SCANDINAVIAN brand Filippa K collaborated with photographer J.H. Engström on a limited edition book titled It’s Been 30 Years to celebrate the brand’s thirtieth anniversary.
The book features unpublished imagery from the Swedish photographer alongside photographs of recently captured archival garments from the brand. Liisa Kessler, the Creative Director of Filippa K, was appointed her position in 2021 and explains that much of her inspiration derived from the brand’s early work from the 90s and Engström’s book From Back Home.
Filippa K x J.H. Engström Book
The idea of publishing a book as a commemoration of the milestone came to fruition through conversations between the creative director and the photographer, who states that From Back Home was his effort to explore the memories of his childhood and delve into the places and spaces that shaped him.
Engström’s conversations with Kessler regarding these themes, alongside those of time, place, energies and expression, provoked the initiation of It’s Been 30 Years.
Filippa K x J.H. Engström Book
Engström was given complete creative freedom to express both artists’ origins and reflect the language of Filippa K. The book is a collection of images demonstrating a selection from the brand’s archive picked out by Kessler.
Each piece is sourced from as early as their founding year of 1993 and is conveyed through still life imagery, in which each garment or accessory is treated as a historical object, representing a moment in time.
In between the newly captured, the never-been-seen-before images from Engström’s archives reveal his time residing in the terrains of Värmland, Sweden. It’s Been 30 Years brings together the contrasting characteristics of Sweden and France, places cherished by Kessler and Engström while simultaneously continuing the quest for and significance of home.
by Nicole Pereira