For Spring 2027, creative director and designer Christian Juul Nielsen looked backward to move AKNVAS forward. Titled Swans Before Innocence, the collection draws from Hans Christian Andersen's The Wild Swans, translating the Danish fairy tale into three acts that move from familiar techniques toward increasingly whimsical forms.
Act I, Eleven Shirts, references the heroine making eleven shirts for her cursed brothers, giving Nielsen a way to rework one of AKNVAS' most familiar codes. Mixed-striped cottons, floral and swan embroideries, and sleeves tied around the waist distort classic pieces, signaling that the familiar is starting to shift. Act II, Forest Nymph, pushes deeper into the natural world as the heroine sets out on her own adventure: floral jackets borrow the practicality of rainwear, denim takes on sculptural volume, and ruffles begin to suggest wings as flowers emerge from sheer layers and corsets bloom at the hips. Down the runway, models carried lush floral arrangements with greenery, reinforcing the sense that the clothes were made in an untamed landscape. By Act III, The Wild Swans, the transformation comes fully into view: asymmetric lace gowns, ribbons, sweeping high-low skirts, and clouds of tulle evoke wings in motion, while flashes of bright color beneath transparent layers keep the looks from feeling entirely innocent.
Backstage before the show, Nielsen spoke with Rain about returning to fairy tales, pushing AKNVAS' increasingly feminine vocabulary, and why, amid the constant stream of information coming through our phones, he still believes fashion can offer an escape.
Anna Carlson: You mentioned that you read a lot of fairy tales growing up. Is that where the starting point for this collection came from?
Christian Juul Nielsen: I actually read a lot of fairy tales. I grew up with them—my mom would read fairy tales to us when we were kids. It was kind of how we got entertained; there were five kids in the family. I always take inspiration from something Danish, and a lot of the time it’s Hans Christian Andersen.
AC: What was it about The Wild Swans that made you want to build a collection around it?
CJN: I went through stories I like and was looking for inspiration. When I read about her having to make all these shirts for her eleven brothers, that became the main thing in the collection. I started the whole first section around shirting, and I thought that was a fun place to start. Then I thought, okay, this could be a good story to bring further.
AC: What feels particularly new for the brand this season?
CJN: We have jewelry this season. Next to my bed, I have a little wooden monkey by the Danish designer Kay Bojesen. You'll see little clip-on earrings on all the girls' ears, and my imagination took me to the girl that the little monkeys are telling the fairy tales to as they walk the runway.
AC: In terms of construction or technique, what pushed you further this season?
CJN: We added volume to the skirts, which is something we've done before and something I think is a fun play. In three of the skirts, you'll see three or four big volumes in the back, representing swan wings lifting themselves. Denim is also very important to me. We did a new nude-wash denim: we bleach out the denim, then over-dye it nude.
We do very finished products in many ways. I work a lot on the inside of the garment and the outside of the garment. It’s definitely important for me that things feel finished, so there are a lot of custom details.
AC: You’ve spoken about how the AKNVAS woman has evolved since you started the fashion house. How does this collection represent where you are now?
CJN: There’s a lot that’s been happening here. I started the brand around COVID, when things were simpler, and that was when I started all the shirting because I was wearing those kinds of things myself. But she has definitely transformed more into cocktail and eveningwear, which comes from a lot of the things I learned and did during my days in Paris.
AC: What do you want people to take away from the show as a whole?
CJN: A fairytale. I want people to dream and escape a little bit from all the news we get on our phones. Since we got iPhones, we are bombarded with news, and obviously we need to know what's going on in the world. But we also receive a lot of news we don't need to know, that isn't important. I want people to go away thinking about fairy tales, beauty, and storytelling.
