By Linnea Dunne | Photo: Eric Satten
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Few creative industries in Sweden have managed to remain untouched by the no-bullshit attitude of creative adventurer Efva Attling. From number-one hits and sought-after Orrefors best-sellers, she has enough to be proud of before you even begin to talk jewellery. And then of course there is the jewellery – but, as the designer insists, you do not have to be gay to sport her Homo Sapiens necklace.
Efva Attling is sitting on a deckchair by the sea in Stockholm, painting her toenails. “In my mind, I’m already planning next summer. I never really have time off – my mind never stops working. That’s being a designer,” she says and talks about collecting memories throughout life and sharing them with the world through pieces of jewellery. And boy, does she have memories: of 12 years of modelling, number-one hits as a pop singer, high-profile fashion design jobs, and bringing two children into the world – just to sample her CV.
“I found my way home after all those years,” she says of returning to silversmithing. “I’ve never had a lot of patience, but I’d had my own tv show, I’d written loads of stuff, given birth to two kids… it wouldn’t have worked if I hadn’t done all those things. I had to live life to the full and then put all this experience into my designs, and I think a lot of women feel that and connect with it.”
Thank the Swedish insistence on gender equality for steering young Attling in the right direction, as she discovered her love of metals during woodworks class in secondary school, when the boys were sent to learn sewing and the girls got to go all out on wood and metals. Not one to enjoy the nice and quiet reading of books and taking exams, the restless Stockholm teenager found that the banging and shaping suited her temper. She graduated from Swedish ninth grade, aged 16, and started as an apprentice with one of the foremost silversmiths in the country, Bengt Liljedahl.
27 years later, having travelled the world as a model and, as she puts it, really done the rock’n’roll thing, it was a sheer coincidence that she had an epiphany when she, in capacity of fashion editor of a magazine, chatted to a model who was off on a silversmithing course. “It just dawned on me: that’s what I was meant to be doing!” Attling recalls. From then on, it was easy: the skill came back to her like was it riding a bike, and when she saw that her designer idol, Torun Bülow-Hübe, was in town, she went to see her. “She knew Picasso, she was married to an African-American painter who knew Billie Holiday and a lot of jazz musicians – she was so cool. I showed her my work, and she said, ‘Well you’ve got the shapes, and you’ve got the courage – now go learn the technique from the guys.’ So I did.”
Beauty with a thought
In terms of design credentials, Attling certainly has plenty: she has been awarded an enterprise award by the Royal Patriotic Society, had the honour of designing both the Grammis award and the Polar Music Prize, and worked on assignments as varied as spectacles for Swedish brand Synsam and wine glasses for crystal legend Orrefors – that is in addition to being dubbed one of Scandinavia’s greatest jewellery designers. But more than just a knack for creating something visually pleasing, she has a talent for provoking deeper reactions and encouraging individuality.
Already popular amongst trend-conscious celebrities in the Swedish capital, Attling’s jewellery got a world-wide boost when, in 1999, Madonna was seen wearing the Homo Sapiens necklace, having her personal assistant call the designer to express how much she loved it. But reactions were mixed. “People called the shop asking if you had to be gay to wear the necklace,” says Attling. “Homo Sapiens means ‘wise man’, or ‘thinking human’ – it’s about our equal value as people. I always refer to my designs as ‘beauty with a thought’, and if people merely pick up on the beauty, that’s fine, but sometimes you reach the whole way and people really get it. With Madonna, who’s such a control freak and who has such clearly defined values, it of course meant a lot.”
The thought behind this autumn’s new collection is all about that characteristic courage of the designer, and though its name, Balls, is not exactly understated, it went down a storm at Couture in Las Vegas, America’s biggest jewellery trade show, recently – despite the jewellery industry being massively conservative. “I wanted to call it I’ve got balls, but my agent advised against it, suggesting it might sound a bit over the top in America,” laughs the designer.
The idea for jewellery to work as boosters is of course nothing new, as Attling points out: “Pieces of jewellery have worked as talismans since ancient times: this one for the harvest, and another one for lots of kids – I’ve just modernised the idea.” She mentions her Go your own way design as an example: two arrows, inspired by a small tattoo on the back of her ankle, encouraging its wearer to follow their gut no matter what other people say. “I want to push and boost people and encourage them to be brave,” she says. “You just have to go your own way – you’ll only end up unhappy and miserable if you don’t.”
Her own way: to New York and back
The words should be encouraging indeed, coming from Attling who, if anyone, most certainly knows all about going her own way. Her love life alone tells a tale, as she has lived with and dated rock stars in 1970s London, been married to Swedish singer Niklas Strömstedt, the father of her two children, and is now the wife of another famous musician, Eva Dahlgren. It comes as no surprise that she recently and to great success opened a flagship store in New York and that her pieces are due to hit a number of UK retailers soon. “Being in New York is the greatest challenge in the world – and I love London!” she enthuses.
Still, asked about her reputation as a prominent, celebrated Scandinavian designer, she is unequivocally proud. “When I was in London in the ’60s, being Swedish just meant being blonde and sexy. There’s a wholly different respect for Swedes and Danes now, with an incredibly positive wave for Scandinavian fashion and design,” she says. “I’m super proud! I’m always bragging about being Swedish – it’s a no-bullshit thing; if we say it, we mean it.”
But when the Polar Music Prize was awarded at a ceremony in Stockholm last month, the award designer who took to the stage to present the first prize to the winner was someone who is not only riding a wave of positivity, but who has also given a lot back to her country: not primarily as Natasha, which was her model alias when she debuted on the Parisian catwalk, or as an H&M and Levi’s designer or a singer/songwriter and dancer, but as the brave, inspiring role model behind confidently cool collections such as Imagine Peace, marketed in collaboration with Yoko Ono, and Define Normal. The Americans may be too conservative to admit it, but we Scandinavians are not: Efva Attling has got balls.
For more information, please visit: www.efvaattling.com
