From December 6th, you will be able to see fashion designer Bea Szenfeld’s exhibition ”Paper Dolls” at the Nordic Light Hotel, arranged in association with the Swedish Artists’ Council. The exhibition, which is open to the general public, will continue until December 20th. Bea is exhibiting six of her creations, made of paper.
- “Working with material that was never intended to be made into clothing provides me with the perfect challenge,” says Bea Szenfeld.

During Stockholm Fashion Week in August, Bea also showed her spring collection together with Gunilla Pontén, in association with the Nordic Light Hotel. The Nordic Light Hotel is actively involved in events and issues relating to the design and fashion sphere, and as part of our work in this area we support graphic artists and designers.

Bea’s description of “Paper Dolls”

-“The fashion industry has a number of strong commercial conventions, such as the assumption that clothes can be hung on hangars, are washable and easy to wear. At the same time, it is easy to forget the value of traditional handiwork and high quality tailoring. We live in a throwaway society, yet are inspired and captivated by the past.”
- “I am fascinated by the fashions that prevailed when clothes provided more than mere protection, support and warmth. Just the fact that an article of clothing might take weeks to sew, although you mightn’t even be able to sit down in it once it was finally ready! Or that each outfit was very carefully planned, with the lining as beautiful and important as the outer material.”
 -“Being able to work with recycling and fashion is a passion for me. One theme I constantly return to is changing the current function of a material and using it for a completely different purpose – such as transforming men’s cast-off shirts into women’s underwear. This recycling process is nothing new in itself, of course, which is why it poses an even greater challenge in terms of finding new ways to improvise.”
 -“For me, the ideal challenge is to work with materials never considered appropriate for clothing. I want to produce creations in which the material itself is the theme.”
 -“I really like the technical possibilities of paper, its structures and its close association with the recycling process. Not only used for books and magazines, it’s also transformed into kitchen rolls, packaging and countless other products. Nowadays, most paper is made from wood pulp, but in the old days, it was made from rags.”