Fabric Friday - Lotta Jansdotter

Today I am going to share with you the fabulous Scandinavian inspired designs of Lotta Jansdotter.  Although based in the US Lotta Anderson, the designer behind the label whose designs clearly reflect her Swedish homeland, taking inspiration from the seasonal nature seen near her childhood home on Aland, an island between Sweden and Finland.  Yet it is visable in her use of colour the vibrancy of her travels as an adult, to Portugal and Japan.

{image courtesy of Shelterpop}

For many years San Francisco was home to Lotta, having moved there when she was 20 years old.  Determined to find a creative career she enrolled on various art courses at the local community college, but is was when she attended a screen printing class everything fell in to place.  Lotta continued experimenting with prinitng and was very much self taught after leaving the course to concentrate on experimenting with designs and techniques.  Thankfully her entrepreneurial spirit shone through and Lotta Jansdotter launched their first collection. 

{available from Selvedge}

Like so many creative businesses Lotta worked from her apartment in San Francisco gaining a local following for her designs, which caught the eye of the Japanese market, making her a design star in Japan.  Six years after launching in 1996, Lotta Jansdotter opened their first store and moved to a new studio in Nob Hill, San Fransico.  From here Lotta firmly established the Lotta Jansdotter brand across the US and reaching the international market aswell, with hundreds of stores stocking her products and also through sales via her website.

{Handmade Living by Lotta Jansdotter}

Four years later saw Lotta move to the East Coast in a bid to be closer to her beloved homeland and she quickly established herself in Brooklyn, New York, opening a new and larger stucio in the creative neighbourhood of Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.  From her Lotta continued to design new collections and has written three books as well as starting a collection for babies, which will be expanded due the popularity of the range.

To read more about Lotta Anderson and take a tour of her New York apartment be sure to buy Elle Decoration this month. (Febraury 2011 issue)

{Lotta Jansdotter}