Jens Laugesen (Q3208)
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Jens Laugesen is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Jens Laugesen |
Jens Laugesen is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Jens Laugesen is back in business. After a 10-year hiatus, the Danish-born, London-based designer has relaunched his eponymous label, thanks to a generous bursary from the Danish Arts Foundation. “While I was teaching in Paris, I realized that my design thinking is still of value to a younger generation,” said Laugesen from his Hackney, London, studio. “So instead of using the grant to fund a research project, I decided to reboot my brand.” The “design thinking” of which he speaks refers to a theory he developed as a student at Central Saint Martins called hybrid reconstruction, which suggests that fragments of garments or concepts from different origins can be seamlessly reassembled to achieve a modern design hybrid—aka: a visionary new look.For Fall 2018, Laugesen kick-started this process by delving into the past. “I looked back at my own archive and thought about which of my signatures could be made modern for the woman of today but in a subtle way,” he said. He settled on several pieces: a tuxedo jacket, athletic leggings, deconstructed sweaters, and shirts. Laugesen’s trademark tux jacket gained acute angular cut-outs at the back, like tailored wings; the knits acquired greater tactility through a raised wool weave; shirts had prominent pie-crust collars and extra-long sleeves, and leggings earned a set of racing stripes in neutral colors. “I thought about what that cool girl from East London wears now that she’s in her thirties,” he said. “I think those are items that are classic, not super-chic and not super-casual, but somewhere in between.”After flipping through a fashion magazine from the 1960s, Laugesen also became preoccupied with traditional English houndstooth, which cropped up on structured capelets and pleated skirts. He also introduced a series of breezy, 1970s-inspired lace dresses with dramatic bell sleeves, which appeared somewhat incongruous in a sea of strong, streamlined silhouettes. “There’s strength in those looser, more romantic pieces, too,” he asserted, before adding, “they look great when layered underneath some tailoring. Today, it’s about making each look your own.”
6 March 2018
Jens Laugesen is working a big shoulder this season. "It's a double shoulder pad, from men's tailoring," he explained. "But I've been figuring out how to morph that with corsetry to make a fusion that's sexy." That meant he'd followed up the teddy boy tux jackets that sold well from his Spring collection, refabricated them from gold lamé to electric-blue couture brocade, and added more drummer boy, DJ, and bomber shapes. They came out paired with skintight high-waist pants, body-hugging dresses, and a catsuit, to which the designer had added some concession toward comfort and fit in the form of panels of stretch in the back.Still, as a look, it was pretty sharp and demanding—and for most women, probably more palatable when contrasted with his softer smock dresses, an element Laugesen termed his "Laura Ashley moment."
12 February 2008
Jens Laugesen may be London's best object lesson in sticking to your guns. In the late nineties when Helmut Lang was God, this Danish-born designer started working, like many others, on edgy tailoring. Then Lang disappeared, and Laugesen's minimal suiting experiments elicited minimal interest. Now, though—in a season when the young London fashion crowd is turning up at the shows in variations on sharp tailoring—his persistence may finally pay off.In this century, Stefano Pilati has sparked the renewed interest in jackets. In other words, it's tux time again. That puts Laugesen's narrow gold lamé jacket with black satin revers and his white A-line dinner jacket in the frame. He's also thought about what to wear beneath them to create the right leggy proportion: The solution is a hybrid of woven fabric and Lycra that looks newer than leggings.Laugesen's dissections of men's formalwear into boleros, vests, and bib-front shirts were all strong, but he should've either stopped there, or pushed it further. The second half of the show wandered off into a far less convincing dalliance with dresses and Cardin-like circle cutting. Why? If he concentrated on what he's good at, his message would be far stronger.
17 September 2007
During his break from the London runway, Jens Laugesen wasn't idle: He went off to Paris and won himself the €55,000 ANDAM fellowship, sponsored by LVMH. Now he's back with a collection that showed how he's moved on from where he left off. He's still recognizably the designer who was obsessed by strict, black Helmut Lang-ish urbanism, but now things are calibrated a few more degrees toward the feminine and flouncy.Caped coats and short flared skirts—of the ilk of the minicrini/skating skirt/dirndl seen elsewhere in London—proved Laugesen is fully locked onto the trend radar. His silhouettes, either a long, lean streak in leggings or that nip-waisted full skirt, had high necklines with stock ties, and zones of techno-sparkle worked into them (the leather jodhpurs, we won't discuss).For evening, he pursued his favorite black even more relentlessly. There were some good tuxedo looks and a fine white cotton pie-frill-necked shirt, but then it all went on a good ten minutes too long. Surprisingly for a career minimalist, Laugesen hasn't learned the art of brevity. The odd but true fact is that audiences can sometimes like a collection more, the less they see of it.
15 February 2007
Sure, the current mood may have turned to optimism and femininity—but who’s going to dress all the tomboys out there who will never feel pretty in pink? Hopes were high for Jens Laugesen, a Danish-born designer educated in Paris and at Central Saint Martins. The impressively organized Laugesen has already delivered two on-the-money collections full of pieces that fit nicely into the military/utility tendency.Sad to say, those who turned up eager to witness a new fashion visionary—or even find a sharp new angle on a well-established subcult—went away nonplussed, if not exasperated. Laugesen works in cut-up, monochromatic T-shirts, sweats, knits, and deconstructed tailoring. But his first look, a loose jacket over leggings in layers of cream and gray and festooned with hanging straps, carried a distinct air of déjà vu. As he progressed into canvas leggings heavily cross-laced at the back, the comparisons with collections shown last season—most obviously, the work of Helmut Lang—were painfully unavoidable.There may have been some oversized knits and overgrown vests that stood out among the layers, but however well Laugesen is capable of executing individual pieces, he can’t escape the expectations that face every young designer who ventures onto the runway. Next season, Laugesen should work out what he has to say and articulate it in a voice that is his alone.
22 September 2003