In the quest of an antidote to stereotypical connotations of sustainable fashion, Leonardsson’s design themes juxtapose and combine the artificiality of urban with the escapism of nature. His graduate collection, See You in the Fog, which the designer showcased during MBFW Russia Spring/Summer 2020, examined the idea of “balancing daytime domesticity with nighttime self-exploration” with a forest rave as a backdrop.
For Fall/Winter 2020, Leonardsson moves his club kids from a forest rave to the city to tackle inherent social hierarchies of urban life. Rave New World surveys the ideas of radical conformance and imagines a utopia where “the doors of society’s secluded spaces open up to an opposing force.” Acidic prints, crocheted lace cut-offs, and dead-stock brocades; Leonardsson’s ‘sustainable glamour’ defies gender and confronts traditional conventionalism of elitist definitions of luxury. “Fashion is our society’s foremost visual and social tool of communication,” the designer says, “It should be used accordingly to affect society and create a future in which we all want to live.”