Everything is moving, nothing feels safe……..but your presence
Pauline Dujancourt’s debut runway show at London Fashion Week was a deeply personal story woven into fabric. Titled Everything is Moving, Nothing Feels Safe…but your presence, her AW25 collection is an exploration of past and present, where fashion becomes an act of preservation.
Dujancourt’s inspiration stems from her late grandmother and the Vriesea plant that continues to bloom each February—the month of her grandmother’s birth. Passed down through generations, the plant serves as a living image of family ties, resilience, and quiet beauty. “My grandmother’s plant has never bloomed for me,” Dujancourt reflects. “So I decided to create my own kind of winter bloom through this collection.”
The runway pieces were a masterclass in texture and technique. Hand-knitted mohair meets metallic crochet; featherlight tulle contrasts with raw, deconstructed knitwear. Dujancourt manipulates fabric in a way that feels organic—floral forms seem to sprout naturally from the body, while the interplay between structure and fragility mirrors the delicate dance of memory itself. “It’s about transformation,” she says. “How something as soft as a flower, as intangible as a memory, can still hold immense strength.”
Dr. Martens’ Buzz and Elphie Styles ground the ethereal pieces, their sturdy soles offering a stark contrast to the intricate knitwear. The shoes, with their nod to ‘90s rebellion and romanticism, serve as the perfect metaphor for the collection’s balance of delicacy and resilience.
The emotional weight of the show is underscored by a palette that oscillates between light and dark. Soft neutrals and atmospheric greys create a dreamlike foundation, punctuated by deep red—a direct reference to the Vriesea plant’s rare bloom.
Dujancourt draws inspiration from Tracey Emin’s deeply personal art, particularly her work on grief and memory. This influence is evident in the way the garments feel like artifacts of a personal history—each stitch a whisper, each silhouette a piece of an untold story. “I wanted to explore the intangible,” Dujancourt explains. “The space where emotions live, where memory lingers. This collection is my way of meeting my grandmother again.”
A rising star in the fashion industry, Dujancourt is a part of The Fashion Residency at Studio Smithfield, a program supported by the Mayor of London, Projekt, and Paul Smith’s Foundation.
Read more on Fashion Week from KLATMAG
Written by Angel Joanne Okonkwo
