About
We are a Swedish design brand creating fashionable patterns for home sewing.
I want to bring high fashion into home sewing, and encourage a design process that allows sewers to coordinate several matching style projects. However, it’s also important to me to let home sewing inspire the fashion industry to move towards sustainable alternatives.
Having the experience I do of both the fashion industry and home sewing allows me to combine the best of both worlds.
My circle is complete. I’m back where I started out, at my sewing machine making fashion!
- Ann Ringstrand, May 2024 -
"Creating my own expressions has always been very important to me. One of the first things I said as a small child was “I can do it myself.” I suppose I’ve held onto this attitude in relation to many aspects of my life. At the age of nine, I learnt to sew my own clothes. That was my way of creating the fashion I needed to make myself seen and present myself as the person I wanted to be.
I create my fits and patterns based on the experience I’ve gained from tens of thousands of fittings over my long career as a fashion designer".
The Ann Ringstrand signature design
has always been centred around everyday fashion with good wearability and durability. She take her inspiration from men’s fashion and old working clothes. Ringstrand is very fond of conventional “well-dressed” looks, but also enjoys mixing in influences from the street fashions of major cities. The style is unisex, with a strong emphasis on classic tailoring and functional uniform details like pockets and linings. Internationally, her style is often described as Scandinavian minimalism with elements taken from international trends.
To achieve a personal expression, Ann Ringstrand likes to combine modern design with traditional crafting. Her style is also influenced by her mum, who sewed, wove, quilted, and patched throughout her childhood.
Ann Ringstrand biography
The designer Ann Ringstrand, born 1965 in Sweden, has created fashion since early 1990.
In 2000
after her design education at Copenhagen Academy of Pattern Making and The School of Fashion and Textile, she founded the Swedish fashion brand HOPE. Ringstrand has been awarded in Scandinavia with Newcomer of the Year, Designer of the Year, The Golden button and nominated for Entrepreneur of the Year. Her collections have been shown at Paris Fashion Week and she has opened more than 10 brand retail shops in northern part of Europe.
In 2016
Ringstrand left the daily operations of her fashion company HOPE to start a creative studio in New York City together with ceramic sculptor Maria Moyer and lighting designer Lindsey Adelman. This was a studio for inspiration, creativity and a place for Ann to develop new ideas. Ringstrand worked on graphic screen printing art as well as experimenting with scents, ceramics and gemstones. As a result of the work in the Lower East Side studio and in combination with the designer ́s interest in yoga and meditation Ringstrand decided to deepen her education of perfumes in California as well as sourcing for energetic gemstones in Brazil.
In 2017
Ann Ringstrand launched a new brand with designs for our senses. She teamed up with perfumers in Paris to design her own niche perfume line made in France. She also connected with a jewellery artisan in the mountain area of Belo Horizonte in Brazil to make her gemstone designs. The concept developed a fragrance series with ceramic ware for scent diffusing, a gemstone jewellery collection and a small line of studio wear and interior for mindful moments of yoga and meditation. Products carrying both native wisdom, from the world of spirituality, and a design to match an aesthetic urban lifestyle.
In 2019
In 2020
the book SEW 10 FASHION STYLES BY DESIGNER ANN RINGSTRAND was launched and became a best selling and award winning craft book. Customers and Makers joined Ringstrand on social media, to the point that convinced her work life purpose lyes within the field of fashion. She re directed her namesake brand to focused on designing fashion patterns and inspiration for people who want to sew their own clothes. Once in a while there´s a limited edition of Ringstrand design being produced ready to wear for subscribing members of Newsletter.
Ann Ringstrand little universe of sewing books and single patterns are today a growing business available for wholesale studio@annringstrand.com and web shop retail annringstrand.com