Taking advantage of the new presentation format, Nicklas Skovgaard stages a gallery retrospective for spring/summer '25, culminating in a aerobics-meets-puffy-prom collection
For spring/summer '25, Nicklas Skovgaard takes his nostalgic view of puffed up glitz and glamour to the gym. Taking advantage of Copenhagen Fashion Week’s new presentation format, the Danish designer offers a delightful mashup of '80s prom and aerobics class. Models grooved along to 'Maniac' in Flashdance fashion.
Most designers wait a decade, maybe two before staging a retrospective, but Skovgaard isn’t one to do things by tradition. His third Copenhagen Fashion Week outing was also a Nicklas Skovgaard Exhibition – a white cube survey documenting his previous two shows as well as the brand new performance piece, showcasing his spring/summer 2025 offering. “It’s something people do after 30 years of work, so I thought it would be fun to take the best elements of the two past shows and put it in a gallery space,” he says. In the first room, video footage of Skovgaard’s celebrated debut, in which performance artist and frequent collaborator Britt Liberg dramatically dressed herself in the designer’s now-signature balloon skirts and draped dresses. Also hung throughout the space, stop motion images from the lookbook captured at his second runway show, which further emphasised his love of the '80s by way of dropped waists and big blowouts.
But the main event presents Skovgaard’s latest collection – a double down on the codes that have already made him a beloved presence on the Copenhagen schedule with a jazzercise twist. “Whenever I start working on a new collection, I take elements of the past collections I’ve done,” he says. “It could be a very specific silhouette or a specific material or even a cut or the way that it’s styled.” Think drop-waist bubble dresses, lacy leggings and frilly-capped sleeves. Liberg and a slew of other Skovgaard regulars act as both performance artists and patrons, sometimes dancing, sometimes simply moving about the space, keenly observing the videos and images on display. “It’s this idea of going to the gallery opening and seeing people dressed up super nice,” says Skovgaard. None of this is to say that the collection doesn’t offer up plenty of newness. Most notably, there are prints, both florals and painstakingly made trompe l’oeil frocks that create the illusion of Skovgaard’s '80s pouf-skirt silhouettes.
As with past seasons, Skovgaard also drew inspiration from an image of his mother, this time from the 1990s, in which she wears a white cotton strapless dress with a chunky red belt. The designer recreated the dress with a structured latex lining. “She woke my interest in fashion in a way,” says Skovgaard of his mum. “It’s fun to imagine the life she had before I was born.” Perhaps you saw her at the presentation, taking in the masterpieces.
See the full Nicklas Skovgaard SS25 collection below:
