Since Anne Sofie Madsen, along with co-creative director Caroline Clante, rebooted her eponymous brand two seasons ago, the collections have dealt with the past; hauntings, memories or, as the designers put it, “what’s been lost”. Spring/summer 2027, however, looks towards an open-ended future. “The collection began with a desire to recover the capacity to imagine alternatives,” says Madsen and Clante. “We were interested in desire not as something that keeps us returning to the familiar, but as a force that can open up new ways of living, relating and dressing.” A choose-your-own-adventure novel unfolding on the runway, set to the mesmerizing tune of renowned Danish recorder player Michala Petri [yes – that recorder from grade school].

Though Madsen and Clante aren’t prone to inside-the-box thinking, this time around, a box – or, rather, a square – was quite literally placed around the collection. “The square became the collection’s primary construction principle, which was a new way of approaching form for us,” they say. “Instead of beginning with a garment silhouette, we started with a shape that has no inherent front or prescribed relationship to the body.” Via thoughtful tailoring and draping, light-as-air frocks — ahem — take shape, with delicate pleating floating around the body.

The square’s rigidity, meanwhile, is offset by more organic expressions, achieved via meticulous hand-smocking (the designers aptly describe the resulting pieces, which bring to mind stunning little explosions, as resembling an “unfamiliar plant”). Elsewhere, silk organza is repeatedly dyed to create an imperfect graduated effect, like squinting one’s eyes and looking far towards an uncertain horizon. Then there was another familiar shape at play: the Nike swoosh. Madsen and Clante teamed up with the sportswear giant on a handful of t-shirts, featuring transparent silk layers over faded silk screen t-shirts.

If this is the designers’ magic eight ball, the future looks damn good.