Beata Rybacken's designs are not quite from our world. Oversized, deliciously abstract and a little quirky, they are born from a desire to make the wearer feel a certain way: tiny
In an unassuming Södermalm building there is a flat where the traditional notions of scale don’t exist. Inside, amongst the bulbous Gustaf Westman furniture and knick-knacks, lives designer Beata Rydbacken. You may have seen her designs – hats and scarves made of hair, quirky dresses – on a celebrity or two, but you are most likely to know her for her larger-than-life, brightly coloured hair clips.
“I’ve always been obsessed with scale,” Rydbacken says. She sits with her feet tucked up on the sofa, quite at ease with having a stranger in her home. “I loved all things miniature. I used to cry when I was little because I wanted to be small, like 10 centimetres.” Suddenly her oversized designs make sense. They are not giant, they are regular; we are the ones who are resized, shrunken down to the height of a Barbie doll. After all, who among us did not use one of our adult- sized hairclips on the doll’s blonde hair? “I like feeling really tiny,” she says. “This clip makes me feel that way.”
Her clips are roughly the size of my forearm, but according to the designer, they are not quite big enough. The clips are 3D-printed and then assembled by hand by Rydbacken (“My fingers are broken by the end”) – it’s the printer that limits her. “I’ve hit the physical limit,” she explains. “You cannot make a clip bigger in the printers.”
Aside from barettes (though Rydbacken has just teased an upcoming star clip on her Instagram), the designer also works with hair. Yes, hair. Look to Rosalía on her worldwide tour, and spot her in a beanie hat constructed from blonde hair, a stark contrast to her raven locks. According to the Swede, it was Rosalía's stylist who initially reached out, asking to borrow several items, the hat included. “I was sure she wasn’t going to wear it. It’s a pretty difficult piece,” she notes. “I mean…it’s a hat made of hair, it doesn't want to stay in place.” Nonetheless, the Spanish singer has donned the unruly accessory time and time again.