Anne Sofie Madsen Spring/Summer 2026: A Cult Classic Reimagined in Cloth and Character
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By PAGE Editor
At Copenhagen Fashion Week, Anne Sofie Madsen’s Spring/Summer 2026 runway presentation did not simply unfold—it unraveled, slowly and deliberately, like a coming-of-age film turned inside out. This season, Madsen stepped into new territory by inviting Freja Wewer and William Becker—founders of Issueissue Magazine—to reinterpret and shape the show’s presentation. The result: a hauntingly intimate, cinematic atmosphere drawn from Sofia Coppola’s cult short film Lick the Star.
Borrowing its name and mood from the film, the show channels the quiet chaos of early adolescence: a time of blurred identities, whispered power struggles, and the ritual of becoming. Much like the film’s protagonists—seventh-grade girls plotting in secrecy—SS26 dances between control and chaos, innocence and subversion. These themes pulse through every silhouette and detail, forming characters rather than simply clothes.
At the center of the runway, a grounded installation—a flatlay of personal items from Anne Sofie Madsen and creative partner Caroline Clante—acted as a visual anchor. These intimate artifacts, from worn accessories to scribbled notes, formed a time capsule of memory and influence. As models moved through this symbolic space, the runway became an emotional terrain: not just a stage for garments, but a reflection of the inner lives and layered identities that informed them.
Madsen’s SS26 collection is, at its core, a continuation of her ongoing exploration of form, function, and identity. It resists the pressures of seasonal novelty, opting instead for what she calls “accumulative evolution.” Techniques, silhouettes, and textiles return not as repetition but as reinvention. The garments do not reset; they shift subtly, gaining meaning with each iteration. Familiar forms—a tailored suit, a biker jacket, a denim cut—are dismantled and hybridized. What once represented a singular archetype becomes plural, refracted through subcultural reference, historical lens, and personal transformation.
Nowhere is this more evident than in her revisited perfecto jacket, now softened with fringe or spliced into new forms. These pieces blur binaries—masculine/feminine, utilitarian/ornamental, romantic/rebellious—asking not for resolution but recognition of fluidity. These garments live in-between, embracing contradiction and evolution as necessary conditions of identity.
“We were drawn to that strange in-between stage of early adolescence,” Becker explains. “A moment where you’re starting to make choices that shape who you become, even if you’re not fully aware of it yet.” That sense of emerging self is present throughout SS26, where nothing is fixed, and everything is becoming.
Wewer adds, “What stood out was how the brand itself is also engaged in a process of finding its own identity. Equally shaped by the different backgrounds of the two directors—two voices with different perspectives, finding a unique shared language.”
In Anne Sofie Madsen’s world, the runway is a journal, the clothes are entries, and the presentation is a private revelation made public. SS26 doesn’t scream for attention—it invites you to lean in, listen closer, and follow its whispered narrative of transformation.
Anne Sofie Madsen Spring/Summer 2026 will be available in select stores and online beginning March 2026.
See the whole collection:
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