The pre-fall season sees Christian Juul Nielsen returning to his Danish roots, with inspirations for his latest Aknvas collection stemming from a summer trip to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.
“It’s not in Copenhagen, but it’s this beautiful installation in the north, where people really go out to have a whole day trip. The location is in several buildings and you walk through the park and beautiful sculptures. People sort of just sit in the grass and have picnics — ‘peaceful’ was one of the notes I wrote. There’s an ‘OK to relax in the air,’ which is really refreshing,” Nielsen said. In addition, seeing groups of people fully dressed up in the park, eating signature Danish smørrebrød open-face sandwiches while listening to live classical music inspired the collection’s light Scandinavian vibe.
The idea had him looking to the “light, innocent and virginal, in a sense,” paintings of the 19th-century “Skagens malerier” era, citing the works of P.S. Kroyer and Michael Ancher.
“There’s a certain innocent language to it that I really feel you find in the north [of Denmark],” he said, which inspired him to use more cotton voile, eyelet and ruffles — that “sense of innocence and youth” seen through the painted ladies’ fashions — than in previous collections. The inspirations translated well into a modern and fresh lineup, as seen through his signature ruffled party dresses in shades of white and cream with broderie anglaise and eyelet details, or soft and sweet matching sets and feminine “day gowns.”
In addition, Juul Nielsen worked in classic items from his youth — his mother’s crochet, as seen through a striking bright red 3D floral crochet dress, or sea green crochet short with long-sleeve top — or cinched dresses and matching sets with color contrasting thread work inspired by Royal Copenhagen porcelain (great in pastel green with bordeaux).
Nielsen said business for his emerging label is strong, especially with buy now, wear now styles, evidenced through the fast sales of his resort collection. So he mixed in elevated, trend-forward Canadian denim tuxedo looks (which he said is doing well for the brand); an uptick of striped and cinched cotton desk-to-dinner looks, and a good assortment of cute little boxer shorts — perfect for the collection’s summer launch.
