Barbara í Gongini

In 2018, Barbara í Gongini was awarded the Faroese Cultural Prize, the highest distinction that a person of culture can receive in the Faroe Islands.

Her runway collections were first shown at the Paris Fashion Week in 2017. At this time, she also presented the film MODULE MODULAR, a video collaboration with director and photographer Mikkel Völcker.

Barbara I Gongini's designs have been spotted on celebrities such as Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine, in her 2012 music video for Never Let Me Go, as well as on Lenny Kravitz, Rihanna and Chelsea Wolfe

Although her fashion collections integrate sustainability principles and she has been said to be ‘ahead of her time when it comes to sustainability’, Gongini is known for making exceptions ‘if a few materials do not quite meet the standards’, in order not to compromise on design. Nominated for the Danish Fashion Award Committee's Ethical Award in 2010, she was also selected to represent Denmark at the Nordic Eco Fashion and Product Design Exhibition in Berlin.

In 2005, Gongini established her namesake label, with the brand name stylised as BARBARA I GONGINI. In the early days, the BARBARA I GONGINI collections were created for both men and women, focusing on androgyny and multifunctionality. The menswear line only became separate starting with the Autumn/Winter 2013 collection, which was presented at the Copenhagen Fashion Week.

Gongini's first clothing collection was made from fabric residue and launched in 2000, when she was still part of the Könrøg movement. Könrøg was an artist collective formed by 10 Danish artists between 2001-2006, in response to the Antwerp Six designer collective that existed in the ‘80s.

In the early 2000s, she was also part of the team behind the Könrøg clothing store in Copenhagen, which at the time was known as the capital’s most hip shop with Danish designer clothes and Alternative fashion, for those who dared to stand out. Gongini stopped working for Könrøg in 2004 in order to focus on her design career, while the store closed down two year later, in 2006.

Gongini completed her design education at Denmark's School of Design, at the Institute of Unica Design, in 1996.

Barbara í Gongini is a Faroese avant-garde fashion designer who was born in Fuglafjørður and grew up in the old part of Tórshavn, the capital city of the Faroe Islands. As a child, she always had an inclination for the arts and design, which led her to study painting, art and textile construction, graduating in 1990.

Barbara í Gongini (born June 12, 1966) is a Faroese-Danish avant-garde fashion designer from Fuglafjørður, Faroe Islands.