Born and raised in Denmark, Anne Sofie Madsen studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts before graduating in 2009. She then went on to work for acclaimed trend forecasters Peclers and trained under John Galliano for Dior in Paris, then moved to London to work for Alexander McQueen as Junior Designer, before debuting with her own collection during London Fashion Week in 2010.
This season Anne Sofie Madsen was part of the Scandinavia Exhibition at London Fashion Week, counting 40 designers from the Nordic countries. Anne Sofie Madsen experiments with materials such as leather applied to a fine mesh base, built-up collars with unconventional patterns, and hand-drawn illustrations printed digitally on silk or wool fabrics. Her stand out fur couture piece for AW13, as seen in picture below, is a fine example of her design skills using traditional handcraft methods and couture techniques.
© Little Scandinavian. Anne Sofie Madsen at London Fashion Week for AW13
Anne Sofie Madsen has a desire to show the well-known through the un-known. The consistent play with various of materials creates a look of intriguing contrasts, which has become the young designers signature style.
A must see is the “Tiki-Mania-Maori” collection and in perhaps in particularly the illustrations from Anne Sofie Madsen, her graduation showcase from Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.
In traditional Maori art the most dominant, mythical motif is the ‘avianised man’ or ‘bird-woman’. The most important visual art forms are plaiting, relief carving and tattoo. My idea in this collection was to combine (and confront) this with classic, European clothing – in order to express the contrasts and borders between what we see as primitive/civilianized, exotic/classic and barbaric/elegant.
Anne Sofie Madsen, 2009