
A longstanding civil war in menswear has been between the fashion forward folks and the lovers of classics. For the most part, Scandinavian brands tend to veer towards the latter, but there are a few fighting for the other side. One such designer is Henrik Vibskov, a man who only entered Central St. Martins to impress a girl.
‘I met this really hot girl who was applying to Central Saint Martins. I wasn’t completely sure what the school was all about, but I’d heard of the place,’ he said in an interview with Fader magazine. ‘I put together a portfolio, bought a ticket, went to London for the first time, did the interview for the menswear course and got in’.
Prior to this whimsical application, Vibskov played in a band, saying that it’s the attitude from music that influences his collection moreso than any central theme or inspiration. ‘I think the idea of attitude coupled with style really feeds in to what I do now. Not that my stuff looks rock & roll or anything—but it is about creating an identity, and much of that comes from music.’
Aside from fashion and music, Vibskov also puts on art exhibitions, the most recent one being his ‘graphics works’ exhibition in Berlin. When he was asked about merging fashion and art in a recent Farfetch interview he said, ‘No, I don’t even think in those categories… I follow my ideas and then work out in which project they fit.’
With collection titles including ‘The Solar Donkey Experiment’, ‘The Human Laundry collection’ and ‘The Big Wet Shiny Boobies Collection’, you can be sure that his clothes are an acquired taste. But what surprises most about Vibskov’s collection is just how wearable they are. While they’ll never be as classic as a navy jumper, the clothes do have a far wider audience than most fashion forward clothing lines.
While the need to create something that people actually want to wear, as opposed to things that people will just appreciate from a distance may be a factor in all this, there’s also the fact he doesn’t see himself as part of fashion, ‘I really don’t think of myself as a fashion person and maybe that’s the problem. I just feel pretty normal.’








