The Royal Swedish Opera in unique collaboration with designer Louise Xin and Borås Textile Fashion Center

 Louise Xin, that recently arranged a fashion show in collaboration with the European Parliament, has human rights and sustainability high on the agenda.

»For me, fashion is an art form that tells stories about people of their time and place. During my first three years as a self-taught designer, I showed what fashion should’nt be, through my work for human rights. Now I want to embark on a journey to explore and educate myself in what fashion has been and experiment with what it can become. There is no better place to start than the Royal Swedish Opera with 250 years of fantastic cultural history and the Swedish School of Textiles in Borås, which has been named one of the world's best design programmes. Together we want to show the beauty of crafts, art and culture« says Louise Xin.

In the same spirit, the Royal Swedish Opera's costume department works with craftsmanship and quality, where everything is produced from scratch by hand in the Opera House.

»We at the Opera have always made our costumes in a way that will make them last a long time and can also be reused and re-created into new productions. Craftsmanship is fundamental for all our employees, which is why it feels wonderful that the costumes are now given a new life with Louise's thoughts on sustainability and with the knowledge from the fashion students at the Swedish School of Textiles, who are the professionals of the future«, says Jeanette Stener, acting costume manager at the Royal Swedish Opera.

As the costume garner are to be emptied of a large number of costumes this summer, the collaboration felt like a given, now the handcrafted garments will get another life in Louise's design. Borås Textile Fashion Center and fashion students at the Swedish School of Textiles are also involved in the process, which, in addition to craftsmanship and tradition, also has a strong focus on new materials and sustainable processes.

During a newly created summer course, the fashion students will re-sew a number of costumes that Louise has selected from the Royal Swedish Opera's collections. The finished creations will be shown at a fashion show at the Opera House in September, where you also can buy the garments for the benefit of the Young Opera Fund, which supports and develops the activities for children and young people at the Royal Swedish Opera.

»Together we take responsibility for the future, is part of the vision for the University of Borås«, says Thorbjörn Magnusson, course coordinator at the Swedish School of Textiles. »In this collaboration, it becomes obvious in that it gives a number of garments a second life. Circular thinking characterizes a lot in our education and many of our students focus on it. We are proud to showcase students' work.«

But the collaboration with Textile Fashion Center does not end there.

»The garments will also be shown in an exhibition at the Textile Museum in the center this autumn«, says Git Guldare, coordinator of the Textile Fashion Center. » They follow the center's "red thread" with sustainability and reuse and the museum's ambitions with great breadth in textiles and fashion through, among other things, art, history, present and future. «

The Royal Swedish Opera has a long history of collaborations with famous fashion creators, examples from recent years are Christian Lacroix, who in 2022 created costumes for the ballet Cinderella, and Bea Szenfeldt, who in the same year created costumes for the ballet La boîte à joujoux. In 2023, Martin Bergström created the costumes for the ballet Riptide.