“I always go back to something that feels Danish. I grew up in a big family, and my mom would read fairytales to us. I wanted a fairytale that had emotions.”
Danish designer Christian Juul Nielsen’s label AKVNAS is a cult favorite with style stars Kate Bosworth, Emilia Clarke and Nick Jonas, to name just a few. Nielsen, who lives in Chelsea with his husband Casper Werner, launched AKVNAS (an anagram of the Danish word for “canvas”) in 2019 and won a Fashion Group International award a year later. AARON ROYCE meets Nielsen backstage after his runway show.
This collection was inspired by the fairytale “The Snow Queen.”
I always go back to something that feels Danish. I grew up in a big family, and my mom would read fairytales to us. I wanted a fairytale that had emotions. I went back to a lot of draping. I thought, if draping could come out of emotions, it could be interesting.”
The fluffy coats and ballgowns were beautiful.
I take my couture background and translate that into this more contemporary, younger vibe. We introduced corsets. Corsets are very sculptural, with three kinds of wiring—horizontal, diagonal, and vertical. That’s new – the extreme shapes. All the ballgowns I’ve been draping myself on the stand. I didn’t show them all, I promise.
“If you read your fairytales, you will know. That’s what I tried to do with these dresses, in the end, it’s all emotions.”
Models carried water bottles in the show. Hydration is important!
The collection is called “The Danish Story.” Chapter 1 is “Ice Palace.” The girl in the fairytale arrives to the palace. Then we get to the traveling, where she’s busy. The models had lots of watches on, because she has to get to her friend in time. We wanted to have water bottles, so it felt like real travel, not just traveling with a handbag. The last part is “Teardrops.” Every time you cry, it’s from a new emotion—you can cry from joy, sadness, frustration. Fatigue, at the moment]. In the fairytale, the girl starts crying out of frustration and sadness. She cries into his eye, and the glass splinter then falls out of his eye, and he comes alive again. If you read your fairytales, you will know. That’s what I tried to do with these dresses, in the end, it’s all emotions.
