Lars Wallin & Swedish Brands

When one designer is working with another designer, there is always a chance to create something great or end in chaos. Thankfully, the collaboration between Lars Wallin – the Swedish fashion designer whose clients includes the crown princess Victoria of Sweden to contestants on the Eurovision Song Contest – and Maximilian Hansen, Chief Designer of Nordwerk Design, ended with a masterful exhibit!

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For the show, “Lars Wallin and Swedish Brands in Berlin” (Sep. 3rd to Oct. 3rd 2021), the task was to create a cathedral backdrop to present a selection of Lars Wallin’s best work. And when working with a designer of his stature, it requires a high amount of flexibility throughout the entire process, beginning with the planning that took place digitally between Stockholm and Vancouver.

In order to make the fashion shine, Maximilian and Lars created four areas with four different themes. The main structure was a scaffold, the idea was to mount sheets of Re-board® into the scaffold to create open and closed spaces; juxtaposing the rough industrial scaffold to the clean walls created by the paperboard cut outs. Every room has a different look and feel, to reflect the different style of dresses.

The areas were accessible through a number of 4.5 m high gates, all made of Re-board® and attached to the scaffold. The final “room” was characterised by a large chandelier measuring 3 m wide and 1.6 m tall, hanging from the ceiling. This chandelier was light enough for a single person carry it despite the size.

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In order to achieve the right flexibility all pieces were mounted by sliding hangers into the big sheets and then hung on the horizontal poles of the scaffold. This way the horizontal elements on which the boards were supposed to be mounted to could be anywhere. The challenge was to design the backdrop to work with the generic scaffolding that is not made for hanging backdrops, since the company building it had very little expertise in set design.

The hangers were made in a way that they could not only mount full sheets into the scaffold, but also extend these sheets in length among each other. They also functioned either as one sided or double-sided, meaning a paperwall could be created on both side of the horizontal metal parts.

Due to the light but very strong structure, sliding in the hangers without any glue or screws made the project easier and more flexible to any last minute changes or adjustments for the final look. Because one must always to be ready for possible last-minute inspirational changes on the set design while working with an artist like Lars Wallin.

And of course, the environmental impact was equally important! By not using any screws or glue, the structure can be recycled completely, without having to pay attention to pieces that possibly need to be removed before recycling. A perfect example of green set design.

And since Re-board® is a very light building material, mounting all pieces was done by only 2 people in 2 days. And let’s be honest, saving time and material always is an advantage; financially and time wise!

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