When Andrew Bolton, the head curator of The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, placed a call to Danish designer Peter Jensen earlier this year, it wasn’t just a routine acquisition. It was a quiet validation of a philosophy that prizes lived experience over fleeting trends. Bolton requested two looks from Jensen’s YoursTruly collection for the museum’s permanent collection—a move that left the independent designer, who now teaches at Savannah College of Art and Design, in a state of what he calls “total happiness mode.”
The pieces in question are seersucker floral-printed dresses, directly inspired by the gardening outfits Jensen’s grandmother wore. Constructed from beige, blue, and black fabric sourced from a 1930s vintage store, they are paired with vintage Burberry raincoats—a house founded in 1856, known for its iconic trench—transformed into capes. Jensen adorned these with giant brooches sprouting long hair, creating an almost talismanic effect. The looks were first shown at Copenhagen Fashion Week in August 2024 on a cast of models all over the age of 45, some as old as 80, each with wild, unapologetic hair. The designer says he was also moved by an older woman he spotted at the theater, draped in a raincoat, looking “confident, relaxed and happy.”
This is not merely a story of a designer entering a museum. It is a quiet rebellion against the industry’s obsession with youth. Jensen’s YoursTruly collection, he explains, prioritizes “lived experience and authenticity,” with garments meant to evolve with the body over time—a philosophy deeply rooted in sustainable practice and narrative design. For a museum that has long chronicled the corset’s constriction and the bra’s liberation, Jensen’s work offers a new chapter: one where lingerie’s intimate logic of support and softness is extended to outerwear, honoring the body’s history rather than hiding it. The designer, who sold his eponymous label to LF Corp. in 2018, now makes one-off pieces and teaches in Atlanta, where he has found a new community. He missed the Met Gala but attended a private dinner with fellow designers, remarking, “It reminded me how nice so many people are in this industry.” Jensen’s grandmother, it seems, has taken her rightful place in the archive.
Originally reported by WWD