Food & Drink

Nordic Museum Shows Lady Gaga-Approved Fashion

The Nordic Fashion Biennale brings cutting-edge arts to Ballard.

By Seattle Mag September 16, 2011

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This article originally appeared in the October 2011 issue of Seattle magazine.

Surely there is no better name than Hrafnhildur Arnardottir, the New York–based Icelandic artist famous for her outlandish sculptures, installations and costumes made of braided hair and wildly woolly fabrics.

Arnardottir, who also goes by the handle “Shoplifter” and is a frequent collaborator with Björk, is the curator of Looking Back to Find Our Future, the keystone exhibit at the Nordic Fashion Biennale, which for the first time ever will take place in the U.S.—in Ballard, naturally.

Shoplifter has pulled together bleeding-edge fashion, jewelry and craft from Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Sweden and Norway, including designs by Vera Thordardottir, whose clothes have been made famous by Lady Gaga.

Also on the biennale bill is Magma, a darkly captivating short by two emerging Faroese filmmakers (don’t wait for it to come to your local multiplex); the North by Northwest Fashion competition; and a music showcase featuring rock bands from Iceland and the Faroe Islands. If it isn’t yet clear: This is the new Nordic swing. Leave the lutefisk at home.

9/30–11/13. Times and prices vary. Nordic Heritage Museum, 3014 NW 67th St.; 206.789.5707; nordicfashionbiennale.com.

 

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