An apple brought Isaac Newton his eureka moment and another — a giant green orb by Danish artist Casper Sejersen in the middle of the runway — signaled the epiphany Cecilie Bahnsen wants people to have about her brand.
“That [we] can be more than the box we get put in,” she said backstage before her fall show. But this was a change of pace rather than a complete departure from her romantic, floaty aesthetic. Bahnsen mixed that with stronger shoulders, elongated silhouettes and the introduction of leather, with materials coming from Nona Source, save outerwear in collaboration with Mackintosh.
Tough-looking boots, both developed with Ecco Leather by the Danish brand and a collaboration with footwear label Diemme, as well as a new chapter in her ongoing collaboration with Asics completed these looks grounded in “a stubbornness to [our] femininity that I want people to see and that we own,” she said.
Gradually moving from blacks to blues, browns and near-whites, Bahnsen worked her silhouettes in monochromes, saying it helped her focus on cuts and techniques, a direction she’ll be leaning into further with the launch of made-to-order.
On the one hand, that’s about capitalizing on existing demand that Bahnsen and team have been filling on a case-by-case basis. On the other, “I also get to do what I really love to do: nerd out on techniques and stuff,” she said.
“That will be our way of doing like the curvature pieces and really maintaining the craft of the business as well,” she said. At a moment where luxury consumption is flagging, it’s a canny choice. Said Bahnsen: “The loudness of the collection is also a little bit about the need to fight for your creativity, what really matters to you — nothing’s a walk in the park.”
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