She has never chosen the same path as everyone else but has gone her own way. Her great need for freedom, her determination and her creative desire has always been strong driving forces. They have made her one of the Nordic region's best eyewear designers.
Anna Mälstad´s desire to create beautiful, but also functional things took her to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, where many of the best designers of our time have studied. She has now worked as a designer with a focus on eyewear for over 15 years, always with the wearer's needs and desires in focus when she puts the pen to the paper and starts a new project. Today, Anna Mälstad is the creative director of a Swedish eyewear company and it was here that she got the opportunity to create a collection of frames that she herself would like to wear, right now.
The opportunity arose just before the vacuum that Corona brought with it. So instead of being inspired by the impressions that she usually gather during holidays in Asia, Sicily or when she lands on her mother's holiday house in the Stockholm archipelago, it had to be an inner journey. With Studio Eyewear, Anna shows that there is a lot you as a creator can find inside your mind. That we have many memories and impressions gathered in us, which can be picked out and interpreted into something new.
One late evening, when all the drawings for the first Studio Eyewear collection were finished and light snowflakes fell over Malmö, Anna sat with a colleague at a restaurant in the city and dreamed away to Italy. Pasta, Prosecco and Piscina. And that was where they decided to name the frames after Italian words. Words that symbolize the dream of the perfect holiday on Capri, with sun and sea, divine food and light summer dresses. A dream that is soon within reach again.
Something that has been important throughout the project is joy. Optical glasses are designs that the wearer has visible, like a garment, often from morning to evening. The overwhelming seriousness that much of today's fashion exudes was something Anna opposed. Studio eyewear should convey both a playfulness and an elegance that looks seemingly simple. “Be happy and dare to express yourself” is Anna's own statement and something that characterizes the entire collection.
Studio Eyewear has now grown from being a collection to becoming a brand that will release new collections every season. Anna Mälstad can, like the rest of us, once again can travel freely, she can visit museums, take a weekend trip to Sicily, visit fashion fairs and gather impressions and inspiration for future collections.
And let´s not forget Bentley and Tiramisu. Endless sources of inspiration.
