For her return to CPHFW, buzzy Swedish designer Jade Cropper turned to snakes to inspire her signature slinky designs
There’s something slithery about Jade Cropper’s designs in the way they hug the curves of the body like a second skin. It’s fitting, then, that for spring/summer '25 the Swedish designer would turn to the snake for inspiration. “I’ve been kind of using the snake to symbolise transformation and female power,” says Cropper, who notes that the palette of muted red, greens and dessert sand (a certain snake’s desired habitat) instantly call to mind her serpent muse.
And just as the snake is transformed by shedding its skin, Cropper’s garments, too, can be reborn. Yes, there are her now-signature hook and eye closures allowing for adjustable slits, ties that can be twisted and knotted this way or that, laces that run up the side of trousers or second-skin dresses can be loosened or tightened at will. But elsewhere, there are more drastic transformations; a dramatic leather jacket folds up to become a capacious leather bag. A dress is unfastened and retied to become a skirt (revealing, on one model, two Jade Cropper tattoos on the hip – temporary, probably). Nothing is as it seems.
Given the show-and-tell nature of the collection, the presentation format suits Cropper well. In the sparse gallery space, two films as well as a handful of IRL models showcase the various ways in which the garments can take new forms to suit the whims of the wearer. The models slowly paraded out to pose on red sand, lit by red neon (these are dessert snakes, it seems). In the past, Cropper’s collections have been large and wide-ranging, here we find a more tightly-edited selection that emphasise what’s made Cropper such a darling over the past few seasons. Despite the new format and this edited approach, the Jade Cropper girl, one who dares to show a bit of skin, one who wants to slither into a party and stand out, remains the same. “It’s a girl that takes pictures of themselves and shows up with confidence,” says Cropper.
As for what Cropper herself thinks of snakes? “I think they’re kind of cool,” she says.
See the full Jade Cropper SS25 collection below.
