Every Heliot Emil collection begins with an examination of the human condition. Instead of drawing solely from fashion history or references within design, creative director Julius Juul is more interested in exploring the ways humans experience the world around them.“I’m very attracted to psychological phenomena, how the brain works and how we as humans interpret the world around us,” shares creative director Julius Juul. Each season asks the question: What are some of the things that make us human? AW26 CYMATICS was a study on sound which focused on translating invisible frequencies into a physical experience, featuring looks inspired by patterns from water ripples, tuning forks, and shockwaves. Running alongside these conceptual foundations, Heliot Emil’s wider design concepts are rooted in industrial elegance, with an ethos of finding elegance in industrial components such as mixing metal and leather with dark colours.
For SS27, Heliot Emil returns with the Troxler effect, an optical illusion in which the brain adapts to things that stay unchanged and the world around a fixed point begins to dissolve. The brain fades out things that stay perfectly still, so it can focus on new or changing information instead, an idea Juul saw as surprisingly relevant to clothing. In fashion, the most familiar details are often overlooked. “I think there are a lot of components that are never really shown to people, like the buttons on a shirt, or the inside stitches of a garment, so we tried to highlight those details and bring them to the forefront,” says Juul.
One of the collection’s standout pieces is a dramatic black jacket from Heliot Emil’s atelier line, heavily inspired by military uniforms and the elaborate braiding of hussar ceremonial dress. While the tailoring is theatrical with black frogging, the concept of troxler is explored through smaller interventions, such as the metallic arm bands. These metallic pieces are real mussels collected from the beaches of Normandy, sanded down and plated with silver foil. “You walk on the beach and you don’t notice all the beauty that is laying around you,” adds Julius. For their SS27 collection, they wanted to highlight simple concepts to give the garments a texture the eye cannot ignore. The same approach extends to their new jeans where the dye is applied post treatment. The jeans feature a prominent sculptural curved panel construction which is accentuated by the post treatment garment dye, allowing the colour to darken and collect on the stitch lines, making for a sleek and beautiful finish. “Although they’re all handmade, the idea is that none of the pieces are exactly the same,” adds Julius, as each piece benefits from human error.
The collection’s leather tote applies the same thinking, handmade in Italy with high quality materials and using simple design elements to create a premium finish. Each handbag is fitted with powerful magnetic closures, addressing Juul’s frustration with traditional bag designs. By removing the open top where belongings can easily slip out, the fastening offers a practical detail that remains true to the collection’s wider philosophy of highlighting an often forgotten detail.
Across TROXLER, Heliot Emil invites the wearer to look again. By focusing on details that already exist, and highlighting simple concepts that are often undervalued, Heliot Emil lets each piece reveal itself in unexpected ways, showcasing familiar forms through an innovative lens. Rather than introducing entirely new forms, the collection distinguishes itself through the subtle reconstruction of familiar design elements. In true Heliot Emil fashion, collars, cuffs, seams and joints are reinforced with shiny industrial metal, pulling attention to the parts of a garment we usually ignore.
