Cecilie Bahnsen took the next step with a collection that played a few contradictory notes. It was full of Victorian volume, exaggerated construction and layers of fabric, yet airy and casual.
After last season’s focus on dance and movement, the Danish designer wanted to expand the vocabulary of the brand. The newer language included everything from sculptural silhouettes to slouchy denim, silk and intricate new fabrics, but deftly maneuvered with her signature light touch.
The biggest shapes were built around Victorian draping, with volume pushed toward the front while the back stayed slim. Pannier shapes gave the clothes wide berth, but the models wore them with their hands slipped inside jean pockets, and strolled from the street onto the runway as if wearing a daytime ballgown is the most natural thing in the world. A modern Marie Antoinette with an edge.
“We saw the full wardrobe, the stretch of what the brand is today, and then doing that with ease and an effortlessness was important,” she said. “Everything is soft, and I think there’s a true femininity and balance to how it works.”
Surprisingly, Bahnsen said it was the first time she has worked with lace. Embellished with delicate sequins and beading, it felt as if it has always been part of the collection somehow.
Traditional jacquards were softened into silky versions. A dense fil coupé from the brand’s first season was reworked in a lighter construction, while lingerie looks, such as bra tops, were more central to the collection.
Denim has always been central to the line, but Bahnsen is renewing her focus on the category, at play here in Italian-made dark indigo washes.
“That rawness against the softness is very important,” she said. “We are really playing on all the different characters.”
