The design team
Svempa is an authority in the world of custom trucks. Alongside a large number of custom vehicle editions, he has created world-famous show trucks like the Chimera, the Blue Griffin and the Red Pearl. Bea Szenfeld is a fashion designer who not only made stage outfits for the Eurovision Song Contest final in 2016 – a show with over 200 million viewers – but has also created unique custom outfits for world stars like Lady Gaga and Björk.
The inspiration
With Svempa’s world rooted in molding hard surfaces into shapes that flow with a sense of movement even when standing still, and with Bea always working with the organic and soft that flows with the body – common inspiration was found in the Scania griffin. Beas passionate use of upcycled materials combined with Svempa’s knowledge of vehicles made a scavenger hunt at the Scania factory in Södertälje the perfect place to start the process.
The collaboration
The creative work took place in Svempa’s workshop, Bea’s office as well as the Scania factory in Södertälje. The work began, starting with creating the fan belt pieces – all 800 of them. Each one requiring three cuts and two holes, before being sewn together using nearly 5000 stitches. All by hand. So while devoting over 250 man-hours to this work of art, Svempa’s knowledge of the truck world and Beas high-fashion knowhow came together – feather by feather.