Sometimes it feels like fashion designers are clairvoyants. Cake and the eating of it, the themes of Henrik Vibskov’s fall show, were inspired by a side project with a jazz ensemble a long while ago. At that time the designer had given no thought to his 20th anniversary in fashion, nor could he have predicted the pandemic craze for baking. As Danishes and other sweets are often enjoyed at happy gatherings, which are of course prohibited during lockdown, the collection seems to speak to a collective longing to gather around a table with people we love.
Among the main ingredients in Vibskov’s recipe for success these past couple of decades are color and print, but there’s another that’s more elusive—that’s the designer’s multimedia approach to all that he does. Fashion is but one of his artistic expressions; he’s been a drummer since the age of 10. “For me, it’s really important to keep the fire burning and keep the lust and passion, so therefore I really love that I can zoom in on another project.”
The cake theme is most directly expressed through intarsia knits and prints, including one that features a recipe for his mother’s apple pie. The designer wasn’t only thinking about sweets, however; there’s one print with tablecloth scribbles and the like.
The lineup includes “entrées” like a pastel sweatsuit and a beautiful barrel-shaped coat. Though apron-like dresses are thematic, it would have been nice to see some more mature silhouettes in the fringed plaid blanket series, but that’s a minor quibble. Twenty years in business is something to celebrate. “It’s a strange, weird mix of chaos and then some kind of conservative movements,” says Vibskov of his approach to design. Sweet, indeed.
