Anna-Karin Karlsson to appear at Victoria and Albert Museum

Avant-garde eyewear designer Anna-Karin Karlsson is to show its collections in the V&A Shop at the Victoria and Albert Museum this summer.

The Decadence collection will be shown at the same time as the museum’s landmark exhibition, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty.

The collection was said to tell stories of wanton luxury and opulence, with work characterised by excess and indulgence in pleasure that is taken even further by interplay between the morbid and over-refined. Artifice and sophistication were also said to be cherished over nature and simplicity.

The designer has created two limited edition styles available exclusively from the V&A Shop. The first model, The Queen, is a celebration of both Queen Victoria and Alexander McQueen, while the second is an ode to Karlsson’s Swedish ancestors who belonged to a tradition of hair jewellery artisans commissioned to create mourning pieces for Queen Victoria.