Helmstedt - runway - SS23

For spring/summer 2023 collection, in the hallowed halls of the Royal Danish Theatre, Helmstedt goes sexy. Helmstedt’s vision of sexy, rather. “We took a little of the cuteness off and did it more quirky and crazy and weird,” founder Emilie Helmstedt says. Her typical pastel palette is replaced with moody greens and browns, peppered with bolts of orange. The motifs are creepy and crawly too – frogs and snails, mushrooms and beetles – inspired by the Danish Spejder, known internationally as boy scouts.

“When you achieve a certain thing – if you learn to do a fire with a stone or if you learn to cut wood, you get these small badges,” explains Helmstedt, who blew up these earthy images of accomplishment throughout the collection. There’s a sexiness in the silhouettes, too. The swimsuits, with their asymmetrical cut-outs, the slinky slip dresses, the second skin leggings. A quilted corduroy bomber jacket, printed with a lush forest, is more cool than cutesy.

For the first time, Helmstedt introduces elaborate showpieces – extravagant fantasies that feel right at home in her singular universe. Small badges, printed on silk, are strung together with tiny bits of string, to create an elaborate fishnet frock; boy scout couture. But the real showstopper is the monstrous mushroom dress, crafted from quilted silk – a tiered creature floating and bouncing down the runway. “It’s very weird,” says Helmstedt, grinning.

Weirder still are the designer’s handmade sets – a Helmstedt signature. Oversized water lilies and bulrushes dot the space. “There’s a darkness,” says Helmstedt. “We tried to f*** it all up.”