ART COMES FIRST AT CIFF CRYSTAL HALL, COPENHAGEN BY SELECTISM

For a second season, Selectism traveled to Denmark to experience the Copenhagen International Fashion Fair (CIFF), a trade show and exhibition that shines light on the Scandinavian capital city and its forward approach to high end fashion and sportswear. We look specifically at CIFF‘s Crystal Hall, showcasing a select grouping of brands that provide a glimpse into the emerging talents of today. Copenhagen could not be a better host city for this showcase. In our first of two looks from CIFF, we spend time with Art Comes First, a rotating collective of designers, founded by Shaka Maidoh, Sam Lambert, who share a similar love in “researching” and “grafting” garments new and old to develop new concepts and designs or as they put it, to “try to find new expressions” for the modern day.

At CIFF‘s Crystal Hall, Maidoh and Lambert were joined by Liam Maher, a self-proclaimed “designer revisionist” and design director at Denham, and Milanese hatter, Matteo Gioli for the CIFF Crystal Hall exhibition – a continuation of their displays from Pitti Uomo and Liberty Show in New York City. Following the long legacy of DJ’s “crate digging” for obscure and hard to find, records, the Art Comes First collective spent time “flipping through hangers” at vintage stores in London, Amsterdam, Brighton, New York and beyond, bringing their find to Copenhagen for modern re-working inside Crystal Hall. We share this view into their work and constructions.

By Jeff Carvalho FOR SELECTISM