Andrej Gronau SS26
There was something strange and familiar about it. We found ourselves drawn into a landscape we thought we knew, but it quickly slipped into fiction. Andrej Gronau’s SS26 collection, Alpine Fiction, brings together past and present in ways that feel both deliberate and disoriented. It takes folk craft and childhood memory and runs them through a new kind of logic. In fact, Andrej explained us at the backstage that some root and inspiration was connected with Bavarian culture.
The silhouettes are clear and grounded. High-waisted trousers, cropped jackets, rugby knits, skirts with purpose. But none of it feels purely functional. The references are domestic, almost sentimental, checked shirts, gingham blouses, dirndl skirts, but they are pushed just far enough to feel unfamiliar. A shirt becomes something else when it’s pressed too tight against tailored shorts. A cardigan becomes sculpture when it forgets softness.
“What we saw was something more elusive, a reworking of comfort, something between sincerity and performance. Andrej offers no conclusion, only suggestions. And we keep returning to them.”
Color plays with our expectations. Moss, milk, and flax suggest earth, but electric blue and stark black pull it out of place. Textures contradict each other. Cotton that feels rural sits next to a knit that feels like a memory, half-faded and too smooth. Embroidered motifs speak in grandmother codes, but say something else entirely.
This is not costume. It doesn’t rest on reference.
ANDREJ GRONAU
Words by Donald Gjoka
