Fashion, Design & Architecture

In crafts and design, as in other fields of art, Iceland is a melting-pot of creativity.

Icelandic fashion designers, architects and designers owe much to Iceland´s isolated geographical position: though influenced by both European and American trends, they have taken an independent approach to design.

Designs like a chair which feels as if one were resting in a moss-lined hollow; Iceland-shaped ice-cubes, chrome-plated animal horns as coat-hooks; fish-skin leather goods, stones enclosed in felted wool, and woolly mountains: all these designs are inspired directly by Iceland's nature and landscape.

The diverse palette of the landscape, and the many variations of texture to be seen in Icelandic nature, provide fashion designers with inspiration, along with craft traditions and modern lifestyle trends. Fashion designers use tones and colours derived from Icelandic mountain landscape, such as shades of purple, green, brown and grey, along with the white of glaciers and winter mountains. Tulle trimmings are reminiscent of snow and glacial crevasses. Designers may use materials which look worn and distressed; they may combine masculine garments with feminine cut; they may design day and evening wear which can be mixed and matched endlessly – even from different ranges, regardless of season. This inventiveness is what typifies Icelandic fashion design.

Further information on icelandic design can be found at The Icelandic Design Center.