HENRIK VIBSKOV
PEOPLEText: Peta Jenkin
The spring/summer menswear collection is streetwear on a new level, with playful geometrics and some cute tailoring. It’s as if the quicksilver from the doctor’s medicine bag has sunk in and morphed his long grey beard into a kind of hi-tech medieval chest-piece.
Henrik Vibskov ‘Madsen’ collection, spring/summer 2006
The autumn/winter collection tells more of perverse fairytales, with psychedelic coloured prints on t-shirts and jackets, jester-style leggings, and black capes over cherry red suits. In all of this wonderland, Vibskov does show some restraint, by making room for more basic streetwear items that scream ‘practical’ instead of ‘look at me now’.
Henrik Vibskov Menswear Autumn/Winter 2006
But Vibskov’s clothing is not just reserved for court jesters, flaunting fashionistas and mysterious late-night party people hiding in dark corners.
One look at his 2006 women’s wear collection and the trip into fantasy land turns into more of a star trek adventure. Feminine and futuristic, with a more subdued colour palette. Has Vibskov decided to shift into accessible ready-to-wear, to be snapped off the shelves at designer department stores in the world’s biggest cities?
Henrik Vibskov Women’s wear 2006
That’s not likely for now, but it’s not to be completely ruled out. His deft talent for balancing art and fashion projects will keep him a darling of the left-of-centre fashion crowd, with Colette in Paris, Pineal Eye in Hong Kong and NO-ONE in London currently stocking his collections.
Henrik Vibskov modelling for Patrik Soderstam at London Fashion Week 2005, Photo: Shoji Fujii, courtesy of Diane Pernet
The fantastical world of make-believe, of unicorns and jesters and kings and queens, is a style which has almost nearly run its course in fashion and graphic design, but Vibskov pulls it off, and then some. He’s the creative ‘quack’, fashioning his designs and installations together with the precision of lego fanatic and the artistry of a tailor. And he’s also a catwalk model. And a musician. And a breakdancer. And a…. well, you get the picture.
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