Last year Nicklas Skovgaard was an LVMH Prize finalist, won the Wessel Vett Fashion Prize, and moved into a new atelier. “It’s almost like a new chapter,” said the designer. His is a young brand, a work in progress, and that was reflected in the disused space, a former store, in which he presented his standing-room-only show. Its white walls and gray concrete floor were illuminated by a giddy palette that could have been pulled from a selection of pick-and-mix candy: sour apple green, twin cherry red, licorice black, mallow pink, and the like.
Having absorbed the color, the eye moved onto the silhouette. The waist, not the hips, was the focal point this season; balloon and lifesaver shapes ceded to circle skirts, many of them pleated. There was something almost New Look-y about some of these fit-and-flare silhouettes. While Christian Dior reshaped women’s bodies into perfect hourglasses, Skovgaard favored softer construction and the work-in-progress feeling of raw edges. Yet the makeup (drawn-on eyebrows), strong shoulders, and peplums also had ’40s vibes. It’s a decade that is connected, silhouette-wise, to the ’80s, Skovgaard’s touchstone era. Most unexpected were boat-necked looks in heavy wool that had a kind of paper-doll-meets-Mad Men kind of feeling.
One of Skovgaard’s references was a 1937 Danish movie, Mille, Marie og mig (Millie, Marie and I), starring Marguerite Viby who adopts a name and a look for each of her three personas. By day Ellen Klausen is a serious medical student. She supports herself by working in a nightclub at Mille, and as a maid called Marie. What fascinated the designer was “this way she was shifting through these three different characters while she was at the same time, the same person.”
As a young entrepreneur, Skovgaard is also wearing different hats and required to be a businessman, creative, and promoter. He tried to translate the push, pull, and contrasts required by these roles into his garments. The collection would have been stronger without the inclusion of styles like jersey dresses and a coat with knit waist that were familiar from past collections. Otherwise, this collection had much of the unmistakable Skovgaard spirit.
