The Garment returns to its modernist DNA this season with a celebration of Le Corbusier's Indian masterpiece Chandigarh
Following a double-billing of recent cinematic collections (American Gigolo for AW24 and The Talented Mr Ripley for SS25), creative director Charlotte Eskildsen has double-downed on The Garment's modern minimalist foundations for this season. “Back to mid-century furniture,” she says with a smile just a handful of days before the autumn/winter '25 show.
Looking around the Nikolaj Kunsthal show space today, its runway lined with 250 Arne Jacobsen and punctuated with a towering geometric totem by Danish sculpture Josefine Vinding, the modernist mood is alive and well. But Eskildsen’s very specific inspiration for AW25 isn't entirely apparent until the convoy of models appear – being the master designer Le Corbusier. “He went to a place in northern India called Chandigarh with his cousin Pierre Jenneret and designed structures throughout the whole village – a hospital, official buildings, and so on – which are still standing today,” Eskilden says. As well as the structures, there were interior furnishings created for Chandigarh, which Le Corbusier and Jenneret designed using readily available materials such as bamboo, wicker, teak and rope. As luck would have it, Eskilden and her team could access some of the Chandigarh pieces at Copenhagen's Ruby Atelier, a gallery which handpicks and restores archival vintage finds.
Nods to Chandigarh are palpable throughout the latest collection in the crisp white, butter yellow, tan and acorn tones, and the plush natural fibres of wool, silk and organic cotton. “I always start with pictures of men who I think look cool, and then I use it for womenswear,” Eskildsen says. “I worked with quite a heavy wool for the suiting to have these menswear-style trousers cut with a tiny coin pocket,” she goes on. With all this talk of architecture and design, proportions were an obvious priority for Eskildesen too. “I love the word ‘micro’, when it’s tiny skirts and tiny jackets, which are so fun to play up against bigger trousers.”
See all the looks from The Garment's autumn/winter '25 collection below.
