Akris Spring 2027: A Painterly Approach

by · WWD
Akris Spring 2027 Ready-to-Wear Collection at paris Fashion WeekIsidore Montag/Courtesy of Akris

Albert Kriemler has keen art instincts and when he encountered Martha Jungwirth’s abstract paintings at Thaddaeus Ropac’s Paris gallery a few years back, he was transfixed by her bold smears, blobs and scratches of color — bruised purples and offbeat pinks, greens and yellows.

“These paintings have something,” he enthused during a preview a few days before the show. “You start looking at them, and they don’t want to let you go.”

Kriemler visited Jungwirth in Vienna, discovering that she was a fashion designer earlier in her career, her father having insisted she have a backup career given the fickle art market. Still, she stuck to her pencils and brushes.

“I felt the way she sketched is similar to an embroidery,” Kriemler said.

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To wit: He showed the reverse side of jacquards placed on several garments, the dangling threads suggesting brushstrokes. Ditto his zigzag ribbon embroideries, which approximate one of her horse paintings, and the fabric streamers drifting off many garments, sometimes in contrasting colors.

The designer most faithfully evoked her paintings on beige pantsuits and coats, since Jungwirth never painted on white canvas.

This Akris collection will be remembered for its clean lines, audacious use of color, and a matchy-matchy approach to dressing that’s different from most Paris runways this season.

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Several looks incorporated a curlicue-style lace that echoed some of Jungwirth’s flicks of paint, and drew a link to the savoir-faire of St. Gallen embroideries: Kriemler noted they were designed by his grandmother Alice from the ’50s, and he put them back in the spotlight.