LAZOSCHMIDL is an artist studio and fashion label with a boundary pushing agenda. The brainchild of Josef Lazo and Andreas Schmidl, the project aims to re-contextualise masculine tailoring, exploring notions of togetherness, eroticism and the electric energy of Swedish youth.

Rather than working from a moodboard, the pair begin each hand-made collection with a core idea and textual reference, building from there. For SS17, they started with the print on a plastic bag, then drew from 1970s gay cruising, the work of Isa Gensken, Bernard Wilhem’s personal style and “subconsciously” (says Andreas) a bit of ABBA.

The resulting collection and zine, exclusively premiered here in advance of their show at Stockholm Fashion Week, channels the raw sexuality and togetherness Andreas tells us is key to Swedish youth today.

Tempe Nakiska: So how did you two originally meet?
Andreas Schmidl: We met on an online dating website at a time before apps and have since then practiced intense remote mind sharing.

TN:What sparked the idea for LAZOSCHMIDL?
AS: Combining fashion design and writing in a conceptual way, it was initiated as a one-time-only experiment. But we got hooked.

TN: Everything you do is founded in a very DIY approach to creativity, why is collaboration so important to you?
AS: To compliment each other’s skills, skill gaps and personality. The soft and the hard. The technical and the philosophical. The minimalist and the decorative. We don’t believe in the big media and marketing machinery any more. We trust on instinct and keeping our work for friends and the knowledgable. Also we love to create things. The zine actually represents the final collection as a product and thought. Not the singular garments.

TN: The artists and photographers you have collaborated with all seem to share an understanding of the romantic ideals of your pieces and output, and capture it in their own unique way for the zine. Is that a prerequisite for working with others on the project?
AS: The idea was to always work with another artist or photographer to showcase their work and be visually remixed in some sort of way. Mostly, they are not mainly fashion photographers, but have an art, documentary or still life background. By approaching each shoot’s varying theme, we often discover a new facet to their oevre or shift the concept on set. The dada still lifes with Sam Rock happened in the last hour of the shoot and turned out to be the strongest images embodying the collection. Butter, egg, pins, bricks, apple, string.

TN: Can you take me through the process of putting this collection and zine together?
AS: We start each collection as an associative text document. Sometimes, we pick an artist and imagine what they would wear if their work was a piece of clothing (Grand Poop SS15). This time, we found a plastic shopping bag and evolved the collection around its print. As a writer, I then conceptualise a story and describe looks that are then translated into drawings and designs by Josef. As fruits and vegetable are the key motif, we stretched the connotation into the phallic and erotic and imagined gay cruising resort wear.

TN: What other elements are there as part of your artist studio?
AS: Besides the zine, we now add posters and merchandise T-shirts to the mix. Since all garments are hand-made, often hand-embellished and embroidered, we want to add an element of consumerism.

“Swedish youth is rediscovering its rawness and explicity of thought. We have unlocked the teenage room’s doors.”

TN: What themes or ideas were you thinking about, what were you inspired by to realise this season?
AS: Remix sculpture (Isa Genzken), gay cruising in the 70s (Fire Island), Bernhard Willhelm’s personal style and subconciously a bit of ABBA

TN: What is the creative and fashion scene like in Stockholm? Is it very collaborative and nurturing there? 
AS: It’s a small and cordial scene. We are close to Ida Sjöstedt and Ana Hernandez-Cornet and share a lot of thinking whereas the outcome varies in a very beautiful ‘familiar but different’ vibe.

TN: Your work often seems to hinge on romantic and erotic ideas, relating to sexuality, togetherness, unity. Do you think these ideas are key to this generation of Swedish youth?
AS: Swedish youth is rediscovering its rawness and explicity of thought. We have unlocked the teenage room’s doors.

TN: What other issues and subjects would you say are very important to youth in Sweden today?
AS: Feeling non-Swedish.

TN: What is next for LAZOSCHMIDL?
AS: World domination and even more eroticism.

LAZOSCHMIDL shows at 11am on Tuesday, 30th August at Stockholm Fashion Week.