Gudrun & Gudrun

THE CONCEPT OF SLOW CLOTHING
As you can talk about fast food and slow food, you can also talk about fast clothing and slow clothing. The concept of the Gudrun&Gudrun Collections is definitely slow clothing. The major parts of the collections are hand-knitted. Meaning that women on the Faroe Islands and in Jordan have spent hours and hours in their houses on every single piece; literally knitting time into every piece of the clothing.

When you buy a piece from Gudrun&Gudrun, you will have more than a piece of clothing. Comfort, conscience, slowness and oceans of time are knitted into the clothes. And you automatically feel relaxed when wrapped up in one of the oversized wooly coats.

The dream of the past - where we all had plenty of time, where nature was not polluted and where natural materials were a matter of course - is the essence of the feeling when wearing the clothes. The spare time we do not have ourselves is acquired by the hours spent by the knitting ladies. The conscience about nature is comforted by the knowledge that the production is sustainable and good old natural materials assure the quality.

GUDRUN & GUDRUN - THE WOMEN BEHIND THE BRAND
Guðrun & Guðrun is owned by two Faroese women, Designer Gudrun Ludvig & Manager Gudrun Rogvadottir. The creative process of design is very closely linked to the isolation of the place. “It’s good to come to Tokyo, New York or Paris for input and inspiration, but it’s crucial to come back home to the silence and not be disturbed by the hectic life of fashion” the designer concludes.

THE PHILOSOPHY
SUSTAINABLE The Faroese yarn and lambskins used in the G&G production are waste products. The sheeps are kept for the mutton, so no animals are used for our production only. In our new accessories line we use fish leather. This is also a waste product. The fish is caught for eating - and we make use of the skins.

RESPONSIBLE The handmade production is jointly produced by Faroese and Jordanian women. We know every one of the knitters by name and our ambition is to always be proud and happy when looking them into their eyes. We know the philosophy of our other suppliers. They are all from the European Union and they all follow environmental and ethical rules set by the European Union.

ORGANIC Our most sold ever line of classic sweaters is made from 100% untreated and undyed Faroese wool. The Faroese sheep are living in the mountains all year round - living on unfertilized grass. The vest with star pattern from the fw 07 pictures is also from the same line.

HANDMADE The major part of the collection is handmade by Faroese and Jordanian women.

EXOTIC On world maps the Faroe Islands are very often forgotten. If you are lucky you will find them as tiny spots in The North Atlantic. So tiny and still the frames of the myriad of life ...

THE COLLECTION. TO CREATE WHEN BLINDED
An old saying is that "Need teaches naked woman how to spin." This is an incisive saying for the working conditions of the designer. Just as the naked women did not have any clothes and had to find her way to get some, the designer does not have urban fashion and modern materials at hand, so the collections are created out of traditional materials and inspiration is found from the extreme light on the islands, from nature, old stories and daily life.

THE PATTERNS
Around 1900, it was custom on the Faroe Islands for all healthy men older than 14 to go fishing in the extreme weather conditions of the North Atlantic. They left the islands in spring and most of them came back in autumn. But every year the sea took its share of the men. There was no communication to the families back home during the period. The villagers could only watch the horizon for news. Sooner or later the boats would appear. The entire village would quietly wait at the mole to see whether their men would be on board. The patterns on the sweaters differed from house to house - and before the faces became clear in the distance, the patterns on the sweaters would reveal which men the sea had allowed to come back. The knitted patterns told an important story of life and death.