I had the once in a life time opportunity to speak to the talented stylist of Beyonce and Kim K. Read what we discussed below at Stockholm Fashion Week.
Introducing Bea Åkerlund, the Swedish-born stylist who has worked with Madonna for nine years, and has also collaborated with Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Britney Spears.
Bea’s love of fashion design drove her, at the age of 14, from her native Stockholm to Los Angeles. It is here where she blossomed and shaped her destiny as a costume designer/stylist and set her path towards success in the film, fashion and music industry.
“It's my favourite show of the week, for obvious reasons, because I love supporting emerging Designers and creativity.”
The talented artist works alongside her husband Jonas Åkerlund, Swedish director and drummer.
I saw her approaching Berns Hotel on the third day of Stockholm Fashion Week to watch the Swedish School Of Textiles Show. Street style photographers flooded her with cameras, as onlookers brought out their mobile phones to take her picture. Looking very cool, Bea supported an all black outfit, finished off with a bright pink bag and blinded out sunnies, matched with a statement silver neck piece.
I knew I had to have a brief chat with Bea and get inside her head—where exactly do I start with so many achievements under her belt? So I start with what she thought about the Swedish School Of Textiles show we had just watched.
I ask if she has a favourite from the students, as I see Bea a holding a black garment bag with the name ‘EMMA’ stamped on it.
“Well, this made it, I just walked out with it, that's my outfit.”
She tells me she feels it's very important to support and represent what young talent are doing.
Bea has been working on a project called 'whoyouare'. I am interested in finding out more about it so I ask her to fill me in.
“I created a networking platform for emerging designers to be seen and known, to show their work to the world. To show your collection there's no place to go, so I figured why not create something. It's growing everyday and changing and just getting better. I created an App which is open to anybody, the App is called 'whoyouare'. I am working on a new product which is called 'whoyouarepro' which is an industry tool for stylists to request from stylists so they can lend out their designs.”
I ask her what her if she has any advice to those who are trying to get into the industry and new designers. She ends the interview with, “My advice to anyone who wants to succeed is don’t forget to be who you are." Of course.