For autumn/winter '25, Icelandic designer Sól Hansdóttir created a collection to be perceived in the future, full of uncanny expressions and dystopian silhouettes
Sól Hansdóttir’s autumn/winter '25 collection sprung from a postcard, a totem often tied to a specific era and place that gains nostalgia as time passes. This one, specifically, was from the isle of Arran, in Scotland (she was in Scotland at the time, with her Scottish partner). At first glance, the postcard, which featured an image of two children standing next a person a bird costume, appeared to be from the 1960s. But something was amiss. “It was an AI-generated postcard pretending to be a genuine postcard from the Isle of Arran,” says the Icelandic designer. “It made me think of how in the future someone might find this postcard and think it was real! Because it kind of looked like it but there was some uncanniness to it,” she says. “The postcard would then tell a fake narrative, it would become a future fake. Such power we have!”
This revelation got Hansdóttir thinking about how things documented in the present may be perceived in the future; the starting point of her AW25 collection, which was presented during London Fashion Week. As in the postcard, there’s a quirky uncanniness to the pieces, with their unusual silhouettes and vibrant colours (the jarring pops of red, especially). “I usually mock-up in paper first – garments usually start out as an experiment,” says Hansdóttir. “I have a square piece of paper and I hang it on the wall and start pattern-making by drawing on the paper, like I’m painting, maybe. From there the shapes develop and it becomes a jacket or a top or a vest.”
Trousers with bizarre asymmetric cuts and slashes seem to glitch around the body. Elsewhere, a technical-looking jacket with balloon-like sleeves is met with slim cream and red leggings that seem a hybrid of a long-johns and a riding pant. The garments are recognisable, but, again, something is alluringly amiss. The pieces are upcycled from deadstock fabrics, culled from an archive Hansdóttir and her partner have amassed over the years. “Some of the wool is sourced from Iceland, some of the wool is offcuts from an upholsterer,” she notes. The knit pieces, which swoop and swirl around the body, were, as Hansdóttir notes, “almost impossible to create on our knit machine in the studio”. “We worked really hard to get them right,” she says, adding that she’s not a trained knitwear designer. "Luckily I had an amazing team and the knit looks great!”
Finnish-Gambian photographer and writer Kadi Jatta joined the artistic conversation at the Sól Hansdóttir presentation at London Fashion Week.
Icelandic sound artist Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir at the presentation.
To hammer home this idea of future documentation and passed down narratives, Hansdóttir presented the collection as an artistic conversation, with speakers like sound artist Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir and Finnish-Gambian photographer and writer Kadi Jatta presenting their own narratives. According to Hansdóttir, the presentation clicked into place when she “saw the protagonists speaking and listening to each other and being inspired and interested in each other’s work,” she says. “They are all so amazing, amazing brains, such strong work and they looked absolutely fantastic, it's outrageous!”
As for how Hansdóttir thinks the collection will be perceived by someone observing it from the future? She notes that given the unusual format, there’s something future-looking about the presentation to begin with. “This collection and the presentation are a starting point for what is to come from the brand and what I want to see for the future of fashion,” she says. “I'm seeing that my audiences are the people of the future, they just happen to be around us now.”
See the Sól Hansdóttir's full AW25 collection below.
