Everyone’s eyes are affixed to the three baskets sitting right in center of the runway. What are they? I hear guests whisper with a mix of confusion and wonderment. What’s happening? Is the show about to start? Are those … birds? My suspicions are confirmed when a group of kids — designer and founder Elisabet Stamm’s son and his friends — jog across the court and prop the baskets open. With a flurry, a flock of homing pigeons soar into the sky. 

Then, the music kicks in, and the show kicks off with one of the most perennial of all clothing categories: denim. The denim of choice is streaked and frayed, with a lighter, worn appearance. A pair of jeans with a relaxed waistline is paired with a breezy, off-white tee. An asymmetrical skirt is styled with an airy, just-sheer-enough crop top. These fabrics feel feather-light and bright — an airy start to Stamm’s spring-summer 2025 collection, dubbed “Best Wishes.”

Give A Little Optimism

When was the last time you thought about your greeting and sign-off — the first and last words you communicate in a message? I hope this email finds you well. Best wishes. Sending love. One day, as she was receiving and responding to emails from far-flung corners of the world like China and India, Elisabet began thinking about the way we, as humans, communicate. From these hollow, surface-level greetings, an idea was formed.

Then from that idea, another took root — and then another and another. What about physical communication? What about real, pen-and-paper letters? Do carrier pigeons still exist? “I looked that up, and my son asked me, ‘What are you doing?’” Elisabet tells me during an interview after the show. “And then we started laughing.” 

Birds have always held a significant meaning to Elisabet. She has one tattoo, and it’s a swoop of swallows on her wrist. “My mom lives in a place called Bird Singing Alley,” she tells me. “There’s a lot of birds, and this is the sky printed from that alley.” Stamm’s collections are always imagistically rich — and this one’s no exception. The cotton-puff sky print she’s referring to appears a couple of times in the show. (From afar, it very much looks like marble-washed jeans.) Viewed as a universal symbol of peace, love, and balance, the carrier pigeons that opened the show represented an extension of that theme, sending Elisabet’s positivity out into the world.

Exploring Duality

Despite the uplifting energy, the truth of the matter is: The making of this collection has been fraught for Elisabet. “When I was working on the collection in China, my own working life was very much on the edge,” she says. One night, when walking down the street, she caught sight of people engaged in qigong — an age-old Chinese healing and physical strengthening practice that coordinates slow movements with breathing. “It was just half an hour of magic on a trip that was very intense and tough.”

There’s a certain kind of attitude you adopt when working in a particularly challenging industry like fashion. There’s a feeling of humble gratitude — an appreciation of all the people and opportunities that empower you to keep driving forward. But also, when the going gets tough, a degree of toughness is indispensable. “My energy has been a bit like, ‘bless you’ because I want to send all the best, but so much is happening that I also feel like, ‘fuck you,’” she says with a quiet laugh. “Sometimes, you know, a bit of humor also makes things easier to digest.” Through the collection, Elisabet found visual expression for the clash between these feelings and outlooks.

That duality is reflected in the models’ walks and attitudes just as much as the garments themselves. They’re rife with a yin-yang sensibility that feels new to Elisabet. When designing the collection, she was drawn to the buttery softness of tencel wool. “The fabric was asking me to go closer to the body,” Elisabet says. “But I thought it was fun for me to explore a bit.” This exploration led to the many skintight pieces we see throughout the show. Abbreviated, stomach-baring tops are paired with wide-legged jeans. Tiny bralettes are worn with body-swallowing outerwear. And the most surprising silhouette of all? Janties — as in jean panties.

Supersized Dressing

But of course, Elisabet’s visual language is still very much there. We see supersized jackets, loose bottoms shaped with elasticated pull cords, and exaggerated sportswear-inspired jerseys. A major highlight in this category is a lusciously oversized down coat, made with banana linen and Japanese paper dyed with charcoal; it has a commanding silhouette you can’t possibly ignore on the runway. “It looks a bit like a big rock,” Elisabet says. “There’s some steadiness to it, some empowerment. It’s like, ‘I’m not gonna move.’”

She doubles down on that hyperbolized design with uber-slouchy boots, which prove to be a stylistic through-line. “In China, I was trying to figure out how to do the collection, and I was resting one day in the sample room where all the down for our down jackets is, and then I was sitting on these bags.” She says. She brought a few dozen heavy-duty, bulk bags back home and fashioned them into boots. It’s the kind of statement piece that can single handedly prop up any look, even if you keep the rest of your outfit simple. Absolutely outstanding. 

Heartfelt Touches

Elisabet’s imagining of deeply personal moments is something I’ve always admired. This season, we see her pay a quiet homage to her father, a truck driver who’s far removed from the industry his daughter is so embedded in. (Elisabet spent much of her childhood driving around with her dad, and in previous collections, we saw images of her father’s truck printed on several pieces). Dirt-stained and oil-coated denim is prevalent throughout the collection: low-slung pants pulled up with a denim ribbon, a bralette-and-janties set, and shrunken denim hoodies.

Even more poignantly, Elisabet introduces a brand new logo for her brand based on her father’s signature. “I took it from a loan document because I had some orders, and to produce the orders, I needed a little bit of liquidity,” she says, later adding, “I promised myself when I was 18 that I would never ask him anything.” It was a sentimental moment for the designer, deciding to emblazon her garments with her father’s handwriting — the big-bellied “S,” the looped “T,” and “M’s” that look like little bumps on an electrocardiogram monitor.

Speaking of, there’s another motif we see throughout the collection: a red heart that Elisabet’s son, Svante, drew for her on her birthday. It’s slightly misshapen, surrounded by a cascade of loose threads resembling a bleeding heart. I’m fascinated by how even the purest feelings give way to other, mixed emotions in Elisabet’s world, in that same yin and yang energy that defines the collection. “Like with the fabrics, there’s some tactility to it,” she says. “It’s not a pretty heart, you know. It’s not perfect — it’s a bit broken.”