Alectra Rothschild / Masculina - AW24

The defining word for Alectra Rothschild / Masculina’s CPHFW debut? Sexy. “I’ve come out of a period where I’ve hardcore tried to sexualise my own existence for the first time in a very long time,” says Alectra Rothschild, whose work directly confronts her experience as a trans woman. “So that’s definitely a big aspect of the collection.” Picking up where her previous collection, ‘RIP Masculina’, left off, today’s outing is fittingly dubbed ‘Rebirth’. There were trans icons (most notably New York nightlife mainstay Sophia Lamar), there was pu**y pink lighting and, most importantly, there was totally c **nty fashion.

For her first on-schedule runway show, Rothschild wasn’t going to let a little thing like the season compromise her vision. “This is a very beach-y collection for winter,” she says. “I’m looking at a lot of swimwear, because all life starts with water.” This is hardly a wholesome romp on the beach, mind you. Rothschild’s take on swimwear finds hooded body floss that leaves little to the imagination. There’s high gloss PVC and shredded denim chaps. “I see this collection being very much on a beach, in Ibiza, in ’99,” she says. “Like I died and woke up there and the’s apparently paradise.” There’s even a perfect early '00s throwback: shutter shades, mirrored in a shutter shade tube top. “They’re really stupid,” says Rothschild.

This is the designer at her most uninhibited. “Creatively, I’ve probably not had this much fun, ever,” she says. “I just decided to really not give a f***.” That isn’t to say that Rothschild’s design chops aren’t on full display (this is a woman who cut her teeth at Mugler, after all) or that commercial considerations have been eschewed completely (the ruched jersey, most notably, and those easy hooded shrugs). Needless to say, we all left the building feeling the fantasy.

See the full Alectra Rothschild / Masculina AW24 collection below: