Henrik Vibskov AW26: Frog Carry Frog Is a Runway About Shared Weight

Henrik Vibskov’s AW26 collection, Frog Carry Frog, begins with a creature most people overlook. The frog is modest, a little strange, quietly essential. It lives between worlds and changes form without apology. For Vibskov, that is not just biology, it is a way to talk about the human condition: interdependence, transition, and the invisible labour that keeps everything moving. 

The story starts on a small Danish island known for its fire bellied toads, then expands through a chain of associations that feels very Vibskov: the word “criterium,” the film Magnolia with its raining frogs, studies of frogs carrying each other, and conversations around social structures. Even the brand’s long-serving van, “Betty,” becomes part of the mythology after it had to be physically carried out of a parking space by many hands. The collection is, in other words, built on a simple thesis: nothing gets moved forward alone.

A Frog as a Mirror

Frogs exist on thresholds. Egg to tadpole to air breathing being, water to land, stillness to sudden motion. They also function as environmental indicators, sensitive to what the rest of us ignore until it is too late. Vibskov leans into that symbolism, pulling from myth and fairytale where frogs become shorthand for metamorphosis, luck, fertility, and a kind of quiet wisdom. 

From there, the collection widens into a meditation on shared weight. Not just physical, but emotional baggage, collective labour, and the systems of support that operate beneath the surface. Vibskov points outward too, toward bumblebees improbably lifting their bodies and fungal networks sustaining forests, a reminder that cooperation is often the true engine of survival. 

Colour: Pond Greens, Soil Browns, Warning Orange

The palette reads like habitat and signal. Earthy pond greens and soil browns ground the collection, while flashes of warning orange cut through like nature’s own alarm system. 

Textiles carry the narrative in close-up. There are etched toad-skin textures that celebrate imperfection, mycelium-inspired patterns that nod to hidden cooperation, and monochrome jacquards that conceal tadpoles and dancing frogsin plain sight. Then Vibskov turns playful, with graphics of weightlifting frogs, swamp typography, and stacked creatures that literalise the idea of carrying. 

Silhouette: Tailoring with Amphibian Intelligence

Tailoring sits at the centre, but it is not traditional tailoring for tradition’s sake. Suits and structured pieces draw from frog faces, eyes, and webbed feet, with rounded volumes and fluid transitions that echo metamorphosis. Layering becomes a visual language for support: garments that look like they hold, brace, and share load, silhouettes that interlock rather than compete. 

The Show: Looking Down, Rethinking Power

The show lands at Østre Gasværk Theatre in Copenhagen, staged so the audience looks down onto a circular runway. It is a deliberate vantage point, mirroring how humans often view frogs from above. Vibskov turns that into a question about scale, hierarchy, and what we fail to notice when we believe we are the main character. 

Performers carry towering ladder-like structures built around sculptural wooden spines, visualising the core that supports the body. As these structures tilt and unfold, the stage becomes a choreography of loading and unloading, redistribution and collective effort. The runway transforms into a portrait of shared strength, a reminder that every height reached rests on many shoulders.

Why It Lands Now

Frog Carry Frog is not a collection about frogs. It is a collection about networks, care, and the reality that we are all being held up by someone, somewhere, whether we recognise it or not. Vibskov’s gift is making that truth feel wearable: tactile, graphic, and oddly tender.