A SCANDINAVIAN AND
MEDITERRANEAN ATMOSPHERE
January 22, 2023

Lissa collection packaging
Leon Glasnović is a young designer, a Swedish of Croatian origin, who lives on the Zagreb-Split route, where he represents the Croatian national team in taekwondo. He modestly claims that he is not a designer and that he primarily collects old clothing, choosing pieces for both his personal wardrobe and his online vintage store, Loud Ones. Since 2019, young Glasnović has been curating his shop with an emphasis on military surplus, which, as he admits, has altered his perspective on clothing. Now, inspired by the durability, functionality, and quality of military clothing, he designed and presented his first collection, Lissa, named after the Italian name of the island of Vis, which holds a special place in his heart.


Lissa collection (photography: Loud Ones)
Loud Ones is where you can get vintage Levi's, Yugoslav national army’s soldier shirts, flannel shirts, US army rain jackets, Italian soldier sweaters, and, more recently, jackets worn by the Italian navy in the 1970s. Indeed, after examining soldiers' attire for years, Leon discovers his fascination with the pieces of soldiers from varied backgrounds. Before the epidemic interrupted his research, he discovered clothing items for the Loud Ones in factories where remains of the military's past are spread. At that point, he decided to start his own collection, designing a pair of pants and a jacket that drew inspiration from the past and demonstrated his remarkable sense of style.

Loud Ones Lissa pants and Italian navy blazer from the 1970s
The first collection of Loud Ones was inspired by lamenting the evident decrease of the original tailor shops where people used to purchase their daily attire. For instance, Leon feels that there should be more stores where people can get traditional and timeless items that can be worn every day, even though there are still several shops and tailors in Zagreb that create clothing for more celebratory events. He thinks that Croatia has a lot to offer and that we should go back to the era when the streets were filled with authentic boutiques, as opposed to the way they are now, which is dominated by large fashion companies. Since Loud Ones begins with the premise that the sewing service is the best clothing choice, we must return to that point. Consider the days when our ancestors' closets had just a few staple pieces of clothing: one pair of pants, one coat or jacket, and one pair of shoes. With its debut line, Loud Ones believes it is critical to reintroduce high-quality apparel items that can be worn year-round.
In his collection of pants and jackets, Glasnović uses waste materials. He purchased several types of brand-new, unused materials from Italian industries (which would have otherwise been disposed of in waste bundles) and started to investigate their structure, composition, and changes through time. Because Loud Ones aspires to reintroduce production to Croatian fashion and clothing culture, the Lissa collection's goal was to produce every piece of clothing—from the buttons to the labels—in Croatia. Leon tailored several pants and wore them for a year to ensure that the garment he had designed was truly durable. The materials underwent quality tests for more than a year. It will fade in colour and gain a different texture with time, but this is what adorns timeless pieces; they change to fit the person wearing them each time they are worn.


Lissa collection material (mix of cotton and linen)
He ultimately decided on the material used in military tasks by the Moroccan army. Combining linen and cotton (250g/m2 for the pants and 170g/m2 for the jacket) was done so that linen would allow air to flow through while cotton would hold it in. Indeed, such a mix of materials is appropriate for various weather, from colder to warmer days. He chose a cut modelled on Swedish military trousers, a straight cut, with two front and one back pocket. When Leon came across an old photograph of a fisherman in Dalmatia (who is rushing to pull a net out of the sea and is wearing pants with one back pocket), he realized that this was the ideal way to connect the Swedish army trousers with the attire of the Mediterranean fishermen. Leon wanted to connect the military past with the Mediterranean and the sea, where he spent time designing the collection. The piercing dark blue is symbolic of the sea, but equally, it is a colour that has been shown to take on a patina and texture after several washes that only make the pants more beautiful.


Pants inspired by the single back pocket of Swedish military pants and fishermen in the Mediterranean (pictured left)


Leon wanted to create a matching garment with pants that would be lighter; he designed a jacket that could also be used as an overshirt. The jacket Leon discovered in his grandmother's wardrobe served as the inspiration. He loved the large buttons, the airy fabric, and the flannel shirt-inspired sleeves on the vintage jacket. The jacket is extremely compact, has a slightly longer cut, and features side openings that make it ideal for dressier events when worn with a shirt and vest and for warmer days with only a t-shirt.




The intention was to create two complementary pieces, but there is no doubt that this is just the beginning of the Lissa collection. For now, it combines elements of the Mediterranean and Scandinavia, is appropriate for all situations, is unisex, and blends well in both informal and formal settings. It embodies both the easy-going lifestyle of the Mediterranean and the durability of military pieces.