Bakkenist
Concept copy
Product copy
E-mail and Socials Copy
Articles & Interviews
About
Where do Agnes Varda’s cinematic world and the ever-changing resale landscape intersect? Her film “Gleaners and I” follows a variety of subjects, coming from different backgrounds, in their practices of gathering abandoned objects, be they potatoes deemed substandard from crops or random junk. The documentary highlights that, no matter our background, we all practice gleaning to some extent; we all have the capacity to see value in things many others may not. Artist Louis Pons, who partook in the documentary sees “junk” as a “cluster of possibilities. In other words, objects ready to be tidied up and re-contextualized.
In Fashion, one of the more poignant examples must be Martin Margiela, whose creative direction is perhaps best known for its use of unorthodox sources of inspiration, such as flea markets. Flea markets are the expended crop fields of fashion, perhaps the last place the majority would look to satiate our sartorial hungers. Both Agnés Varda and Martin Margiela proved that beauty can be found everywhere, and is not excluded to art galleries and luxury department stores; it’s ultimately subjective.
Despite fashion being largely commercial, it’s hard not to talk about Martin Margiela’s work in the context of art. And rightfully so; he presented a way of doing fashion never considered before. And this is owed to his capacity to see potential for beauty in things others hadn’t.
Similarly, Juergen Teller’s recent campaign with Balenciaga depicts pieces of furniture on the street deliberately situated in the backdrop of raw Parisian architecture, highlighting the fact that beauty depends on context, and that the potential of an object isn’t always apparent when framed in the wild of everyday life.
This editorial, made in collaboration with Stockholm-based resale store @dr.princess_vintage, was born out of a recognition of the similarities between gleaning and practicing second-hand fashion. Whether you are a store-owner or a consumer, success and contentment ultimately depends on the potential to see value where other’s don’t, and to curate them in a way that feels meaningful to you.
GO-TO GARMENTS, THAT GO WITH EVERYTHING, WHEREVER YOU GO
Summer means traveling, for many. And Traveling means anticipation. You imagine the places you'll go to and imagine the sartorial demands each will bring.
Traveling, however, also means a confrontation with the limitations of the suitcases; the occasions awaiting may be endless, but the dimensions of your luggage are not.
The Capsule Suitcase showcases the many directions our garments can take, stylistically. Even though we may go anywhere, we rely on simplicity, with garments we’ll always return to.
Among the many corridors we venture through in the complexity of our lives, there are but few that will always remain familiar to us. The hallway of our homes, its arrangement ingrained into our minds, committed to provide our daily essentials, ready to embrace the tiredness in our limbs and minds, unconcerned with the soil under our shoes or the water dripping off our coats.
The hallway is where our emotions tend to peak, where final words are uttered as we say good bye, declarations of love are echoed as partners part, ambition prepares itself for its daily goals and challenges, where chants of success and sighs of relief are loudest as we return home.
The hallway, the epicenter of initial and final emotions, a rich archive of nostalgia, and a gateway between life's inside's comforts and outside's thrills.
To strangers, it signifies a teaser to the peculiar nature of our homes, a first impression to the things we value; the hallway is to our house what a handshake is to our character.
Essem design's vision is based on the defining, many-sided, and sometimes overlooked role the hallway plays in our homes and offices, emphasizing its potential to elevate our lives with objects that emanate an uncompromising striving for craft, timelessness, functionality, and sympathy.
Sweatshirts with patched elbows, jeans with repaired crotches, patinated denim jackets, re-bleached white tees, knitwear with tonal patches, shirts with fixed cuffs, jackets with re-attached buttons, worn garments of all categories that still pass as new, photoshoot samples with cleaned up makeup stains, shrinkage tested t-shirts, pre-loved garments, never-loved garments, garments doomed to the back end of someone's wardrobe but later found and sent to us for a new lease of life, a shirt that once had a wine stain from a party that went on for too long, jeans with their back pockets reattached, jeans that saw the dirt a few too many times, jeans with their zippers replaced (thanks YKK!), T-shirts that once had their collars separated from the torso from an argument that got out of hand, knitwear with their holes knitted closed, knitwear shaven clean from those characteristic tiny pilling balls, flannels still as soft as ever; M-Regular garments washed so hot they re now a perfect S-Short, swimwear that clearly wasnt used only for swimming, jean jackets with new buttons hammered into them, various versions of the pique polo from the many attempts of creating the perfect one, worker jackets that had their pockets worn out from teo much work, hoodies with their strings replaced, shirts with a color faded but a future still so bright, pants that shrunk (or who's owner grew), oxford shirts washed but still as soft and substantial as ever, ligntweight t-shirts worn 300 times but have that same amount to go, linen shirts that only get better with every wash anyway, anything merino without loss of their original sheen and softness, shorts that end at the knee but don't end here, re-coated coats that had once lost their water repellency from owners we guess can only be from either London, Seattle or Montreal. Too many stories to be reduced to this piece of vinyl.
Come in and witness it all for yourself, this Spring, here at THE RESTORE.