For the second season, Sunflower uprooted itself temporarily from Copenhagen to show in Paris during menswear. (Vogue Runway saw the collection in Denmark.) Observing that men still seem to want to “dress up again in a real masculine way,” according to designer Ulrik Pedersen, the brand continues to focus on both suiting and denim. “If you go 10, 15 years back in Scandinavia, you had the casual brands doing [casual] like we did at NN.07, and then you had the suit brands doing suits, but there was nobody doing a mixture of both,” said Pedersen, referring to the brand he cofounded and ran for eight years before selling. “We always liked the look of denim and a suit jacket.”
Proving the point was a beautifully tailored blazer with gold buttons, styled in the look book with dark jeans or leather pants. He also added gilded buttons to a blue leather blazer. It wasn’t the Take Ivy kind of preppy Pedersen was after but something he dubbed “rock-and-roll preppy.” Polo shirts in the lightest knits came in highlighter pink.
There was a surfeit of shorts suits and looks; the point is quickly made. Among the stand-alone styles in the collection was a military-style jacket with patch pockets and a nicely constructed curved sleeve. Pedersen, who has a special way with denim, showed deep blues and undyed jeans styles; take note of the cream-colored patchwork pair. Also noteworthy was a rust-colored work jacket and pants made of an unbelievably soft and pliant Japanese denim that drapes beautifully.
