Last season Peter Jensen’s Nordic darlings walked the runway with heavily painted faces. This attempt to offset the designer’s wholesome creations, tinged with a Scandinavian sensibility, was a bothersome distraction. For Spring 2006 Jensen steered away from over the top makeup gimmicks, which stood in stark contrast to his minimalist philosophy in the first place. Choosing to send out a procession of young models with bare, freckly faces, the Danish talent highlighted the beauty of head-to-toe simplicity.

Fresh and innocent to the core in plaited updos and canvas Mary-Janes, Peter Jensen’s retro heroines proudly sported white eyelet-lace tops with ruffled bibs, candy striped high waisted trousers, and Peter Pan collar mini boleros. These modest, unfussy clothes, channeling all-American girl next door Sissy Spacek in the Coal Miner’s Daughter, may have as well been tailored by a high school senior taking home economics classes. But it is exactly this unpretentiousness that allows Jensen’s boxy knee length dresses and bulky a-line skirts to redefine clean, understated elegance.

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