Hanna MW
She is one of Sweden’s leading stylists, combining different stylistic expressions with each other and she dreams of decorating a whole country home with her custom designs for Boråstapeter. Meet design curator and stylist Hanna Marzouki Widlund.
WHAT´S YOUR STORY?
Hanna MW
She is one of Sweden’s leading stylists, combining different stylistic expressions with each other and she dreams of decorating a whole country home with her custom designs for Boråstapeter. Meet design curator and stylist Hanna Marzouki Widlund.
TEXT: Therese Ahlström PHOTO: Gustaf Peterson
It’s 7pm in Bali when I meet with design curator and stylist Hanna Marzouki Widlund. She and her team have been on the island for 10 days doing advertising campaigns for various brands. It’s been a year since she started the HA/NA production company with friend and photographer Rami Hanna.
– We’re here for a fortnight, spending the days on photoshoots, image selection and in post-production. Plus squeezing in time to hang out on the beach and enjoy some nice eats.
Widlund has worked in the fashion industry for more than a decade and has styled icons the likes of Elsa Hosk. She was also an early mover in creating content in her own social media channels, inviting her followers to soak up inspiration in the fashion and lifestyle segment.
– I’m 30 now, and started working straight after leaving highschool. I started out as a store window dresser, but I always knew I wanted to do my own thing.
“ To me, wallpaper is incredibly appealing, and in my childhood I was surrounded by wallpaper designs, many of which were from Boråstapeter.”
For anyone with a keen interest in fashion, Borås is a great place to grow up. Known as Sweden’s ‘textiles city’, Borås is an important hub for a cluster of Sweden’s apparel companies, and one of these was where Widlund eventually applied for a job.
– At that time, nelly.com was a fairly new online fashion sore, and that was where I ended up. A few years later, I joined Gina Tricot as a stylist, and this was when I developed an interest in production, and the chance to influence all aspects of the creative process.
Alongside her day job, Widlund started freelancing as a stylist, and from there, was only a step away from launching her own business.
– Rami and I have always taken on lots of assignments together, and were eventually working almost exclusively as a team. In that sense, starting a production company felt like a natural extension of that partnership.
In addition to her production company, she is also co-owner of the Bare lingerie label and has a stake in the Louis Abel jewellery brand.
– Although I’m driven by passion and creativity, I don’t mind admitting that the business side is also an important driver. I like that synergy.
Widlund’s creative style is often drawn from architecture, and as she sees it, there are many interfaces between fashion and interior design.
– I take a huge interest in interior design, and feel that this ties in well with my own line of work. The inspiration for various fashion assignments also gives me inspiration for my own home. I’m often inspired by architecture, museums and the other locations I visit.
Whether in fashion or interior design, she rarely follows the same style, but likes to blend diverse stylistic expressions.
– When it comes to interior design, I have diverse directions. My dream is to have three homes: a place in the country, a home in Southern Europe and then a flat in Stockholm. I’d want each place to have a completely different look. I don’t follow any particular style trend, but like mixing things up and staging contrasts.
She explains that she is inspired by the artist Miró’s distinctive palette of yellow, red and blue, but also by French country style – which was what inspired her wallpaper design for Boråstapeter.
– It’s so beautiful. I really like my wallpaper, especially the golden oats and dark red colourway. If I could, I’d decorate a whole home-from-home in the country with it.
The pattern is inspired by a painting at a country hotel i Denmark. The aim was to create a timeless wallpaper that would work in many different types of home.
– I didn’t want to just design a wallpaper to fit into my current home, but one I can have in all my future interiors. To me, wallpaper is incredibly appealing, and in my childhood I was surrounded by wallpaper designs, many of which were from Boråstapeter. Which is why this collaboration is so special to me.
Did you have any particular interior in mind?
– Somewhere in the back of my mind, there’s always this vision of the dream home I’d like to own one day. So that was definitely part of the inspiration. But I think this design is multifaceted in that it could just as well decorate a luxury boutique hotel, a traditional log cabin or a modern apartment.
About Hanna Marzouki Widlund
Profession: Design curator and stylist
Age: 30
Education: Self-taught
Latest work: Hanna MW for Boråstapeter wallpaper
