Every collection begins somewhere. For Anne Sofie Madsen's SS 2027 collection, The New Desire, it began with a square.
A shape with no prescribed front or back, no inherent direction and no assumptions about the body that inhabits it, the square became the collection's first principle. From that single geometric form emerged sculptural tailoring, translucent layers and silhouettes that shifted with movement, opening up possibilities rather than arriving at conclusions. Reduction became a creative act. By stripping everything back, the collection created space for something richer to emerge: interpretation, transformation and individuality.
It's an idea that feels instinctively familiar to Escentric Molecules. Since its inception, the brand has pursued a similarly radical proposition: that extraordinary complexity can begin with a single aroma-molecule. Like the square, Iso E Super, the star molecule of Escentric 01, is deceptively simple. It doesn't dictate an experience; it creates the conditions for one. Every wearer completes it differently, revealing new dimensions through skin chemistry, movement and time.
That dialogue between reduction and possibility played out throughout Anne Sofie Madsen's Copenhagen Fashion Week show. In a luminous white space where architecture dissolved into light, garments drifted between structure and fluidity while Escentric 01 scented both the cast and the room itself. Fragrance became another construction material. In the end, the collaboration wasn't about fashion meeting fragrance. It was about two creative languages arriving at the same conclusion: simplicity is where possibility begins.
Following the show, we spoke with co-creative directors Anne Sofie Madsen and Caroline Clante about designing for possibility, the role of scent in shaping perception, and why openness, rather than certainty, lies at the heart of creative freedom.
Where does scent sit within your creative process?
Scent isn't usually where we begin a collection, but it has the ability to complete a world. It creates an atmosphere that can't be seen but is still deeply felt. For this collection, it became another layer of the experience.
What can fragrance communicate that clothing can't?
Fragrance works through memory and intuition rather than form. Clothing occupies space visually, while scent fills it emotionally. It can create a feeling before you have even consciously understood why.
How do you want people to feel as they move through your show?
We wanted people to experience openness rather than certainty. The collection is about reopening the imagination and allowing different possibilities to emerge, so we hope people feel curious, present and receptive rather than being given a single fixed narrative.
Why was it important that scent became part of this show?
Because the collection is about possibility, not only as something we see but something we experience. Scent extends the collection beyond the garments themselves and makes the atmosphere part of the work.
Can scent shape memory in the same way fashion can?
Absolutely. Both can become attached to moments in our lives. Sometimes a scent can bring back a memory even more immediately than an image. They both stay with us in different ways.
Have certain scents become tied to different chapters of your creative life?
Yes, although often we only realise it afterwards. Certain places, studios or periods become connected to particular scents, and years later they can immediately bring that time back.
Fashion is visual first, but scent is invisible. What interests you about designing an experience people can't actually see?
We're interested in the things that exist between visibility and perception. Clothing is always experienced through more than vision – it involves movement, touch, sound and memory. Scent expands that experience into something less tangible but equally meaningful.
What was it about Escentric Molecules that felt like the right creative partner?
We've always admired their radical simplicity. They have taken something very familiar and questioned how it can be experienced differently. That felt closely aligned with how we approached this collection.
Were there shared values between our two worlds that immediately resonated with you?
Yes. We both believe that reduction can create complexity. Rather than adding more, we try to create space for interpretation and for individual experience.
Both our brands have challenged conventions within our industries. Did that sense of independence feel important?
Very much so. Independence allows you to keep asking questions instead of repeating expectations. That curiosity is essential to our practice.
What does Escentric Molecules bring to the atmosphere of the show beyond fragrance itself?
It creates a shared environment. Everyone experiences the same space, but each person perceives it differently. We like that balance between something collective and something deeply personal.
Why did Escentric 01 feel like the right scent for this collection?
Because it doesn't impose itself. It exists in relation to the wearer, much like the garments in this collection, which only fully take shape through the body and movement.
What does Escentric 01 express that mirrors the mood of the show?
It has a quiet confidence. Rather than announcing itself, it unfolds over time. That openness and sense of becoming felt very close to the spirit of the collection.
If Escentric 01 were translated into one garment from the collection, which one would it be?
Probably the layered silk organza look with the satin slip beneath. It reveals itself gradually, through layers, light and movement rather than all at once.
Escentric 01 reveals itself differently on every wearer. How does that individuality resonate with your approach to design?
It's very close to how we think about clothing. We never want garments to completely determine how someone appears. The person finishes the work. Their movement, personality and way of wearing it become part of the design.
Both your work and Escentric Molecules reject traditional formulas. Why do you think people are drawn to brands that challenge convention?
Because they invite participation rather than simply offering answers. People often respond to work that leaves room for them to discover something of themselves.
How important is it that people bring their own interpretation to your work?
It's essential. We don't want the collection to have only one meaning. Once it leaves the studio, it belongs as much to the people experiencing and wearing it as it does to us.
You once said fashion is about creating emotion. Which emotion do you find the hardest to design?
Hope. It's easy for hope to become sentimental or overly optimistic. We're more interested in hope as the possibility that something different could still emerge.
What does individuality mean to you in a culture increasingly driven by algorithms and trends?
Individuality isn't about being different for the sake of it. It's about remaining open to your own way of seeing and feeling, even when so much around us encourages sameness.
Which is more important to you: making something recognisable or making someone feel something?
Making someone feel something. Recognition fades quickly, but an emotional experience tends to stay with you much longer.
What do you hope people take away from the show?
A sense that things don't have to remain as they are. Even small shifts in how we imagine ourselves, or relate to one another, can open new possibilities.
Our fragrances are designed to become part of the wearer rather than sit on top of them. How does this philosophy relate to how you think about clothing?
We relate to that very strongly. The most interesting clothes don't sit on top of a person; they become activated through the body. They change with movement, with posture and with the individual wearing them. The best clothing doesn't disguise who we are. It creates conditions for aspects of ourselves to become more visible. It doesn't replace identity – it gives it form.
Both scent and clothing become part of someone's personal language. What do you hope your designs allow people to say about themselves?
That they are comfortable with complexity. That identity doesn't need to be fixed, and that there is freedom in remaining open to change.
Describe your collection in three words.
Open. Transformative. Possible.
Describe Escentric Molecules in three words.
Radical. Intimate. Unconventional.
