Milan – Avavav’s Autumn/Winter 2025 show unfolded not as a traditional runway presentation, but as a pointed social experiment, turning the audience into the spectacle. Guests were invited to participate in a performance designed to explore the dynamics of the male and female gaze within the fashion industry.
Attendees were ushered into a stark venue, initially believing they were backstage. Instead, they were called forward individually to walk a straight runway, facing a podium of photographers and, crucially, a line of models staring directly at them. The experience, described as either “enjoyable or dreadful” depending on individual confidence, was intended to replicate the scrutiny often faced by models, but with the audience cast in the role of the observed.
Accompanying the runway walk was a voiceover featuring interviews with male designers discussing their female muses, further emphasizing the show’s central theme. Beate Skonare Karlsson, Avavav’s creative director, explained the impetus behind the unconventional format. “It’s fascinating to be a woman in an industry that is so focused on women and women’s wear and yet the female perspective is quite rare and underrepresented,” she said, according to a post on LinkedIn. “I’m not really selling anything disappointing or excellent about it. I just think it’s like not talked about enough.”
Karlsson’s exploration of the female gaze extends beyond the presentation’s format and into the collection itself. She described a shift in her design process when creating for women, moving away from a desire to simply be “pretty” towards a focus on “confidence, special[ness], the most captivating version of myself.” This translated into designs that defied easy categorization, embracing hybrid shapes and rejecting conventional constraints.
The collection featured tailored pinstripe pants seamlessly merging with pencil skirts, logoed t-shirts elevated with built-in tie constructions, and basketball shorts transformed into A-line skirts paired with lace tops. Irony played a key role, with padded bras stuffed with tissue paper, pearls, fishnet stockings, and garters serving as nods to established clichés of femininity. These elements were juxtaposed with Avavav’s signature goth streetwear, including t-shirts and hoodies with rib cage cutouts and wired miniskirts, addressing “the idea of femininity that is so much in the body and how we sculpt it into an ideal.”
The show likewise showcased the fourth collaboration between Avavav and Adidas Originals, incorporating second-skin track jackets and trompe l’oeil mini shorts into the collection. Karlsson previously helmed accessories at Pyer Moss, and was recruited by Linda and Adam Friberg, the founders of Cheap Monday, Monki, and Weekday, to lead Avavav, a Florence-based brand known for its conceptual approach and commitment to ethical production. As reported by Dazed, a new season of the Adidas Originals x AVAVAV collaboration was previewed at the AW25 show.
