Being Yourself
The Biggest Role of Your Life
He’s the man behind the game-changing fashion brand J.lindeberg and the success of the iconic brand Diesel - Johan Lindeberg is not only one of the big names behind the 90s Swedish fashion wonder he is also playing the main role in the imaginary blockbuster his life turned out to be. Like any great movie, the script follows a perfect mix of a strong plot with lots of unexpected turns, great imagery and a fascinating main character.
Switching roles from Managing Director at Brindfors Malmö to become the Creative Director of the aweinspiring brand BLK DNM which Johan then left in 2015. Now relying on his inner passion and with the support from his creative team, he returned before the final curtain and is building up BLK DNM anew.
Johan never limited himself. Not only did he create a new look in fashion, but he also discovered his love for photography and shaped the literal image of his brand. One of his inspirational characters is Jean-luc Godard, who, during an interview with journalist Tom Milne in 1962, legendarily answered the statement ”It seems that the keynote of your early films was simply the joy of making films.” with ”Yes (…) It was the cinema which made us - or me, at least - want to make films”.
But Johan Lindeberg is far from creating l’art pour l’art. He made his brands as much as the brands made him the person he is. By living in his world of BLK DNM, Johan offers the fashion industry a new existential philosophy, where he’s finding joy and harmony while being in the moment instead of desperately trying to be ahead in order not to be outdated. And this is what should truly inspire us, leading back to the 2,300-age-old question: ”What is the ultimate purpose of human existence?”
At 28 years old you decided to leave as chief of export at Bahco Verktyg and headed towards new horizons. You wanted to “abandon the roleplay”, as you expressed it in your summer speech for a Swedish radio program in 2009. Later you ended up in fashion. However, fashion is a social construct where people play roles, too. So which one was yours?
This is a great question, I think. The reason I left the top position was pain; it was just the wrong environment for me, I couldn’t stay. Certain people can play what I call "unconscious roleplay" all their life and pretend to be someone they’re not. My body is not constructed like that, and I had to go on a journey to find out who I was. I just got on the wrong track and got anxious. And anxiety, I think, is the difference between who you are and who you are supposed to be. At that time, when I decided to change my life entirely, I had gotten married and had an industrial career. However, I was not happy and was in pain. I had to break free.
If you want to abandon identities and roleplay, somehow, a fashion brand – I have created three brands throughout my career, Diesel, J.lindeberg, and BLK DNM – is a roleplay. But everything I have done contains so much passion. Because of this passion, it was more about a search process than a roleplay because I have been going so deep into myself when I have been creating.
You have both created new brands and have been marketing director of Diesel. What do you think is more important in fashion? Commerce or creativity?
If you look back at my entire career, you will see my signature – I cannot find my passion without creating something that I love. When I started BLK DNM, I had the whole picture in my head, how I wanted everything to look. I think I have successfully communicated with the brands because these brands have been very personal, and somehow, they reflect the moment I have experienced. The brands follow my expression and contain so much passion. I know exactly what I want to create. I do not draw myself, and there are few fashion designers today who operate with drawing themselves. If I do not have someone, who can draw on my side to create what I have on my mind, I cannot work. I follow my deep-deep intuition of what I seek to create. This is maybe why I started with photography, where I can go with the lens myself. Then, I do not need any interpreter, which allows me to be more straightforward in my expression. Each of my brands has been very political. Diesel was very kind of a protest against the 1980s establishment. J.lindeberg was the most political thing I have done because I went into a conservative establishment and changed the way they dressed and changed their habits, somehow, to try to make them think in a more modern manner. BLK DNM was maybe the purest ever, which was about empowering women when I started it in 2010. And it still is. When I am here in Stockholm, I feel like it is this whole cross-culture to see how we all can come together as a group. It has never been marketing but always my values, my ideas, my passion deep down.
How did you start BLK DNM?
I started BLK DNM because I had just gone through a divorce. And I came up with the idea of wanting to go deeper into New York, create a New-york-brand and be an amazing father. I wanted the brand to be inspired by my upbringing with those values I was surrounded by. Maybe, BLK DNM became a kind of pure idea of who I am as a person, without any roleplay. In my search process of brand and identities, I am currently looking into how I can make BLK DNM'S identity as a brand as close to my soul as possible. During the last year, I have been working a lot with meditation, where everything is built on the removal of identities and becoming what you were born as, not how I was as a child. I realize that as a child, I also played roles. I need to bring up the power that I was born with, my intuitional strength, purer than ever with BLK DNM. With BLK DNM I do not need to play any roles. And the more I can be myself, the more amazing values BLK DNM can create.
How did you feel about bringing BLK DNM back or winning it back?
