Due to its location on the globe, all Norwegians have to deal with the absence of the sun during the winter months, but some choose to lean into the gloom more than others. Among them are 1313selah’s co-founders Tomás Silva, Duy Ngo, and Erik Spanne, who, true to form, were all wearing black when we spoke over Zoom on the eve of the brand’s debut. Their plan was to present their First Communion collection of 13 looks on Friday the 13th at the 13th hour in their hometown of Oslo. Clearly the trio is unaffected by triskaidekaphobia, or fear of the number 13.
There are certainly elements of darkness in 1313selah’s collection, though on first read one might see the “Catholic imagination” at play in the religious icons hand-sewn onto a double-breasted suit, or the tear-stained face of the Madonna that appears on a T-shirt. The lookbook was shot on the Hill of Crosses in Lithuania, in a nod to the jacket art of Cypress Hill’s Black Sunday album, the record that was playing last Halloween when they locked themselves in an isolated cabin and started to put in motion today’s brand launch. Among the Latino slang in the lyrics, the gothic references, and “everything kind of dark” the trio found their “common ground.”