The Story Behind Yours Truly by Peter Jensen
Danish designer Peter Jensen sold and stepped away from his London-based label in 2018. Now, he’s made a comeback—alongside his muse, The Cardigans’ Nina Persson—with a new venture called Yours Truly, which just made its debut at Copenhagen Fashion Week for SS25.
Peter Jensen and The Cardigans' Nina Persson
Photographer: Lasse Bak Mejlvang
Peter Jensen returned to the fashion world this year with his new label Yours Truly by Peter Jensen. Originally from Denmark, he studied graphic design, embroidery and tailoring at The Royal Danish Academy of Design in Copenhagen before moving to London in 1997 to undertake an MA in menswear at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design going on to become the head of the course just four years later. He graduated in 1999 and formed his eponymous menswear label, subsequently also introducing womenswear. Jensen has shown his collections at London Fashion Week, CPHFW and NYFW so he’s a seasoned industry veteran that’s already made a name for himself once before in the early-to-mid 2000’s. But this time, the Danish designer returned home to debut his new vision: a love-letter to the quirky women, thrift finds and forward-thinking sustainable artists that inspires him. The label is so appropriately named.
It was in 2018 that he decided to step away from the label—selling it to South Korea's Pastel World—and moved to Atlanta to as chair of fashion at Savannah College of Art and Design. But he had plans for the future he never he even planned on.
Peter Jensen received Denmark’s Statens Kunstfond, an art prize that comes with a lifelong stipend, in 2021. So, it’s fitting that he’s coming back home for his label’s official launch.
Splitting his time between Atlanta and Copenhagen, it was during the pandemic that he picked up his sewing machine and started taking up his craft again. Jensen describes Yours Truly as “sort of like a project”. He says: “It’s the start of something that’s going to be bigger in the future. I see this as a canvas that I’m using to build more sellable items from.” The small SS25 collection is made exclusively from sustainable materials — and in an upcycling move inspired by the reconstructed IKEA Frakta frenzy, he incorporates repurposed materials like Trader Joe’s tea towels and vintage wigs he purchased at a local estate sale in Atlanta, alongside customized vintage trench coats and floral dresses— as worn by The Cardigans singer Nina Persson at his presentation. A longtime pal of Jensen's – and now a key face in the presentation of Yours Truly's first collection – Persson serves as something of a muse. "I see Nina and her art as a modern way of acting," Jensen says. "I love her music and her way of life, it sits really well with mine. We get one another and have the same point of view of the world."
According to Persson, the admiration is mutual. "I think Peter is a designer that really sees and appreciates women without the standard ways of objectifying," she tells Vogue Scandinavia. “Peter widens the term 'muse' to include women of all kinds, where other strengths than traditional beauty or mythology are valued. Complicated, quirky and real get to be part of the equation. And I am proud to be one of those," she says.
As Persson knows, with The Cardigan's enduring musical legacy, there's power in a an band name or song title. The same applies for a fashion brand. "The name Yours Truly comes from the 1975 Sidley Lumet film Dog Day Afternoon starring Al Pacino," Jensen says. "Pacino's character robs the First Brooklyn Savings Bank to support his boyfriend's sex surgery. In the background, across from the bank, is a hairdresser called Yours Truly," he goes on. "My boyfriend was the one who suggested Yours Truly and I liked it straight away. It makes sense as the platform can be anybody's. I can pass on Yours Truly to other people and it becomes theirs."
In a tribute to women over 55, the show featured models aged 55 to 87 in garments that played with tulle, volume, and pops of print and color. Other pieces include vintage Burberry trench coats customized with embroidery as a “reference to my time living in England”, floral dresses made from fabric Jensen sourced while on a trip to Key West, Florida, and costume jewelry, which the designer has a particular fondness for.
Jensen believes his long history with sustainability and upcycling has helped to shape who he is as a designer. “My MA collection at Saint Martin’s, I graduated in 1999, and that was all made from recycled materials because I was broke — I had no money.”
While Yours Truly was started in 2020, he officially launched his first presentation of the brand at CPHFW. “I do really respect what Copenhagen Fashion Week stands for. I think that they’ve found a very modern angle of where fashion should be looking towards, with the sustainability requirements, while managing to embrace more commercial brands.” He believes the city’s reputation for supporting new talent — such as Nicklas Skovgaard who is “just completely brilliant” combined with the contrast of larger, more mainstream brands creates a “perfect contrast”.
Embracing Copenhagen Fashion Week’s sustainability and inclusiveness, his brand was a perfect fit for this fashion week. He launched his presentation as a celebration of women over the age of 55, with the oldest model being 87. His designs were inspired by portraits of 17th century powerful women — most noticeable in the voluminous sleeves of tulle dresses and overcoats. Jensen embraces kitsch and the avant-garde and emphasizes that Yours Truly is mainly about collaborating with other artists. He worked with illustrator Julie Verhoeven, knitting artist Jenny Richie, photographer Annie Collinge and stylist Jacob Kjeldgaard and jokes that “they did all the work”, creating video installations, photography and lighting for the presentation. A big believer in collaboration, he embraces the work of other creatives — “I think that is a fault that people, especially in the fashion industry, think that they have to be good at everything, and it just isn’t humanly impossible.”
The brand itself is a sustainably made and gender-neutral collection inspired by the classic artist’s smock. “The smock – or reform dress, as it is also known – has been worn for centuries by painters, writers, and sculptors. Male and female alike,” Jensen says. “People have always used the word ‘quirky’ about my things because they’re very naive and have a childish handwriting,” he said, yet the patternmaking is quite sophisticated. Yours Truly, he continued, is “art-slash-fashion, and focused on fabrics and based on sustainability; everything is locally produced in Denmark and in Atlanta.”
Even though he’s also recycling his name for the label - this time around, Jensen doesn’t want to replicate the structure of his eponymous label, where he felt pressure to achieve large scale commercial success. He wants this brand to feel like an art collective made for collectors, but accessible.
Yours Truly sells direct-to-consumer on it’s website but is looking at “select stockists” to go into the retail space, and plans to sell the entire SS25 collection to his new followers. He plans to continue showing at CPHFW to build stability for the brand, and also because it gives him an excuse to “come home and see my mum”.
With almost 30 years in the industry under his belt, Jensen reflects that with Yours Truly: “It’s nice to do something creative, and I just want to do it how I want to do it. I’m in no hurry and I can just do it on my own time.”
View the Yours Truly by Peter Jensen SS25 presentation below:
Image Credit: Vogue
Photography: Lasse Bak Mejlvang
Image Credit: Vogue Scandinavia
