Close Up with (di)vision founders Nanna and Simon Wick

You founded (di)vision back in 2018, in the four years that have passed, what’s been the biggest surprise about this journey?

Nanna: I think the biggest surprise has been how crazy much time and energy you put into starting a brand. Some days I think we are both amazed that we can continue putting in the effort, but on the other hand, I don’t think there’s a pause button when you find out where you want to take your brand.

Has your vision for what (di)vision is, or what it could be changed in the last four years?

Nanna: Yes and no. I think our journey started from a somewhat “young” and naive point of view. We wanted to disrupt the industry and show the world, that creating from what already is (tablecloths, second-hand clothes, parachutes, etc.) has to be an option in 2018. Simon and I had minimal experience building a brand, and zero in managing production. Back then, everything we did was a lot more hands-on, as we did all the upcycling (and everything else) ourselves. I think when everything is done on a small scale like that, it’s easier to dream of change. As we’ve been growing over the past years I think our vision has changed as we have learned that it’s not a walk in the park to change the industry.

Today we are working with a lot more commercial ways of producing clothes and we have learned that we don’t necessarily need to upcycle our way through the industry to make a change. Change is shown in how we do the things we do, it’s in our behavior and it’s in our community.

As co-directors, how do you temper creative differences?

Nanna: It’s really nice to have someone to share your creativity with! Simon and I are very close and in many ways, I think our brains work in the same way. If I struggle with a concept and need a push in the right direction, I can always count on Simon. We grew up with the same movies, magazines, video games, and impressions and that is our force when we create. We know the foundation of most of each other's ideas and it helps us to develop stories together and transform them into collections.

Your AW23 Show at Copenhagen Fashion Week was inspired by Woodstock ’99 – what is it about that chaotic weekend that spoke to you?

Simon: I think we have always been somehow inspired by apocalyptic events and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because we saw a lot of movies or played a lot of video games growing up. Our past collections have all been inspired by apocalyptic events, like SS23 was inspired by the movie ‘Apocalypse Now’ about the Vietnam war. I think there is a fascinating aspect to chaos, and when we first saw the Woodstock 99 documentary on Netflix some feeling hit us.

When you create from deadstock materials and vintage garments, there’s always a story to how the fabric/vintage products got to where we found them. Maybe the fabric has faults, holes, or something else, and we use apocalyptic stories to imagine why they look the way they do.

Your collaboration with ASICS is the realization of a long-time dream, what was the driving idea behind this unique 20-piece collection?

Simon: Growing up as a sneaker collector it has always been a dream to collaborate with Asics on a shoe. As we came up with the concept we wanted to see how much of our brand history we could fit into the collection. (Di)vision is about being unique and colorful, it’s about standing out from the crowd, but still, feeling a part of a bigger family. It’s about having wear and scars in life and knowing that’s what makes you unique. We wanted to capture those feelings and put them into the 20-piece collection. Every shoe is uniquely dyed in colors to make them personal with unique distressing and marks to make them stand out. We wanted them to look a bit DIY as that’s how we started, with almost zero experience in making clothes.

What was the inspiration or meaning behind that viral dress moment - does it tie in with your Woodstock '99 inspiration, and did you expect it to go that viral?

Nanna: We were very inspired by one of the earliest Margiela shows, where he had his models walking on white sheets, which he in his show afterward had made into clothes. It was fun to explore how we could merge two contrasting things; Woodstock ’99 and this very formal setting used for our show, into a piece of clothing. We wanted to create a moment, a feeling that would stay with our guests for a while afterward. I think it was the perfect culmination of this show.

We thought that the moment might go Copenhagen-viral, but we did not in any way expect that it would go viral the way it did. It’s been so fun to see and I can’t hear anyone clinking a glass without thinking of Sarah clearing the table.

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