At SF1oG, Poise and Disruption Break New Ground

February 11, 2024

You have to give Rosa Marga Dahl credit. Since launching SF1oG, her collections have been a platform for a certain brand of downtown-esque style — that tough-but-tailored, neutral-centric look that has long made for the uniform of mid to lower Berlin. For this season’s outing, however, Dahl and her team took the opportunity to look further afield and pay homage to a different kind of style. Playful, soft and nostalgic were the brand’s terms of art for the look here, which emphasized oversized, structured proportions and sports-inspired functionality. The references were mature, and far from sophomore; that said, the same could be said of only a handful of designers who showed over at Berlin Fashion Week. But what makes Dahl one worthy of note is the mix of emotive sensibility and crisp functionality, which her vision harmonized for Fall 2024. “There’s always a need to have nostalgic touchpoints in my collections,” Dahl opined in a backstage interview. “This season, I felt the urge to create a lineup about school, because it takes such a huge place in building who you actually are as a creative. What I can also add, references wise, is that I didn’t want to limit my research to our generation, but also past ones like my team and everyone I know; I searched deeply into a wealth of old photos from my parents going to school, so it was a study of past and present tales.”

By Chidozie Obasi
Photography by James Cochrane

At any rate, plenty of the pieces had appeal, particularly the knitwear and the skirt-pant combo done in neutral shades and earthy tones, which added a preppy throughline to the brand’s style lexicon. “For the first time ever, we developed an arsenal of knitwear!” exclaimed Dahl, expanding on the usage of materials from 1800 and 1900, which are the very first groundings for anything she studies on a visual scale. Another caveat was the palette. “There’s color, so much color!” she then said, most of which didn’t come as strident as some of her creative counterparts who were present in Berlin. Elsewhere, volume looked particularly good, as did the maxi-shaped fastenings emblazoned across outerwear numbers and oversized toppers.

Dahl’s vision of soft functionality wasn’t authentic, but for the SF10G customer it ought to prove convincing: and at the end of the day, that is the point. There were lots of individually appealing pieces that juxtaposed sports-like crispness with casual tailoring, serving up a “severe nonchalance” to the designer’s lane. “To me, this collection feels like a personal growth,” concluded Dahl. “I always want to go further, and breaking new ground across the realm of functional wear is forever a must.” All in all, though, this made for a fascinating — and perhaps even risk-taking — effort, which was pleasing to see.

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Escaping the Glass Cage

November 19, 2024

For years, she stood still, watching life rush past her, a quiet observer behind the glass. Now, the glass is broken, and she steps out into the unknown. She walks through the city, caught between two worlds—part of it, yet apart from it.

Her journey is quiet but bold, searching for something she’s never understood, something just out of reach. On church steps and under glowing city lights, she questions everything: the rules, the past, and where she truly belongs. Each step feels both freeing and uncertain.

A curious soul in a borrowed life, she keeps moving forward, leaving behind only whispers of her escape, like a fleeting shadow in the night.