FUN, LOW-COST, DYNAMIC: SEE HENRIK VIBSKOV'S LATEST RUNWAY-CUM-PERFORMANCE-SPACE

08 feb 2023, for frame

Location

Brand

An homage to the tomato, the fun, low-cost and performative aspects of Henrik Vibskov's AW23 fashion show space demonstrates the designer's position as an artist.

Key features

The presentation of Long Fingers to Ma Toes – Henrik Vibskov's AW23 collection – began very close to one's toes, with focus on the forceful stomps of fourteen assistant ‘gardeners’ who lifted abstracted ‘tomato trees’. The choice of the venue – one of Copenhagen's best concert halls, Den Grå Hal in Christiania – allowed Vibskov to use professional stage lighting, and the acoustics were so good that the show reached the level of a professional theatrical performance. Seven portable mechanical installations – scissor lifts topped with red textile flowers – sat in the middle of a linear, red carpet-clad catwalk. Darkroom-esque light covered the space in red. The series of metal structures became clearly visible to the audience when the models dressed in the new collection, inspired by Valencia's traditional tomato fights, entered the room.

FRAME's take

Henrik Vibskov is well-known and appreciated in Scandinavia for his creative work that blurs the lines between fashion, art, curation, and music; Vibskov’s fashion shows are always art performances. The Lillehammer Art Museum in Norway recently hosted an exhibition dedicated to the designer’s presentations, featuring his unique fashion pieces and props. The AW23 show was no exception to the rule: it was a scene of surrealistic theatre using assemblages of everyday objects. The mobile ‘trees’ – and the accompanying movements by the performers – made for a brilliant, low-cost design solution for a dynamic runway space. One of those trees traveled to Paris last month – a small part of the Copenhagen show was pre-played at the French capital’s Hotel Normandy as part of the official calendar of Paris AW23 Menswear Fashion Week.