INTERVIEW #91 LOTTA NIEMI

Name: Lotta Niemi / Brand name LottaNiemi-RE:Made in Sweden / workplace LottaNiemi Design Studio
Based in: Karlshamn, Sweden

Occupation: Owner, Head Designer, Tailor

Get inspired by: Culture, travels, patterns, color, lines, unusual environments and texture, interesting personalities and lifestyles, music, other creative businesses and brands.

Instagram: @lottaeniemi and @lottaniemire

Why we love her: Lotta is incredibly driven and passionate about what she does. You can really tell she truly believes in what she has created up until now, and that’s a pure success itself! 

 Hi Lotta, we’re so happy to talk to you and that we stumbled upon your Instagram account. Tell us about yourself?

I was born in Finland -84, moved to Karlshamn, Sweden with my family of 5, me being the youngest, in 1990. I loved crafts, painting, styling my barbie dolls and making them new clothes every weekend that my mom taught me. Later on I started to make myself re-made clothes with unusual details just to stand out and wear something different and cooler than the store bought clothes. We also traveled a lot when i was raised up and even lived in The States a while. The traveling became something i needed and wanted to continue when becoming a young adult, so i went for language trips, backpacking, moved to London to work at a pub, and later moved to Sydney for two years to start my education in Bachelor of Design in Fashion and Textiles after I had been visiting the city on my backpacking trip.

This was the start of my 5 fashion-and textile years at uni, first UTS Sydney, then HDK Steneby and last at Textilhögskolan i Borås.

I never thought I would be living in Karlshamn again, but life changed and I moved back in 2011.

It's a small city so there were really no design jobs for me so I started up my own design business, at first alongside textile-teacher positions but after having more and more to do in my company I had to decide what I wanted to focus on. I took the step and started to work for my own business on full time and rented my first small studio in 2017.

We're very curious to get to know more about your freelance business, would you like to tell us more?

Yes, so the business started to slowly grow and today I have a bigger workplace and two employees in Karlshamn. We do our own unique remake-collections out of surplus fabrics, fabric off cuts and recycled clothes and textiles. Alongside that we do different design projects and tailormade sewing for individuals and companies as well as theaters and artists.

Some examples of projects has been designing and constructing a prototype menswear collection for wheelchair bound people, retro remake-aprons for a local bakery, styling and project leading a fashion show and a textile exhibition for a big wood/viscose industry, creating costume for artists and performances as well as for international hair-shows and much more fun things.

Most of the projects have been in Blekinge but I have also freelanced to Malmö to do stage costumes at theater companies there.

What’s your relationship with clothes?

Most days fun and relaxed but some days very time consuming when nothing feels right to the mood of the day or nothing seems to match although a big wardrobe and working with clothes and styling! Funny!

For every day work I´m happy to dress quite simple and relaxed in jeans and a vintage-or remade blouse and/or jacket from our own brand. For more elaborate events where I meet a lot of people and need to represent the business, I put more energy and thought into what I wear both to be comfortable but also to be different and stand out from the crowd. But as for my leisure time, being home fixing in the garden or out with our lovely but drooly big Great Dane, I love to just wear comfortable, warm outdoor clothes!

 How would you describe your style in 3 words? 

Cool, comfortable and graphic.

Any favorite items? 

I love wearing and creating interesting upper wear like blouses, jackets and kimonos. They are simple to dress up or down, change, mix and recreate when you get bored of them.

Where do you find inspiration?

Culture, travels, patterns, colour, lines, unusual environments and texture, interesting personalities and lifestyles, music, other creative businesses and brands to name a few.

Do you have a style icon, if yes, who?

When i started my design education David Bowie aka Ziggy Stardust from the glam rock era was a big inspiration. Now I find Iris Apfel to be a cool and colorful woman but there are so many inspiring people and artists so I can't really pick one.

Favorite stores/brands to shop from?

Second hand shops, small local boutiques overseas when traveling for example in Vietnam, India or Tanzania or just some pop up stores in Barcelona.

 What is a sustainable closet for you?

It is a closet with a mix of second hand/vintage wear and good quality timeless design pieces, where clothes can be mixed and matched in many ways and where personal style is more important than trends. I like having a few different styles of basic jeans/pants and skirts that can be worn with more elaborate and personal upper wear that I find easier to change and to style in different ways with layers, color, pattern, texture etc.

And not to forget a good pair of shoes, for example Dr Martens or sneakers to finish off the whole look!

What can one do that seeks to create a more sustainable closet?

Clean out the closet every now and then from clothes that you haven't worn for ages and hand them in to a creative tailor to repair them or remake them in a new way for you or give them to a second hand shop and maybe change them to something new even better from there.

Keep the good quality timeless pieces as a basic wardrobe, clothes that are comfortable and wearable and easy to mix with each other or with more elaborate, fancy ones. The later ones are perhaps the vintage clothes or the fun party wear that you don't wear as often and is easy to swap with your friends or change to something else at a second hand shop or similar once you are in a need of something different to sparkle up your wardrobe with. This could also be accessories to change your look with.

Material wise, there are some fibers and textiles that I think just get nicer with time and always are a keeper if they fit your style, they are linen, leather and 100% cotton jeans.