Guldknappen 1981–2011

Nordic Museum continues its investment in exhibitions about fashion. After the acclaimed Dandy, finalist in the Exhibition of the Year 2011, there will now be a retrospective exhibition over Guldknappen’s 30 years as a Swedish fashion institution.

Guldknappen is a fashion prize that Damernas Värld has awarded every year since 1982 to a Swedish designer or fashion house. To follow the award’s motivations and the prize winners’ work is to follow 30 years of Swedish contemporary fashion. The first winner was Rohdi Heintz and the most recent (2010) was Ann Ringstrand and Stefan Söderberg for HOPE.

In the autumn of 2008, Damernas Värld donated its collection of Gold Button Award-winning collections to the Nordic Museum. Prior to the exhibition, the museum has carried out documentation of the award’s 30-year history.

The exhibition shows several parts of the fashion world. Here is the catwalk and the style-forming silhouettes side by side with the tiring everyday life, with a high pace and hard work. Fashion is often associated with stylish, styled photos. Everyday life for a designer, however, means something else: a seven-day week, a lack of money and often work on the edge of the bed when the sofa holds the inventory.