Swedish designer Deadwood debuts it’s Spring/Summer ‘25 Collection entitled “Leaving the Dark City” with a dystopian rockstar edge.

Declared by Copenhagen Fashion Week’s website, “Deadwood is a force for good in an uncertain world” and currently making a bold statement in the fashion world.

If you look up Kowloon Walled City, a now demolished neighbourhood in Hong Kong that translates to “The City of Darkness,” you’ll find yourself squinting and turning your head to make sense of the densely populated area. With buildings built almost on top of one another in a mishmash of design styles fighting for breathing room, bricks, concrete, and cast-iron seemingly wield into one structure — with wires and cables tying them together with a bow. It is easy to imagine how little daylight the city got, as residents navigated their way through a labyrinth of narrow alleyways and tunnels.

This is what Kevin Murphy Global Sessions Manager Massimo Morelli saw when he embarked on his debut collaboration with Deadwood co-founders Carl Ollson and Felix von Bahder for their SS25 Copenhagen Fashion Week presentation, Leaving the Dark City. Known for their experimental design and up-cycling techniques, the Stockholm-based brand has built a strong visual identity since 2012, merging nostalgia-infused grunge-punk elements with innovative and recycled materials — looking back to prepare for the future.

The brand was founded in 2012 by Carl Ollson and Felix von Bahder, their aim being to rework waste material into fashion garments in a sustainable way. The designers have “Pioneer[ed] the use of upcycled leather and vegan cactus leather, continuously experimenting with new material compositions, and always encouraging carefully considered clothing – Deadwood is preparing for an unexpected tomorrow.” The show adhered to its roots in streetwear but with a captivating funky twist that felt dystopian and dark, juxtaposed by the city sunlit illumination. With a neutral color scheme of blacks, greys, and khaki greens, the rock-and-roll grunge element ruled the show.

Wonderland Magazine was there to shoot the show and BTS content, capturing the rock and roll edge to the hair styles featuring unkept tresses, safety pins as decorative hair clips, artful braids swept up with bottle caps and effortlessly chic IDGAF styles — “the looks feel like waking up from a bad dream to the realization that you’ve made it out alive”.

“Drawing from the resilience of the Kowloon Walled City residents and, more generally, the idea that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, Deadwood explores the mental mazes we deal with on the daily — and the challenges we face to find our way out of the darkness within our own minds. Seeking the beauty in the mundane and celebrating the act of building yourself back up after hardship, the collection uses recycled, repurposed, and leftover materials to create fresh pieces, reminding us that we have all we need within us to start anew.”

Image Credit: Wonderland Magazine / Elin Nylund for Kevin Murphy

The runway looks harkened back to the 90’s and early 2000’s when grunge and garage rock were all the rage. The aesthetic felt very Diesel 2003—styling dominated with high-fashion workwear and black moto jackets. With its weathered textiles and faded colourways, the collection answered the question: How does a leather brand with a love for consciously sourced materials evolve onto the runway? It leans into its core brand principles, producing black-and-white leather sets with trend-forward power and accessories through eye-catching pops of red.

The runway show incorporated a few key trends we’ve seen in CPHFW, including boyish polos, oversized trenchcoats, cherry red, and plenty of sustainable black leather.

See the womenswear featured in the Deadwood SS25 collection below: