Aknvas Embraces Royal Femininity and Lessons From John Galliano for Fall 2025

Though every Aknvas collection has a flair of feminity throughout, the brand’s most recent designs have leaned a bit more traditionally masculine when it comes to the spotlit silhouettes. For Fall 2024, oversized, chunky knits that created a new form for each model took over, while button-up dress shirts and leather took center stage at the Spring 2025 show. For designer Christian Juul Nielsen’s new collection, the focus shifted completely, embracing delicate details like cinched waists, cascading bows, bubble hem skirts and taffeta gowns.

“The story is about Queen Louise of Denmark, who lived in the 19th century. Her goal was to marry her children into the best families of Europe, so she would always dress her three daughters perfectly,” Nielsen explained backstage at the show. “Each girl has her own personality, so we split the show into three sections and called the collection ‘Fragmented Royalty.'”

For the first section of the show (inspired by Princess Alexandra), models appeared in spacious one-pieces and mini dresses decorated with wide, Victorian-era-like bows and frilly collars, cuffs and hems. The second section welcomed similar designs, only this time the lightweight fabrics and soft pastels of the previous styles gave way to black, lacy, edgier renderings, representing the more rebellious Princess Dagmar.

“She went to Russia, so she has all the (faux) furs inspired by Scandinavian animals to brave the cold,” said Nielsen. For this section, the designer also utilized a new technology for the brand, printing lynx patterns onto faux mink coats — a style that’s been popular amongst the brand’s celebrity clientele.

Finally, the third section — inspired by Princess Thyna — showed a more scandalous side to the regency, with see-through gowns that were gathered and tied to create provocative slits for risqué shows of skin.

What led the designer to a more “feminine” storyline for the new collection was not just a fascination with historic female figures, but also the difference he’s noticed between American and European womanhood, and how it impacts the way people dress.

“Over here [in America], you’re expected to do things in a certain way.” Nielsen loosely compared America’s expectations of how women should dress to the fashion industry’s expectations of designers.

“A lot of the time I’m asked, ‘Why are you doing this now? Why are you not doing this?’ And I’m like, I do what feels right for the brand. I believe that the Aknvas girl loves that it’s new. This is what I learned from [John] Galliano: You don’t do the same thing every season. I’m not a commercial brand like that. I want newness and freshness but always with the same girl in mind.”

See the Aknvas Fall 2025 collection below.