Sunflower Copenhagen Spring 2026 Collection

Sunflower’s spring show marked a happy return to Copenhagen for Ulrich Pedersen and Alan Blond, who have taken their collection to Paris for the past few seasons. And, boy, did their hometown miss them. The designers like to show in the small courtyard of their office building, the limited space means you are close to the models and in the high-energy, standing-room-only crowd, you feel like you are part of something. Plus, the clothes always deliver.

Pedersen, quiet and unassuming, is a designer with years of experience, and a subversive rock ’n’ roll sensibility who has the ability to breathe new life into archetypal garments like a suit or leather pants. Just how he achieves this is a bit of a mystery, one that has to do both with the make and the styling of the garments.

For some time now, he has been sensing that men want to dress up again—but in new ways. “What we wanted to create was a more sartorial rock style where you have this pair of washed leather pants with a nice dress suit jacket,” he said. “I just like to play around with how you can mix a pair of jeans with a white T-shirt and they look super casual and jeans-y, but mix it with a tuxedo jacket, then they suddenly become part of a suit, and that’s lovely to play around with.” Another thing the team toyed with was the casting; the show opened with a number of older male models and the female models were wearing looks from the menswear collection. Women are sure to look as hot in leather bike shorts or abbreviated jogging shorts cut in pinstripe fabric.

The late ’70s and ’80s are touchstones for Pedersen, who was thinking about vintage Wall Street attire. A model in a shirt, tie, blazer, and black leather trousers captured some of the duality of Patrick Bateman, whose tailored day uniform belied the darkness within.

The purpose and meaning of the car on which the models stood and lounged on added an intriguing air of mystery to the proceedings. According to the show notes, the idea was to conjure “the feeling of being somewhere between destinations—when everything is hushed, yet quietly unfolding.” They conjured Robert Longo’s Men in the Cities series, and a sense of freefall that seems to apply to these times. Sunflower’s collection wasn’t benign; some of the clothes had a hard edge and models sneered at the audience, but the overall mood wasn’t dour. Rather, there was a sense that looking good really is the best revenge.