In the mid-1950s, after several years in the US, designer Katja Geiger returned to Sweden and started her own fashion brand: Katja of Sweden. The colors, the material and the lines were something quite different from what appeared in the conventional style of the time.

- In the 50's, the fashion was still very well dressed and tailor made in fairly stiff fabrics. That is why Katja of Sweden really became something new and revolutionized, says Maria Carlberg, Head of Unit for Public Meetings at the Röhsska Museum.

Katja Geiger started a collaboration with Malmö mechanical jersey factory and designed comfortable clothes in a new material, the so-called 3T jersey - wash, dry, put on.

Patterns A and O

In addition to Katja Geiger's own design, designs by successful designers in art, fashion and architecture, such as Finnish textile artist Maija Isola, artistic multi-artist Carl Johan De Geer and Danish architect Arne Jacobsen, appeared on the exclusive garments.

- You could throw yourself in a Bruno Mathsson armchair without the clothes getting wrinkled. Katja of Sweden was very clear about it - she wanted her clothes to work with all the modern furniture design and architecture, says Maria Carlberg.

Great abroad

Katja of Sweden made a success in the US, UK and France. Side by side with, for example, Mary Quant in London and Marimekko in Finland, she helped lay the groundwork for a much more comfortable fashion that is visible even in today's design. But for the Swedish market, she was perhaps a bit ahead.

- Katja of Sweden was big abroad, especially in the USA. Maybe she was bigger abroad than here in Sweden, because here her more exclusive collections actually did not sell as well.

The exhibition runs between June 4 and September 20, 2020.