If this was Larsson’s score, it was decidedly underground. There was something seedy about the way the models swaggered down the catwalk in laced-up leather trousers and bumster jeans. Something about the distressed, shrunken Fair Isles, and embellished chiffon slip skirts under abbreviated double-breasted trench coats that evoked angst between self-exploration and self-actualization. Something about the awkwardness of the attenuated silhouettes that felt familiar. Or how trousers, spliced together into dresses, were thrown over the models’ heads like dresses, with little else underneath, undone belts trailing behind them. Behind the attention-grabbing pièces de resistance that garnered her accolades and celebrity admiration, there is an urgent message about resourcefulness, sustainability and the environment. Everything in the show, from the cotton shirts to cello, once lived a life all of their own.
“I wanted it to reflect fragility and boldness,” said Larsson, backstage after the show.
What would you like us to know about this collection?
I’ve been out walking in a field by our studio with my dog. I wanted [the collection] to have this feeling of freedom that you feel when you’re walking, with your hair blowing in the wind, and you’re in the mood of the energy. There’s this musicality to it and how music can capture different parts of your energy.
How does this collection build on the last?
Every season, we do this layering and turn things inside out. I wanted it to reflect fragility and boldness and explore the meaning between boldness and the naked body. There’s also the fragility in your own vulnerability and I wanted to highlight that vulnerability by combining it with boldness. There’s the contrast between the tightness, skinniness of the naked body with the shell that we put on ourselves.
How does that contrast play out in your own life?
We all have these contrasts within us and they balance each other out: different moods, different opportunities, different periods of your life. For me, this year has been more energised.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.
