For Spring/Summer 2026, Anne Sofie Madsen staged a show that blurred the lines between fashion presentation and editorial narrative. Titled Lick the Star—a nod to Sofia Coppola’s short film exploring adolescent codes, power shifts, and identity play—the runway unfolded as both collection and character study.

To shape this season’s vision, Madsen collaborated with Freja Wewer and William Becker, founders of Issueissue Magazine. The partnership infused the presentation with an editorial sharpness and a layered sense of storytelling. At the heart of the runway, a flatlay installation displayed deeply personal items from Madsen and her co-director Caroline Clante. These objects, like fragments of a time capsule, tethered the collection to private memory and underscored the intimacy of its themes.

Rather than chase seasonal reinvention, Madsen’s SS26 evolved from her past work—familiar silhouettes returned, reframed with fresh intention. The result was continuity, not repetition. This season dismantled rigid binaries: masculine and feminine codes tangled together, softness sat beside structure, and archetypal garments—biker jackets, tank tops, evening dresses—were hybridized into something uncategorizable.

Tailoring became a game of dualities. An evening gown emerged in dense suiting wool. A crisp suit was softened by the casual disruption of a hood. The humble tank top transformed into a dress, questioning its cultural baggage while embracing it. Sportswear details were translated into fragility—silk straps traced the body like stripes or scars, while floral embroidery and crystals shimmered between opulence and vulnerability. Denim was unpicked and rebuilt, turning utility into performance, memory, and spectacle.

Throughout, the collection carried a double edge: glamorous yet critical, illusionary yet anchored by visible construction. Beneath every aesthetic gesture lay scaffolding—a quiet reminder of labor, context, and craft.

A standout accessory, the Glam Rat Clutch, created with artist Esben Weile Kjær, became a totem of the collection’s ethos. The rat—rendered glamorous—was not vermin, but survivor: unpolished, defiant, and persistently present. It offered a critique of sanitized city life while celebrating what thrives on its margins.

Produced entirely in Madsen’s Copenhagen studio, the collection reinforced her commitment to slow fashion and hands-on craftsmanship. Every piece felt like part of an unfolding narrative—one that refuses to fix identity, instead honoring the moment of becoming.

With Lick the Star, Anne Sofie Madsen didn’t present finished characters. She gave us stories mid-sentence—fashion as transformation, as possibility, as a mirror for all we are still in the process of becoming.