Stockholm Fashion Week opened with an introduction by Filippa Knutsson, who is returning to her namesake brand this season as it celebrates its 25th anniversary (which, in Scandinavia, qualifies it as a heritage brand). One imagines that the Beckmans College of Design students who presented after Knutsson’s comments dream of being household names as well. Not that they played it safe: Free of commercial constraints, the students were able to let their imaginations loose, and for the most part these weren’t store-ready clothes. Matilda Ivarsson presented the most outré looks, showing scuba-inspired pieces and bikinis, for women and men, layered over separates. Her models were shod in low-heeled flippers. Robert Jonsson opened with a collection titled “Bad Boy,” which played, Tom of Finland style, with black leather, bondage, and gender. Male models wore corsets and pieces with kilt detailing. Antonia Larsson Pihl’s take on techno-rave, club dressing was timely and convincing in her use of sport silhouettes and logos. Notably, several of the millennials presenting, including Anastasia Jansäter and Marie Isacsson, and Amanda Borgfors Mézáros, played with volumes that, without being at all referential, seemed to nod to the 1980s. It’s interesting that power shoulders, a sartorial sign of strength, should appear again at the same time as the women’s marches.
