Extreme and serene is one way to sum up Freya Dalsjø’s latest collection. The show opened and closed with muchness; in between the designer’s work often edged beyond minimalism into the monastic, where seemingly no further reduction was possible. Emphasizing her commitment to slow fashion, the designer has her models walk at an almost ritualistically unhurried pace, which drains vibrancy from the proceedings, but allows the materials and craftsmanship to be visually savored.
“What I wanted to achieve this time was to do a collection of more wearable, everyday pieces; building a wardrobe with pieces that I would love to wear,” Dalsjø explained. Key to that concept was shirting—but not of the Brooks Brothers variety. Buttons on the sleeves and the center back of tops not only allowed for customization, they blurred the distinction between skin and fabric, and “inside and outside.” They also created a sense of airiness, a feeling that was likewise present in a wispy black dress that came alive in motion and a liquid tank/slip dress that rivaled any Calvin Klein showed in the ’90s.
The lightness of those pieces stood in contrast to toppers in double-faced cashmere with a pile so dense that it almost resembled suede. The cashmere was cut into slim coats and capacious cocoons, and sometimes paired with trousers with skewed waistlines at front and back. A long swathe of sand-colored fabric folded back up into itself to become a one-piece vest and blazer. The autumnal feel of these garments was in line with the designer’s seasonless approach.
Dalsjø, who works closely with her mother, is also conscious of designing for women of all ages. There’s a maturity to her clothes that sometimes reads as seriousness. Its purity aligns it with someone like Dušan Paunovic, who is carrying forward the legacy of Zoran, rather than, say, Toteme.
According to the show notes one of the woven pieces was inspired by a summer hat. The designer pushed her basket weave technique to the limits this season, painstakingly cutting and fraying strips of fabric into a new textile that she then attached to great stretches of wispy organza, some of which were wrapped around the body as simply as a blanket might be. Most extreme was the final look, which, though made of the softest wool, was as orderly as a nautilus shell, which it somewhat resembled. The goal, Dalsjø said, was to take the over-under technique and “build up a piece fully in 3D.” From February until the day before the show, she worked directly on a mannequin. “It’s just like one big weave; it was sort of a technical experiment for me to see if it was possible,” she explained. It was a spectacular hero piece to conclude a show that was mainly focused on clothes that were anything but showy and conspicuous.