To bring BLK DNM back has been one of my most formidable challenges yet. BLK DNM was such a success in New York. Something really happened as everyone came to me; all kinds of influential and creative people, and we became this certain energy – something we all felt, and it came to us somehow. Photography, all the ideas, how we came up with logotype, the look, the leather jacket. Everything was so inspired by my happiest times, back then in Lund during my childhood. It reflects the freedom I felt that I could be who I am. Starting up the brand from Stockholm instead of being downtown in New York City, where I know everyone after having lived there for the past twenty years, surrounded by inspiration, made me also realize that inspiration comes from within. Initially, I felt it would be a re-launch, not a re-positioning because BLK DNM was so strong, the values we stood for are more relevant than ever, and all the ingredients were so powerful. A few months ago, I had a breakthrough here when I just felt, "Fuck! I cannot… I cannot! There is something wrong here!" I just screamed in the office and locked myself up for three days to think, going through all the pictures I have been collecting during the last five years, the ideas I had in my head. Everything ended up on my wall as a mood board, and I realized that I had to take it in the way I feel within – nothing else. I cannot do what I did ten years ago; I need to create what is relevant for the brand today. Now I really am happy because it is a joy to create. If you are a musician with a successful album, and then you have pressure to create another successful album. Using the same dynamics would never bring you the success of your previous album; you need to develop it within. You need to take your core success and show that you can take it to the next level, the following expression.
The one thing is, as an artist, to know what you want to do, but it is entirely another thing to articulate this idea to make it comprehensible for the team, right? And to make it comprehensible, you might need to be a kind of marketing expert, don't you?
I have constantly been reacting to this "marketing expert" because it feels smart. The idea feels smart. But for me, if Billie Eilish is a marketing expert, if Red Hot Chili Peppers are the marketing experts, Tom Yorke is a marketing expert; Andy Warhol was an incredible marketing expert. Why does it become powerful, though? It is because of the true passion behind it, which starts from within. It does not start with you going to figure out what people want. To conceptualize it, to package it somehow to make people understand it. Therefore, I sometimes compare BLK DNM with a film product. A great film is, obviously, a borderline between art and commerce, art and industry. The more alternative a film is, the more credibility the latter has. When you are creating such a film, how much actually is coming from "being smart" in the film industry, trying to fit in a particular niche, and how much is an expression coming from within. It is like a magazine – it is powerful when it owns a certain voice. Gucci is very smart, and Balenciaga is smart. And maybe one of the smartest guys ever is Heidi Slimane, who is doing incredible things at Celine. Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, Miuccia Prada. Dalí was very smart. And I tell you, the best businessman of everyone was Picasso. And John Lennon was brilliant. His songs were so commercial, but it was due to the passion they had in them and energy, like "Imagine." It is about something created with a nerve.
When it comes to your passion for photography, you say, “I am curating the journey of BLK DNM with my own lens.” Could you please tell me about your relationship with photography and your relationship with BLK DNM as a photographer?
When I picked up the camera in August 2011, I had never ever held a camera before. I was not even interested. But I had an idea where I wanted to portray the journey of BLK DNM. I talked to my friends in New York, who are successful photographers, but there were always some complications with their agents. And they encouraged me to start photographing. I started and became highly passionate about it. I always had a problem – if I closed my eyes, how could I explain the picture I wanted to create? I saw it myself, but how could I explain it? I styled everything myself, and my idea was to show the strength and independence of women. Somehow, everything just came together, and I suddenly could see everything through my lens. Photography was an essential tool or ingredient to create BLK DNM. I have never considered myself a photographer. People have stopped me on the street saying that they love my photographs because they feel honest and emotional. The presence and connection I have with a person I photograph are all in there. Photography is very inspirational to me, and I really go into a zone when I photograph.
Finally, I found something in Stockholm that really inspires me – the cross-culture nerve – I met people who create music. These people made me feel that I could create independently; it brought me some energy. I found a purpose for why I am here; I found strength and power. Now we are rolling, and it really feels exciting when everything is falling into place.
BLK DNM'S manifesto states, “We believe in a world with no borders. Where love is more valued than religion. Where creativity unifies the world. Where people can develop their inner strength. Be themselves without being influenced by society. An environment where parents inspire their children but do not influence them. A world of equality. where talent and inner intuition are encouraged but not blocked. We believe in inclusivity and that being multicultural is more powerful than being monocultural.” Doesn't this sound contradictory?
I mean the system, the establishment. It is like I do with my daughter, trying to inspire her instead of influencing her. According to the rules of a society, you are expected to be in a certain way. For me it’s all about how you can, as a child, for instance, grow up, become inspired but at the same time stay free and authentic to who you are, instead of trying to fit in a particular structure. When it comes to religion, I grew up with both my grandparents being priests. It was horrible, especially when I was forced to attend church, which invoked anxiety. Therefore, I feel that love – and I believe that in my heart – is on an entirely different level. The soul comes first; the heart and eyes are beyond borders. Habits are said to be good to have. I have a dancer friend in Paris who says that discipline is the foundation of freedom. I think, somehow, discipline blocks you from who you are. The creativity-and-discipline relationship is a bit like an art-and-commerce compound. I want to inspire people to be without identity, roleplay, not to be influenced by society too early, before building their own strength that they can have their individual journey and navigate in the right way. When it comes to borders, I am really inspired by creativity beyond borders and cross-cultural power. Since I came back to Sweden, I became very political because I feel no leader in Sweden really represents this unique cross-cultural voice. This voice is the strength of the new Sweden. Maybe BLK DNM can become that voice?