SIMON_EKRELIUS

Simon is based in London, United Kingdom. He studied at Tillskarar Akademin / Stockholm and graduated in 1997. His collections are produced in United Kingdom.

Simon Ekrelius was born in Stockholm, grew up both in the city and in the countryside of Sweden with his mother, who worked as a hair-stylist and his dad who painted in oil, played music and invented things constantly for his work and his home. However, it was his grandmother who really inspired Simon to start drawing and sewing from a very early age. She sewed, cooked amazing food, and earlier she was a model during and after the war years. She was always perfectly styled.
It was in Stockholm that Simon trained in fashion design, pattern making and sewing, in the prestigious and traditional tailoring school ''Tillskarar Akademin''. Before that he took classes in art-history and illustration. He graduated with a collection using plastic and moose suede, and it was voted one of the best of ten student collections in Sweden's Smirnoff International Fashion Award. Although enrolling at F.I.T., Ekrelius decided to discontinue that course after 1 month because it turned out to be a repetition of what he had already studied. Before starting his own label he worked with local designers at their showroom in Stockholm where he learned the work of a designer, from small details to the major aspects of the business.
Ekrelius focuses on conceptual R-T-W collections that include asymmetrically strong combined with soft tailoring, bold prints, architectural silhouettes and contrasts in texture reflecting his seasonal inspirations. New collections always work with the previous ones, in line with his distinctive style that can only be explained as the 'Simon Ekrelius style'. He uses classical forms of materials such as silk, wool, cotton, viscose, plastic and leather. Simon Ekrelius CMT is based in London and the printing of fabric based in the UK.
In addition to 'higher sewing' and R-T-W work, he has been commissioned to design costumes for music videos by the Wire Daisies, Love Inc and The Catherine Wheel, and for advertising by British American Tobacco, Tesco and Wrigley.
The exclusive and independent label has won plaudits for his own unique style by forward-thinking press and private clients that have become addicted to the way he creates clothes. It is a favorite of stylists that work with Jessie J, Lady Gaga, Goldfrapp, Willy Moon, Spark, and the cool girl band from Paris - The Plasticines.
Simon Ekrelius has presented his collections in Paris, London, Toronto, Ottawa and Stockholm.
Press coverage includes Dazed, Stamp, the Daily Telegraph, Metro, Flare, Swedish ELLE, Jalouse, Clash, Ballad of..., Schon, Refinery 29, Karen, Fashion156, F TAPE, Premium Presse, Planet, Flux, Deluxx, Emerging Fervour, LABB mag, P.O.P.world, Gossip, Phoenix Magazine, NBC New York, Style.com, Style-bubble, Bare, Playground, Amelia's, ELLE Girl Japan, Shanghai Times, Virgine, Oakazine, 1883, Faces Switzerland, Room55, Material Girl, Blanche, Disorder, H - Magazine, Idol.
P R O F I L E
The eponymous London ready-to-wear line.
Ekrelius has won plaudits for his own unique style - a signature fusing sharp, forward-thinking tailoring with futuristic and boldly graphic custom-designed silk/cotton prints, and material accents including knitwear, leather and plastic.
The label is synonymous with a unique way of creating fashion with no desire whatsoever to conform to the mainstream. Instead the designer works with new well thought-out ideas each season, always in line with his vision. Each collection evolves from the last, and new pieces complement earlier ones. Continuity is an essential part of the design philosophy.
Ekrelius’s work display aspects of society in a new way, including textile prints, knitted patterns and statement pieces that clearly reflect his inspirations, also involving key pieces that refine the ideas into more subtle forms. Wearing Simon Ekrelius is expressing a definite awareness of individuality and the new.
As well as modern and post-modern architecture, the designer is influenced by femmes-fatales such as Bianca Jagger, Grace Jones and Rossy di Palma, art by Russian constructivists Rodchenko, Malevich and Kandinsky, alternative / electronic music, and films by Pedro Almodovar