In conversations with Rita Saardi I was struck by her uninhibited, stream of consciousness response to my questions. Her free spirit reflects a rich background: Lebanese by birth, she grew up in Sweden and moved to Paris to learn French, remaining there to study fashion design. Her discipline, persistence and refusal to be reigned in by trends are successful qualities that propel her forward. She feels that, “Fashion is about l’air du temps, as Coco Chanel once said. It’s true, but today it’s more about you’re own world, your own air du temps. If everyone else is using color and you want grey, well then it should be grey. It’s your mood, your air du temps.”

Rita Saardi s/s 2006, “white bird top”, detail

For her s/s 2006 collection, Saardi wanted a pastel color palette to make a point. “[O]ther Swedish designers are afraid of colors, afraid of those old-fashioned pastels and yummy details.” The decision was solidified when she learned that Sofia Coppola was working on a film about Marie Antoinette. “I felt that I wanted pastels and a lot of voile de cotton and voile de soie. I bought all of my fabrics and beads in Paris and went back home to Stockholm. In front of my sketch book I wrote words like, libérté, oiseau, soleil, lumière, légerté, transparence, patisserie, bonbon, gourmandise, bien être, etc., (which means freedom, bird, sun, light, lightness, transparence, patisserie, candy, feeling good, etc.) I was also inspired by the beautiful light of the Swedish summer.”

s/s 2006, “white bird top”

s/s 2006 “white bird top”, back

s/s 2006 “black dress with white crochet details”

Rita Saardi’s work at Svensk Form, Stockholm 2005

Rita Saardi’s “a peace of me” at Svensk Form, Stockholm 2005

“daydreaming” at Svensk Form, Stockholm 2005

“In the beginning I started sketching dresses that looked a bit like the dresses worn during that époque, the end of the 1700s, and then I realized that it wasn’t what I wanted. I only wanted the colors and the feeling but not the heaviness, just touches of volume and richness and yumminess. I started drawing cloud-looking volumes and patisserie-looking dresses with a lot of frou frou. I made holes in the dresses that can be worn open or closed to liberate the body (giving every woman the right to choose how she wants to wear it), and at the same time drawing those very slim corset-looking lines and then killing it by adding volumes of fabric as if they were flowers or cream for example, on the belly where every girl wants to be slim.”

s/s 2006 “cloud dress”

s/s 2006 “yellow dress”

One of Saardi’s strong points is her delicious detailing, visible here in the s/s 2006 collection, pieces exhibited at Svensk Form in Stockholm and in more recent work that will be introduced later in part two. “Embellishment on my clothes and embroidery are all parts of me that I lay out on the clothes as if I am telling a story on a white page. It’s a shame that not so many designers are working with details. Do we need to go to a museum to see hand embroidery or handmade prints or handmade anything? Our hands are the most ancient tools - just use them.”