Originally from Umea in the North of Sweden, designer Sandra Backlund now lives in Stockholm after attending Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm. She learned how to knit from her grandmother when she was a child. She has since turned that skill into an art form all her own. She starts every design with the human body, and from there she thinks of ways in which she can highlight, distort and transform the body’s natural silhouette with clothing. Her approach to her garments has a more sculptural root in that everything stems from a few basic bricks that are then multiplied and attached to one another in order to achieve the desired shape.

She prides herself in the handicraft process and the handmade feeling of her pieces. After having experimented with a variety of materials and techniques, she found her ideal form of self-expression in the heavy wool collage knitting that has captivated the fashion industry. Now 33, the designer stared her own label in 2004 and has won the 2008 Swedish Elle Award, the 2005 FutureDesignDays award for up-and-coming talent, and worked with Louis Vuitton on several knitwear pieces of the label’s fall/winter 2007-08 collection.

Whether you covet one of Backlund’s amazing creations for your own personal wardrobe or simply admire the sheer genius of them, Sandra Backlund is a designer’s designer whose passion lies in the creation and not the commercialism.