The New Designer Getting Gen Z Excited About the ’80s
“You’re going to like this one,” a friend told me back in February, as I sat in a room filled with chairs arranged in circles, surrounding round sheepskin rugs. Soon models would appear in front of us, staking their heels in the fluffy fabric, wearing oil-slick black bubble dresses and smocked drop-waist skirts and emoting wildly, as if they were in an ’80s dance video. It was only Nicklas Skovgaard’s second time presenting at Copenhagen Fashion Week, and still there was plenty of fanfare. While only four years old, the Danish brand has the kind of hype some designers spend decades chasing.
This season, the excitement hadn’t died down. In the days (and even weeks) leading up to CPHFW, every fashion editor I knew who was heading to the Danish capital spoke of Skovgaard’s presentation and as the one thing they wouldn’t dare miss. The crowd spilled onto the street outside the gallery where it was held, as models walked in front of a camcorder setup inside, wearing the designer’s signature bubble silhouette and textured jackets with large shoulders. Projected on the wall were snippets of aerobics videos his mother starred in decades ago.
After the show, Skovgaard told me, “Since I was a child, I used to watch my mother getting dressed. And I would think, ‘How would I actually dress myself if I was a woman? What clothes would I put on? And what shoes would I wear with that skirt, and what top would I wear with that necklace?’ Those what ifs are the keystone of the pieces I do.” His eponymous brand, he went on to say, “is really just an expression of all the things I like … and right now, I am obsessed with this ’80s world of Madonna.” And the reason he is obsessed isn’t the Material Girl herself, but his mother.
“This season was inspired by my mother in the late ’80s—she was 30 at that time. And in less than a month, I will be 30 myself,” he said. “I thought there was something interesting about looking at these old images of her from that time of her life, when she was about to give birth to me. She’s either dressed very formally in an oversized power suit, or she’s wearing these very sporty looks, like a pair of leggings with a T-shirt and a big headband.” She had moved to London briefly at a young age to train as an aerobic instructor—hence the videos that played during the presentation. That contrast between the different kinds of looks she would wear—sporty one second, elevated the next—was what Skovgaard was really drawn. “And so I thought we should do a swimsuit that you could wear with your big jacket and put on a pair of dancing tights … or layer your swimsuit with a big skirt.”
Among the looks that invited enthusiastic pats on the shoulder and nods of admiration were a lace white dress with a smocked wide-band waist, worn with footless leggings and shimmering black pumps; a tunic constructed like a pink homecoming dance dress that draped ove`r a long black skirt; and an off-the-shoulder gray sweatsuit leotard, of course worn with lace stockings and leg warmers. Models approached guests like myself, who were sometimes not entirely ready, asking for help zipping into their dresses. They kissed one another on the cheek before spinning out onto the street and shaking their hips with joie de vivre.
“At least for my brand, it fits way better that we have this interaction with the audience coming to the show, and that you really feel the vibe of that cast and the vibe of that certain woman walking in that certain dress,” Skovgaard said of his decision to present in this way. And while ’80s aerobic videos were choreographed, he asked his cast to move however they would like. “We put on clothes because we go about our everyday life. It’s also nice to see, even though it might be a little bit exaggerated in the shows or the presentations, to really see the movement and let the clothes come alive together with the person wearing it.”
While they absolutely did come alive inside the white-walled gallery, it was easy to see that his vision was alive and well with the audience, whose eyes lit up with every passing twirl and strut. When I looked around the room, I heard editors mumble about which looks they wanted for themselves (and could possibly buy on Ssense, where the brand has been selling a handful of exclusive-to-the-retailer pieces), not just which ones they planned to write about.
“What I love about fashion myself is that fashion can affect your state of mind. You start thinking, ‘What stories will I tell, or what life will I be living if I was wearing this dress? Or what music would I be listening to if I was wearing this dress? Or how would I be feeling?’ ” he said. Everyone in attendance at the presentation was scanning each look asking themselves the same questions, before stating, “I think I want that.” Y2K’s current hold on younger fashion fans feels never-ending, but Nicklas Skovgaard has proven capable of interesting them in another era entirely.
You Might Also Like
