At Oslo Runway, Elisabeth Stray Pedersen staged her first-ever spring/summer collection inside the brand’s old factory, weaving nostalgia, craft and echoes of past lives into faded wools, sheer organza and effortless tailoring
Memory is a funny thing, tinged with romance and nostalgia. Our clothes remember too – coloured by experience and events, picking up fragrance and wear, developing narratives all their own. “Every garment carries traces of what it once was,” says Elisabeth Stray Pedersen. That’s especially true of the garments made under her namesake brand, ESP, which are realised in recycled wool and deadstock. Hers are pieces that have entire histories. “I saw each piece not only as an object but as an echo of another life,” she says. This was the starting point of ESP’s spring/summer '26 collection – the desire to capture the ephemeral notion of memory.
Pedersen describes the garments as existing in a so-called 'Third Space' (a notion coined by Indian physicist Homi Bhabha). “A zone between presence and absence,” she says – a mysterious void inhabited by pieces that seem to hint at more than the sum of their parts. “The pieces reflect that tension,” she says. “Fading, twisting, and opening space for new realities.”
It sounds heady and utopian, but the clothes themselves are pleasingly to-the-point. Though ESP is ostensibly a knit and outerwear brand, SS26 marks its very first spring/summer collection – a milestone that coincides with its 10-year anniversary. “While we are known for sculptural wool outerwear, here we step into lighter materials,” says Pedersen. Think effortless workwear trousers and light-as-air organza layered over relaxed, summery tailoring. “The transparency makes the garments appear to fade, creating a dialogue with the body beneath,” says Pedersen. Elsewhere, cleverly placed toggles and strings give shape to trousers and blouses.
The wool, meanwhile, is impossibly fine – recycled wool coats and cool cropped bombers subtly worn and faded, just as memories tend to fade over time. There are other subtle details that hint towards the idea of dissolving reveries, like faded pocket lines and seamless closures. “These quiet details might not be visible from afar, but they carry memory within the craft,” says Pedersen.
Memory isn’t just baked into ESP’s materials, it’s also steeped into its home. When Pedersen founded the brand a decade ago, she did so in a 60-year-old outerwear factory (ESP was manufactured there until 2020, these days it’s the brand’s studio). It was only fitting to host this walk down memory lane here, centred around sewing tables, the machine draped with transparent, gauzy material. At the centre or the space, a seamstress on a raised platform quietly sews, emphasising the very Norwegian notion of craft and the magic of realising pieces slowly and by hand. “Staging the show there feels like bringing people into our home, which resonates with both the memory theme and our 10-year anniversary,” says Pedersen. “And with Oslo Runway’s focus on craft this season, the choice felt natural.”
As the models, wearing their clothes steeped in history, floated through the space, a string of new memories were made.
See all the looks from ESP's SS26 collection below. All photos by Bella Mørk.
