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Nova Nørgaard’s wondrous pullover with matching hat and gloves are most definitely not your grandmother’s ski gear. These sparkly pieces, part of the fledgling designer’s Royal Danish Academy graduate collection, were made entirely by hand using only thread and glass beads—about half a million of them. Artisans Jennifer Sapalú Choy, Rosalía Angélica Petzey Petzey, and Elisa Tzína Sapalú, who put in 310 hours of intensive labor, work with Pura Utz, a self-described “empowerment project” founded in Guatemala in 2018 by Copenhagen-based Anna Waller Andrés and Bernabela Sapalú.
This north/south connection is an essential reminder that collaboration is possible even in a divisive era. And both Nørgaard and Andrés define this as a political project. “I think what we tried to do is make some kind of poetic activism,” said Nørgaard. “You could ask how we can insist on beauty and poetry and reflection in these darker times that we live in. I really wanted to work with a critical take on value.”
Before Nørgaard could tackle such issues, she had to come to terms with her family legacy. Her designer father, designer Mads Nørgaard, is the third generation of a fashion/retail dynasty; she wasn’t sure if she would become the fourth. “I thought I really wanted to do something else, something that was just my own thing. But at some point I just couldn’t deny that it was the thing I’ve always done. I love to create, and I’ve done that since I was little,” said the designer, who has just moved to Amsterdam to intern at Viktor & Rolf.
Having gone all-in, and enrolled at the Royal Danish Academy, Nørgaard chose re-enchantment as the theme of her graduate work. As she put it, the idea was “to work with how to restore meaning and presence and poetry into the things we wear and also the things we surround ourselves with. So it’s very much an examination of the relevance of fashion.” She took as her subject wardrobe staples like jeans and the white T-shirt. Having some Norwegian heritage herself, Nørgaard also decided to rework the traditional Lusekofte sweater. (Norwegian knitwear became a big topic at the Olympics because the Norwegian team wore Dale of Norway’s re-edit of a sweater designed for the 1956 games in Cortina, and Team USA’s uniform made use of the country’s traditional star-like eight point Selbu rose pattern.)
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