Climate Crisis: How Sson Addressed the Topic With Charm and Candor

Sustainability is a pillar of Copenhagen Fashion Week, but only Sson’s Yulia Kjellsson—a Swedish designer showing as part of the Ones to Watch program—engaged directly with the subject of climate change. “I’ve looked at 20th century traveling ads, resort editorials, and [was] just thinking how this desire to travel will shift in the future since it’s too warm to go to the south of Europe, et cetera. It’s just a total crisis.”

Sson’s sandy set speaks to climate crisis.

A bolero and bloomer briefs from Sson.

The set, which consisted of mounds of sand riddled with detritus, hinted at the dystopian, but the title of the show, The Resort, evoked a sunny, carefree escape, a mood that carried through to the clothes. “We do upcycling, so we try to examine how values shift because of that,” Kjellsson explained. “In this setting, the girls haven’t really caught up yet; they’re still glamorous, they’re still having fun, they’re going to the beach. But the audience is experiencing something else where the beach is a bit trashy, the music is a bit hot, and everything is a bit uncomfortable. The clothes are a little bit uncomfortable; they’re familiar and glamorous, but some of them are stale and don’t really fit well.” The designer created a kind of stop motion effect that also had undertones of unease. For example, a gray terry top was treated with mineral oil to retain a permanent wet look, the imprint of a wet bikini top that had seeped through, and a single-breasted navy trench had upturned hems that permanently defied gravity, a shirt was perma-wrinkled.

Sson’s bag skirt from last season was such a hit that Kjellsson introduced a matching top. Speaking of accessories Puma supplied the Speedcat Jelly and Speedcat Fleur Mesh shoes, which immediately went on many editor’s wish lists. And, hey, should you find yourself dancing at a wedding, or on the lip of a volcano, there’s no better dress to do so in than Sson’s finale look, a romantic medley of different sized polka-dots in black and white that was on point in terms of both aesthetics and make.