The garment this essay will focus on is designed by Ganni, a womenswear Scandinavian brand situated in Copenhagen, Denmark. The brand is owned and run since 2009 by the married couple Ditte Reffstrup, the creative director, and Nicolaj Reffstrup, the founder. According to their website, Ganni describes themselves as an alternative for Scandinavian fashion, they call it «the Scandi 2.0». Scandinavian fashion is famous for its minimalist, simplicity and earth-tone aesthetics. One rule that gives the Scandinavian style functionality in everyday lifestyle, is that every garment must go with other garments, which is why many Scandinavian brands don’t consider themselves season based. This does not apply only for clothing, but also other types of design forms for example like art, furniture and interior design. This nordic lifestyle has become popular around the world because of its laid back fashion sense. Ganni added on their website that they want their garments to have more personality, and playfulness which creates a big contrast to the down to earth and mature Scandinavian style.
Many of the inspirations for Scandinavian fashion come from Nordic history, mostly influenced by the traditional knitting techniques and patterns. The characteristics of Scandinavian fashion are geometric clean lines, modern, craftsmanship and political ideals. Other traits are the usage of natural materials such as linen, wool and sheepskin, these materials have been used through out the history of the Nordic countries.
One noticeable feature about Scandinavian fashion is that it has form for gender neutrality. The usage of geometric lines and the neutral colour palette helps creating a «unisex» look.
Ganni is a womenswear brand and they focus on the femininity of the female gender.
The Ganni «Weston Floral mini-dress» is a flat patterned constructed mini-dress, the garment overall is machine-stitched. The inside is stitched with a 4-stitch overlock. The hems are double-folded and sewn with a topstitch. It keeps the edges and the look of the dress more clean. The shape of the dress is based on a shift silhouette that hangs from the neckline and the shoulders and gives a column effect. This offers more room inside the garment around the bust, waist and hip areas. The shoulders and the neckline are covered by ruffles, making the look more playful and childlike. The bust area of the dress consists of pintucks, it gives more depth and dimensional details to the dress. The pintucks are sewn-on to the back as well to create a repeating look on the backside. On the middle of the backside, there are buttons fastened from top to button, which gives an easy function to get inside and out of the dress. The sleeves on the dress are rather simple, but are hemmed with an elastic band this makes the sleeves a bit more fluffy in contrast to the wrist part. The dominant colour of the dress is pastel pink and consists of a pattern with diagonal white flowers with black stems placed around the dress. The pattern gives a less mature and more a child-like feeling to the dress, which is what Ganni wants to convey with their garments, playfulness. The dark colour of the stem gives the dress more contrast and depth with the light pink colour and on the parts without sewn-on details. The colours used are a big contrast to the Scandinavian fashion neutral colour palette. Many Scandinavian designers get inspired from the nordic weather conditions, and that is why most of the colours consists of cold toned colours, mostly navy, green, black and grey. The monochromatic fashion helps creating an easy daily life outfit that can be used not only for the office, but also for going out.
Scandinavian fashion consists mostly by the usage of layers because of the harsh weather around fall and winter and to create an overall full look. In contrast Ganni creates clothing that does not need more layers to create a fully look. The details on their garments and on this specific dress gives a creative yet «effortless» approach to the usage of the product. Inside the dress, there are two labels, one that says that the dress is mainly made of 100% cotton. The labels beside the information about the product says «climate compensated label». The Scandinavian countries are known to focus on the importance of respecting the environment and taking actions to prevent climate change. Ganni expressed on their website that sustainability is important for them as well like other Scandinavian brands, they are tracking every Co2 (carbon) footprint to reduce their carbon emissions thus making their brand more sustainable.
The dress is made in India which makes it questionable if it’s 100% ethical. Ganni admits on their website that they’re not perfect, but are striving to improve in the future.
Ganni wants to ensure access to affordable, reliable and sustainable garments for all.
Ganni has made similar dresses in the past, but other materials and patterns has been used. They are season based which makes it difficult to keep some of the colour palette the year-round.
