I got to know Cathrin Åhlén (Å as in called; é as in say) when I was googling for tutorials on how to make a Victorian dress. I landed on her blog and I became one of her loyal readers since. Cathrin has a deep interest in things related to history. I thought it would be great to introduce her here as one of the dark beauties I’ve known.

About a week before this magazine was officially launched, I emailed her to ask if she would do an interview with me. I knew it was kind of last minute and I predicted she would give me a late reply because I knew her school was keeping her busy. I gambled and let fate decides. Within 12 hours, I got her reply and she said yes. I felt truly grateful and she made my first interview. Let me introduce you to the very talented Cathrin Åhlén. By the way, I didn’t get to make the Victorian dress.

Cathrin Åhlén came from a small town in Sweden. She is 22 years old and she enjoys keeping her hands busy with handcrafting. She is a student at her local design school called Stenebyskolan and she studies apparel design. Her clothes are inspired by history. They are ranging from Victorian fashion of the 18th century to vintage fashion of the 20th century. Cathrin has quite a collection of Gothic Lolita dresses and corsets. Not only can she sew, she bakes, weaves, draws and do many other craftworks. Plus, she has a thing for “steampunk” fashion. All of these, I should say, are related to historical. Don’t you think so? Read on to get the inside story of our multi-talented dark beauty.

When did you realize you want to become a fashion designer? What or who inspired you then?
I have always liked to make things ever since I was a little girl. I used mediums such as clay, paper and fabric to name a few. Sometimes my mother got sick of me bringing in kilos of clay from the field outside our house. It wasn’t until I was about 17 years old when I realized how wonderful it was to make my own clothing and that I was actually quite good at it. What inspired me then was what is inspiring me now that is movies. I like to watch movies that are based in historical times.

Can any of your family members or relatives sew or design clothes? Or are you the first person in your generation to pursue fashion design?
My mother can sew. She used to make clothes for me when I was a baby. She also used to make figure skating costumes for my sisters and she is still making them now. So there is always opportunity to sew in my house but I wouldn’t call my mother a fashion designer.

Do you have a Fashion Idol you looked up to?
I adore the work of Alexander McQueen because of his use of materials and experiment on volume. He was amazing and very inspiring to me. I was actually saddened by the news of his death.

What is your favorite pattern? Why do you like it?
I make all of my patterns from scratch. My favorite pattern is anything with a princess seam because I have a difficult body type and commercial patterns don’t suit well on me. Princess seams flatter almost any body type and it is very ideal for someone who is working on making a garment.

What is your proudest masterpiece?
I usually love my latest work because it represented me at the moment. So, my proudest masterpiece is my new skirt design.

Why did you name you blog “katafalk”? I heard there is a death metal band with the same name.
When I started my blog a few years ago, I was working at a church. I was a photographer there and I was given the privilege to explore the church. There were a lot of beautiful historical things around the church and some were hidden away because they were too old and fragile. The attic of the bell tower had a lot of really old stuff – things that people did not know that the church was actually preserving them. One of those things was the “katafalk” or catafalque in English. In the old days, it was used as a platform to support the coffin during a funeral in the church. The katafalk was beautiful. It had a black base with silver accents painted on it. It was like a love at first sight for me and that’s how I got the name for my blog. It was a kind of honor. It fit my interest and love for old forgotten things.

There is a misconception about my blog name among the Swedish people. Most of them thought that “katafalk” was a combination of my first and last name. In Sweden, “Cathrin” is spelt as “Katrin” and the popular nickname for someone called “Katrin” is “Katta”. “Falk”, which means falcon, is a common last name in Sweden. So, most people usually ask if my last name is “Falk”.

Talking about music, what kind of music do you listen to? Does your music inspire you in your design?
I don’t listen to a lot of music now. I used to when I was younger but now when I’m working, I prefer to work in a quiet environment. I listen to music on my way to a place though. I like listening to Rasputina. Their songs had been on my MP3 player for ages already. Other bands I like are Abney Park, Emilie Autumn, Dionysos and Doktor Kosmos, a Swedish band. I also listen to Yann Tiersen. He is an amazing composer. I would not say that I am inspired by the music I listen to because they only fit into my aesthetics. However, I would not say they directly inspire my work.

You described your design as historical but I think there’s a fine line between historical and Gothic. To some, historical things appear Gothic to them. Why didn’t you use “Gothic” to define your style?
I think Gothic was focused during a short period of time in the history, perhaps from the rococo (18th century) until 1920 or so. It’s basically focused around Victorian aesthetics and ideas. I have a wide range of taste among history like in last summer I had this huge crush on the 1950s. So, by defining myself as Gothic, I feel that I am putting myself in a small box. Gothic is such a defined style of its own that I feel it is a bit too narrow to be categorized in. That does not mean I don’t like Gothic though.

It’s nice of you to have tutorials. Why did you decide to give tutorials? Were you not concerned if someone copied your work?
I love to share my knowledge and help people. I really do. I hate it when people are being so competitive that they refuse to help. It is just rude. If someone likes something I make and want to make it themselves, I would be happy to help them. If someone wants to “copy”, they will do it anyway. Even if I’m of little help to them, they might remember me and quote my website to other people who need a sewing tutorial.

What are your other specialties besides sewing? What else can do you?
I like to work in the garden or gardening. I can also bake, cook, weave, work with leather, draw, paint and many other craftworks. My sister usually tells people that there are a lot of things I can do if I really want to. I’m also a bit of a computer nerd because I know how to use designing programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator, and web code a little bit.

Let’s talk about your future. With your talent, I think you could work with the costume department for an epic or fantasy film. Have you thought about that? On the other hand, I believe you would rather open your own clothing line selling historical-inspired clothes. Am I right? Please elaborate.
I would really love to work with movies and/or stage theatre. That’s kind of my plan. I would do that for a few years and then open my own boutique and sell my own design. I would want to work with real people so I can sew my design based on their body measurement. I like to make fitting clothes to make the best of a person’s physique.

What are your plans for your career?
This is how my plans look so far. After one more year of studying leather and fur handicraft, I will continue and study tailoring for another two and a half years at my current school. After that, I will be ready to work for real, preferably at an opera house.

Words of inspiration.
Most people tend to do things to make others happy. Don’t. Start doing things for yourself. Dress for YOU. Study for YOU. Don’t do things if that’s what other people think you should do. I believe one should decide based on what makes him or herself happy.

For more information about Cathrin, visit her blog at katafalk.wordpress.com and online shop at www.etsy.com/shop/learningtofly.