Giving new meaning to taking fashion to a worldwide stage, the United Nations and the Swedish School of Textiles have joined forces to create new uniforms for tour guides at the U.N. headquarters.
Through this pioneering pairing, the school, which is part of the University of Boras, is now the first higher education institution to design and develop a new collection for the U.N. tour guides in New York City. Twenty students were tasked with creating sustainable designs — think repurposed deadstock fabrics and adjustable waistlines — that debuted Tuesday night at a fashion show at the U.N. headquarters. The unveiling was scheduled to coincide with Earth Day.
Hours before the lights went down on the catwalk, the consul general of Sweden in New York, Erik Ullenhag, hosted a press preview at the Swedish Residence on the Upper East Side. The collaboration was done in conjunction with the U.N.’s Fashion and Lifestyle Network, the government of Sweden, and the U.N.’s global communications department.
Twenty-five guides will sport the collection as they help to inform the 250,000 people who take tours annually to learn about a swath of subjects, including the organization’s efforts to address global challenges and the significance of art exhibits. The uniform capsule collection is in sync with a handful of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Highlighting Sweden’s leadership in sustainability, Ullenhag said at the press preview, “With all the news that is coming out at the moment, the focus is not really there. Every day I try to remind myself that this is probably the biggest challenge for humanity. Climate change is here. It’s going to change life for all of us — for poor people in poor countries and rich people in rich countries.”
Acknowledging how the trend now is for countries to be more insular, Ullenhag said, “That is not the way forward. The way forward is with more international cooperation. There are so many questions that we can’t solve on our own.”
With five guides wearing the new gray and blue uniforms nearby, Nicola Clase, the permanent representative of Sweden to the U.N., mentioned how elegant the designs were. Having worked as a guide in Stockholm years ago, she said, “I do know what it means to have a uniform that works.” She also has an appreciation for textiles, which her mother specialized in. Praising the sustainability factor of the students’ designs, Clase said she was fascinated by the fact that nuts were used to develop the buttons for the uniforms. “In a world, where so much is not going in the right direction, this is the kind of thing that cheers you up, so thank you for that also.”
The University of Boras might ring a bell with fashion types, since one of its former students Hodakova founder Ellen Hodakova Larsson won the LVMH Prize last year. Mats Tinnsten, vice chancellor at the University of Borås, said the uniform project aligns with the school’s values of togetherness, sustainability and creativity. As a sign of the country’s commitment, earlier this year Sweden enacted a Textile Sorting law to ensure that all textile waste is sorted and stored from other waste.
The project’s artistic directors Karin Landahl and Stefanie Malmgren de Oliveira, and the overall project manager Susanne Nejderås were also on hand. They noted how local Swedish manufacturers handled production and how the yearlong initiative drew design inspiration from the sea, the sky, the meadow and other elements of nature that were enjoyed during a summer outing to southern Sweden. The uniform’s silhouettes also borrowed from the U.N. headquarters’ exterior lineage and from the curved lines found in its interior. A lightweight wool suit jacket, pants, a stretch jersey shirt, a nongender skirt, an upcycled cotton dress with adjustable sleeves, a top and two scarves are the garments. To keep the sustainability message going, the tailored jacket’s interior has a QR code for additional information about the designs.
The Swedish menswear brand Eton contributed to the project with archival fabrics, production support and mentorship from its in-house design and assortment team. And to give animal-loving attendees at the fashion show another attraction — and a sense for what a high-security operation the U.N. headquarters is, handlers with K9 security dogs would be on the scene.
A nongender long skirt, stretch jersey top and a pantsuit are part of the collection.
Photo Courtesy
Sporting a Hodakova jacket at the media event, Paul Frankenius, founder of Frankenius Equity, chairman of Gina Tricot and a board member of the University of Borås, offered a sleeve for a fabric check. His family’s foundation financed the uniform project, which was about a $500,000 undertaking. Andrea Rehbein, one of the 20 students, who were in attendance, said that dialogues between the school and the U.N. was the greatest challenge, since the U.N. is more of a “structured organization with many hierarchies,” whereas the team of students and creative directors was more “horizontal and had more open conversations.” But they unified those two parties “to make a beautiful uniform for the U.N. that they would be proud to wear every day,” Rehbein said.
Guides have been wearing uniform pieces that were created by Elie Tahari. Once their new gear is fully rolled out, they are expected to wear the students’ designs for at least five years. The U.N.’s hourlong tours started in 1952 with guides in tailored suits that were inspired by what flight attendants wore in the 1940s and the 1950s. In the decades that followed, Shotland Modes Inc.; Evan Picone; the famous Hollywood costume designer Edith Head; Benetton; Thibaut Bouet of Christian Dior; Jones New York, and Italian house Mondrian became some of the other uniform providers.
Vincenzo Pugliese, the U.N.’s acting chief of visitor services, said, “From the beginning, the guides always were sort of the public face of the U.N. We call them ‘the U.N. ambassadors to the public.’ And designers have always been interested in pitching their designs so that the guides can show off their looks.”
Lucie Brigham, chief of the U.N. Office for Partnerships and founder of the U.N.’s Fashion and Lifestyle Network, spoke of her group’s efforts to build up a community that wants to be engaged, to curate events and to shine the spotlight on those making positive changes. She mentioned how the tour guides will use their uniforms to be advocates for sustainability with visitors “from tiny little kids in kindergarten to connoisseurs of architecture and interior design students.” There will also be a video to explain how the uniforms are made. As an added reminder, the prospect of selling the diamond-shaped and rectangular scarves to visitors in the U.N. gift shop is being discussed.
Afterward, Clase noted how her Swedish journalist father attended the U.N. Conference on International Organization in 1945, where delegates from 50 nations gathered, and his notes said, “In the future, people will probably think that we were starry-eyed and naïve, but then they have no clue as to the tensions in the room.” As for what the greatest current challenge is, she said, “What the U.N. needs to remember is that it is the only platform in the world where 193 countries can meet.”
