamandawake.com
Look out for the upcoming ‘Don’t Walk Naked’ dreamandawake expo in Gothenburg, Sweden, on the 12th August. The exhibition will continue from the 12th-15th at Sveagatan and is held in cooperation with ne-te-promene-donc-pas-toute-nue






Text by Seren Adams
Photography by Ana Kras, Lina Scheynius, Roberto Rubalcava Eefje de Coninck and Yin John.