Everything Can Exist

To present your first on-schedule collection at fashion week might seem, for most designers, like stepping onto a more conventional path, but Icelandic designer Sól Hansdóttir insists she remains “anti-disciplinary by nature.” “It's about letting go of control,” she admits. “I love the idea of being outrageous, a little bit naughty.”

The title of the show, “Everything Can Exist,” speaks to this blasé sense of freedom. Though many of the models were sent out in head-to-toe looks, several weren't — instead donning white tees and blue jeans, dressing themselves in Sól's sequined aprons or silken capes as they walked. She calls these her “hybrid garments”: accessories or half-pieces born of a love of styling that disobey the rigid conventions of the full look, which typically holds that styling your work with other pieces is “blasphemy.”

The idea came after a trip to the V&A East Storehouse, where she encountered antique aprons and hairnets — objects meant to be disposable, yet somehow still here. That a handcrafted, brightly coloured silk breastplate could sit atop a plain white tee is the core of the collection's ethos. A case in point: as guests left the show, they were handed a sheet itemising and cataloguing the pieces, along with a sticker sheet to mark their favourites.

It has been a big year for Sól. This summer, she dressed fellow Icelandic artist — and close friend — Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir for her pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The two have collaborated several times before, and Sól insists they share an outrageous, rule-breaking temperament. “When I was doing all her looks,” says Sól, “I started to think about how she could mix them with all the things she already has. I wasn't too precious about how she'd wear them.”

On her Icelandic heritage, she is ambivalent: “Iceland is very punk, actually, but so is London. I think they share an island energy. There's something strange about being that isolated — if you're in Iceland and you look at the horizon, there's nothing there. The weather is so harsh and brutal; you have to surrender to nature. There's an existential crisis that happens in your mind when you live like that. I think I resisted it, because I don't like isolation too much — nothing survives in isolation. I like the idea of symbiosis, which I think London has a lot of.”

This collection marks a clear volta in Sól's journey. For years, she struggled to call her work a “brand” — “I would die if I tried to design a t-shirt”— but now she's ready to introduce herself as a more accessible designer. By relinquishing control of her own pieces, the Sól Hansdóttir wearer becomes an active co-creator, superimposing their own vision over hers.

Her S/S27 presentation took place on 21 September, and you can shop some of her ready-to-wear pieces below.