Florentina Leitner: Between Fantasy and Reality
Alice Bouju
Florentina Leitner’s world of femininity, nostalgia, and contrast.
Somewhere between dream and reality, Florentina Leitner builds a world where femininity, nostalgia, and fantasy collide. Known for bold prints, sculptural florals, and cinematic references, her collections feel like fragments of a story.
In this conversation, she reflects on the emotional layers behind her work, from childhood memories to the evolving identity of her brand. This is where playfulness meets a darker edge.
Your work is often described as narrative-driven. When you begin a collection, do you start with a story, an image, or a character?
F: I think it changes season to season. The Florentina Leitner girl is always in the forefront and develops new interests each season. Sometimes it’s a movie I watched, a picture I saw in a gallery or a feeling I wanted to translate.
Your Florentina Leitner collections often feel like entering a “world.” How do you translate emotion or memory into garments?
F: With fabrics and different textures you can tell a lot of feelings, but also with casting, music, the set and atmosphere of a photoshoot, show or campaign video, you can create a world. We try to use all this to create the memory. I also love to integrate text in garments which speak directly to the consumer. Like our SS26 cap with our collection title text “My Heart will go on”, which we also printed on T-shirts and a long polka dotted skirt.
How would you describe your creative direction today, especially your take on femininity, girlhood, and nostalgia?
F: Fun, Feminine, Floral, Fantasy is what drives the brand “Florentina Leitner”. However, there is also always a “dark” twist in the collections which we show in our shoots and films.
Your designs balance playful and colourful elements with a darker undertone. How important is contrast in your creative language?
F: Yes exactly we try to break the cuteness with a more darker/sexy element. I like the contrast and do not want to do something too predictable. Our girl is also a woman and she likes to be cheeky and sexy but also cute and playful.
Flowers are a recurring motif in your work. What do they represent for you beyond their aesthetic appeal?
F: I grew up in nature and in a house with a beautiful garden. In summer the grass was full of daisies and my mother planted tulips, roses and many other flowers. So naturally I connect flowers with home. I also love to buy fresh flowers from the market in Antwerp and have them in our studio.
Cinema and Fantasy plays an important role in your collections. What influences you the most?
F: One of my favourite director is Peter Greenaway, the visual are stunning and the film music from Michael Nyman is beautiful, I love listening to his music in the studio. I think music is as inspiring as cinema as it is constantly playing while we create.
For the Florentina Leitner SS26 collection I was inspired by Harmony Korine movies “Spring Breakers” and “Gummo”. The music from the film played a lot in our studio and also other trap sounds which I discovered for the show. I love to create the music and runway moments in line with the inspiration we had. For the set, we had tuned cars and number plates with the brand name. The girls walked the catwalk in the car lights to spring breakers soundtrack in neon bikinis and skateboards under their arms. It was exactly what I wanted to show that season. I hope people felt like at an underground spring break rave while watching the show.
Your brand sits between ready-to-wear and semi-couture. How do you balance accessibility and craftsmanship?
I try to have a 20%-80% ratio. Before it was more 50/50 but in the end we need to live from our collections and think slightly more commercial now. In the end I also want people to wear the garments and offer a practical piece to wear in every day life. But we also want to invite to dream and create show pieces which “stun”.
How does Florentina Leitner approach sustainability without limiting creativity?
F: I think limitations make you creative. As an emerging brand the smartest way to start was working with deadstock suppliers and this is very sustainable. We found the right partners for buying fabrics but the fabric is often out of stock after creating just a few garments so we are forced to think creatively and can not over produce styles. But I like the challenges of not having all resources, it makes you think out of the box and problem solve constantly, and after a while you get better at it. I am learning something new every day, I feel I am growing together with the brand.
Do you see your runway shows and fashion films as extensions of the garments?
F: Yes I do, When I was a teenager I wanted to become a movie director, but then I choose fashion school and went the way of becoming a designer. Still the dream of being a director and creating films is there. So when I with my boyfriend plan the brand’s collection films it’s always a great experience. When we filmed all the footage we also edit the films together, I love how in the edit you can decide which direction it will go, how to tell the story and how it comes together with the music. At runway shows it’s the same, it’s like a live short theatre piece which we show to our audience, music, characters, makeup hair and highlight the garments walking in a set chosen by us.
Looking ahead, how do you see the Florentina Leitner universe evolving?
F: I always loved fantasy but I also love reality so I think the next season might be more reality but I also do not want to loose the fantasy while growing (up) the brand.
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Alice is a Paris based photograper with a passion for fashion. Based in Paris, she develops an approach that brings together photography and writing, often mixing the two within her projects.
Her work is deeply rooted in reality. She is particularly drawn to documentary practices, using images and text as complementary tools to observe, question, and reinterpret the world around her. Whether through visual series or written pieces, she seeks to capture / she captures fragments of the everyday and give them a new narrative dimension.
She has developed a strong interest in research and editorial work. Writing articles, exploring contexts, and building stories from real-life subjects naturally extend her creative process. This intersection between documentation and storytelling reflects a field she has long been eager to explore.
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