BY MARYANNE GRISZ

For Spring/Summer 2027, Kate Barton brings a new ease to the brand’s sculptural language. The collection is the brand’s most colorful to date. The ideas that have shaped Barton’s work from the beginning, sculptural construction, engineered draping, illusion and an instinct for visual disruption, remain firmly in place. This season, they feel increasingly instinctive, embedded into the natural language of the clothes. That confidence allows the collection to feel freer. Draping falls naturally around the body. Sculptural gestures emerge from straightforward silhouettes. Trompe-l’oeil details are embedded into the pieces with an effortless quality. The construction feels intuitive, translating complex ideas into clothes designed simply to be worn. Kate was co-winner of FGI Rising Star 2024 in Evening Wear.

Designer: Christian Juul Neielsen “Swans Before Innocence”

In the lingering light of a scandinavian summer, something familiar becomes enchanted. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s The Wild Swans, AKNVAS’s third chapter moves between everyday dress and fairy-tale romance. Soft pastels meet flashes of vivid color and passages of black. Flowers, sculpted shapes, and sheer layers suggest a world both tender and a little untamed.

ACT I – ELEVEN SHIRTS: A shirt holds the promise of breaking a spell. Mixed-striped cottons reimagine classic shirting, while floral and swan embroideries carry the intimate touch of handwork. Shirt sleeves wrap around the waist, becoming part of the trousers themselves. The familiar begins to change.

ACT II – FOREST NYMPH: The forest finds its way into the wardrobe. Floral jackets borrow the practicality of rainwear; denim takes on ruffles and sculpted volume. Lifted drapes and ruffles at the back of the skirts evoke swans raising their wings. Tiny flowers hang from sheer layers, while corsets bloom at the hips. Utility gives way to fantasy.

ACT III – WILD SWANS: Romance takes flight. Asymmetric-cut lace gowns are drawn up with ribbons, while ruffles, sweeping high-low skirts, and clouds of tulle suggest the movement of wings. Bright color glimpsed beneath transparent layers brings a playful sensuality. There is softness here, but nothing entirely innocent.

Christian was FGi Rising Star winner 2022