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Anti Sweden brings rebellion back to jeans

Anti Sweden’s main goal is to bring rebellion back to jeans” says Kjetil Wold, Creative Director at Anti Sweden. “As Norwegians we are heavily influenced by True Norwegian Black Metal as a sub culture and something truly Norwegian. We have always been friendly rivals with Sweden and if we manage to grow a jeans brand to compete with the hipster brands from Sweden, thats a bonus. You can actually come to our store and switch in your old Swedish jeans and get a discount, switch them in and the jeans are yours for 666,- Nok.

What makes Anti Sweden even more interesting, is that they organize competitions where creatives can design prints for the collection. The participant with the most votes will see his piece in the Anti Sweden collection. The current competition is called 7 Deadly Sins and is now running on Facebook. BTB contacted the Anti Sweden HQ and asked what this is all about..

Where did you get the idea to let people cooperate on the design in a competition kind of way?
-Anti Sweden is all about creating limited editions with artists we admire and know. We thought we could expand the territory a bit since we have a broad international fan base.
So many interesting people have embraced our dark tribute to fashion and sub culture and we will like to bring forward those who could contribute to the word of darkness.

Is the goal of the competition merely for branding purposes? In order to let the brand grow? Get attention?
-The goal is to bring forward both talent and darkness, using our brand to promote this seems like a good way to expand the interest for the subject.

Why did you pick Darkness as a theme? Were you looking to shock people?
-The main goal was to represent a Norwegian phenomena being Norwegians our self. If people are shocked by this im a bit worried on their behalf. Darkness is a natural part of growing up in Norway and all people have a darker side that needs to be explored, all things cant shine all the time. And Black is my favorite color.

Do you think you can still be unique with the Darkness theme, since loads of brands already did the same thing? What makes Anti unique?
-Everyone can adapt black, Anti have a cultural reason and a genuine history in our brand. People who dress up in our brand are musicians and people connected to this lifestyle. Satyricon, 1349, Runhild Gammelsæter, SunnO))) all wear our jeans as they represents rebellion and independency on a whole different level than a big sell out brand.

Photo : Marius Tharaldsen
Retouch: Anti
Limited edition Anti Sweden showpieces by Elin Almlid