Imagine a wintry industrial cityscape, empty of people. Does it make you feel liberated and free, or is your instinct to seek shelter and warmth? In Cecilie Bahnsen’s fall collection and film there are options for homebodies and adventurers both; they were achieved via intense material research through which the designer wanted to bring emotion and a sense of heart and tactility into a digital landscape that can feel barren and lonely.
Happily this season’s pieces were conceived in the convivial atmosphere of the studio. Once Bahnsen and team were safely able to return to work, the designer dedicated a full month to play, working with materials on forms, “refining the most beautiful silhouettes,” she said on a call, “and alongside that working with all these fabrics that are so dear to me.”
Quilted silks and cut-outs, coupé and drawstrings, florals and pleats were all revisited and pushed forward. Bahnsen was not only interested in evolution, though: For fall she was seeking to bring a kind of self-sufficiency into the garments. “One of the things that we are known for is these really airy, elegant, layered dresses, but I also wanted to resolve them as a complete look,” she said. She did this by creating dresses that look as if they are composed of different pieces, so that a dress with a quilted body, say, is supported by a knit top that looks as if it were a separate sweater. It’s a form of trompe l’oeil that is completely separate from Surrealism, and one that speaks to material coming together and a connectedness that has a parallel in the community the models form in the film.
In her ongoing collaboration with Mackintosh, Bahnsen achieves a union of romance and utility by using waterproof material for coats with full sleeves held tight at the heart with a detachable bib. In a different vein to the delicate dresses are oversized outerwear pieces made of heavier coupė (which reads a bit granny) that are meant, said Bahnsen, to “contrast this really feminine universe and to build up your look.” This marks a shift from layering dresses over knits to coats over dresses that incorporate knits.
Occupying a sort of middle ground between exterior (coats) and interior (dresses) are the looks featuring an exquisite pendant floral embroidery that bobs and sways, taking on a life of its own. These embellishments hint at the energy pulsing under the collection, one that urges freedom and movement. In the film the heroines escape from the shadows of the city, their chariot a vintage silver Volvo, and end up at a beach at dawn, fireworks bursting overhead. Like the season’s palette, which ranges from black to white, the narrative is about “moving out of the darkness into light.”
It’s an optimistic message that speaks of the power to move us—with no wheels required. Bahnsen says there’s a fairy-tale aspect to her work as well as “a dreamy part. I think what fashion can do is transport you, now that you can’t even travel,” she says. “You can dream of the times to come.”
