Last winter, as Florentina Leitner thought of her spring 2027 collection, she was not in her birthplace of Austria but in Japan and South Korea seeing clients, orchestrating pop-ups and traveling.
“When I arrived back, I missed Austria,” she said. In Antwerp, Belgium, where she now lives, Leitner watched on TV “The Sound of Music” for the first time.
“I saw beautiful Austria, the mountain landscape and Julie Andrews singing,” Leitner said. “It just made me miss home, miss summer.”
She reflected on what constitutes “home,” especially for someone living abroad. “It’s still always going to be a big part of yourself,” Leitner said. So this season she paid homage to Austrian tradition.
She gave lederhosen her own modern twist, creating it in denim, rather than leather, and engraved, rather than embroidered, the words “Raindrops on Roses.”
“I wanted to make it into a more everyday piece,” Leitner said, adding the aim was to create her favorite things from Austria.
The preppy, uniform-style outfits the von Trapp children sported were channeled through her lens. Think a robin’s egg blue, fluffy V-neck sweater with a dickie collar peeking out topping off a semi see-through skirt with rose details, high socks and loafers.
A gingham cropped top with smocking could be worn with — or without — a dirndl. That might be sported with a low-rise pleated skirt. There was a pretzel motif, as well as a 3D bow motif, which wound its way through this playful collection that was both naughty and nice.
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