Avavav Reversed the Runway at Milan Fashion Week
All the while debuting a new collaboration with adidas Originals.
Beate Karlsson’s Avavav is known for disrupting the fashion week mould, reinventing the runway time and time. Whether it’s parading half-dressed models down the runway, basking in the glory of negative social media comments or transforming the typical fashion week walk into a marathon, there’s always something groundbreaking up her sleeve.
For FW26, Karlsson totally reversed the traditional runway format, instead allowing attendees to become the “model” for once. Titled “The Female Gaze,” the showcase saw guests enter one-by-one, while models dressed in the new collection were positioned in two parallel lines, creating a “living runway” which you walked through.
Met with nothing but the gaze of the models, the eerie experience was soundtracked by a slew of male voices discussing their “female muses,” reminding us of how frequently women have been framed through the lens of men. Exploring the concept of femininity and its varied perceptions, Karlsson “approached the season as a research project, exploring what happens when women dress for other women and the codes that emerge when clothing is no longer performing for approval,” according to this season’s show notes.
Reassembling traditionally feminine design details, the collection blended the feminine and the masculine — as we actually tend to do ourselves — resulting in basketball shorts as A-line skirts, oversized T-shirts that cinched and contoured and suit trousers that merged with pencil skirts.
Elsewhere, the collection alos debuted a new collaboration with adidas Originals, seemingly a more “feminine” take on previous partnerships, pairing tailored track jackets with mini shorts. The collection also previewed a new 1990s Megaride sneaker, reinvented with a cut-out upper.
Take a look at Avavav FW26 above and for more from MFW, check out our latest recap.
