The third and final post about my trip to Reykjavík: the Reykjavík Fashion Festival! Eight designers were showing this year, and according to Cirilia, the room was larger this year than last year, so I gather that this show is growing. Like many of the big events at DesignMarch, the venue was Harpa. It was my first experience with the world of fashion shows, so if you’re new to how they work like I was, here’s a little run-down:

The shows are short – ten, maybe 15 minutes at most, depending on how many pieces are being shown and how fast or slow the models walk. After each show, everyone must clear the room so they can reset the stage and prep for the next show, changing out lights, set pieces, screens, and any other scenery being put to use. After waiting around for about 45 minutes, they’re ready to reopen the doors and let the show attendees back in. The next show happens, and the whole process repeats. In, out, in, out, in, out, in out… you do a lot more waiting around (and people watching, as everyone’s totally put themselves on display – this is a fashion event, after all) than you do actually watching fashion shows.

The Ziska show at RFF14

And speaking of putting oneself on display, while I didn’t put quite as much effort into my RFF ensemble as Cirilia and Stephen did, I can’t deny that I wanted to look good and I put some thought into my clothing choices! Cirilia knit herself a truly amazing dress with some Big Loop yarn from Loopy Mango and some Schoppel Wolle XL (distributed by Skacel). The fashion bloggers were all over it. Stephen wore a pair of his infamous swants with a pimped lopapeysa and a shoulder piece by Cakes and Troubles, and the fashion bloggers were all over that, too. I went a little simpler, with a few pieces from Velouria and a knitted collar. You can see Cirilia’s dress here, Stephen’s outfit here, and my ensemble here (all Instagram links). For the record, the people watching was great.

But on to the shows! I won’t write about all of them here, but here’s a list of the designers/labels that were showing, with links to photo slideshows:

Farmer’s Market
Ziska
Magnea
Ella
Rey
Sigga Maija
Cintamani
Jör

As far as the actual clothes, my favorites were probably Farmer’s Market and Ella. And for the shows, Farmer’s Market and Ziska (Ella’s show had a girl-power theme going on, but as far as I’m concerned there were some mixed messages about war and peace, both in the video portion and the models’ walk portion).

The Farmer’s Market Collection I could probably live in. It was the first show of the day, around 11am, and they kept a mellow pace throughout the show. I think some folks were hoping for something to wake them up first thing in the morning (for many residents of Reykjavik, 11:00 isn’t that far from “first thing in the morning”), but I really enjoyed the quiet mood. Atmospheric music played, and the screen at the back of the runway displayed a rural Icelandic church as the models lazily sauntered down the runway. It was the slowest-moving runway show I think I’ve ever seen. The nice thing about it was that you had plenty of time to take in every detail of the clothes. Farmer’s Market was creating a mood.

I’d call the Farmer’s Market style a little bit rustic; they’re definitely nodding at traditional garb and acknowledging a connection to Iceland’s history. Their knitwear is always gorgeous, and the styling for this show was fantastic as well. It was quite romantic, and as much as I start to roll my eyes when I hear someone bring up Kinfolk, it wouldn’t be out of place there. The palette is muted and often natural. None of these clothes would be out of place in Seattle.

Farmer’s Market at RFF14. Photos by Birta Rán, used with permission. View the whole slideshow here.

Mixed messages aside, I did really like the clothes in Ella’s collection, which was full of simple, wearable pieces. My favorites were the super sixties numbers with miniskirts/minidresses under coats – made to feel even more sixties by the Twiggy-esque hair. There was also a long dress (or skirt and top; I think it might be separates) that I loved. If I ever have reason to wear something floor length like that, I would absolutely wear that piece. The palette here still wasn’t bold, but there was more variation in color, paired with neutrals.

Ella at RFF14. Photos by Birta Rán, used with permission. View the whole slideshow here.

Other thoughts: the palette of the Ziska show was gorgeous (black, white, grey, lavender, and mint), Cintamani pleasantly surprised us with a bright and colorful show we enjoyed (they’re an outdoor and activewear line, so we weren’t sure how much to expect, but it was the most bright color we saw all day), and the Jör show was totally weird, but weirdly enjoyable (it was clear that generally it was the most highly anticipated show, and consequently the best-attended one). It felt like we’d fallen into some kind of steampunk manga. All that said, I probably don’t need to attend any fashion shows for awhile, but I’m glad for the experience!