Petra Fagerström’s “Swedish Summer” Has Some Bite

Featured image: Petra Fagerström, Spring/Summer 2027. Courtesy of Petra Fagerström, via PAUSE.

Florals have apparently stopped asking permission to behave themselves. Looking through Petra Fagerström’s Spring/Summer 2027 collection, we keep coming back to the contrast: flowers with a little severity, pretty surfaces with a sharper outline. There is room for both.

The London-based Swedish designer presented “Swedish Summer” during London Fashion Week on September 18. Vogue’s collection report provides the runway context, while the British Fashion Council’s designer profile introduces her practice, including the lenticular pleating that has become a signature.

The photographs offer an easy way into the conversation. In one look, a structured black jacket and substantial bag sit above floral trousers. In another, flowers move across an asymmetric pleated skirt beneath a close-fitting, high-necked top. We like the tension between the shapes; nothing has to be sweet from head to toe.

And no, finding something useful in a runway collection does not require replacing your wardrobe. Try these three ideas with what is already hanging there:

• Give a soft print a firm companion. A floral skirt with a sharply cut jacket can feel very different from the same skirt with a floaty blouse.
• Choose one thing to make the noise. If the trousers are doing the talking, let the rest of the outfit leave them some room.
• Check the side view—and move. Sit, turn, walk. A pleat or uneven hem can be the interesting part of an outfit that looks ordinary straight on.

That is the pleasure of following an emerging designer: a fresh set of decisions can make you reconsider your own. You do not have to copy the look to take something from it.

Browse the collection photographs at PAUSE, then give that familiar jacket another chance. It may simply need a more interesting introduction.

Written by Leah