9 Issues I Realized at Copenhagen Trend Week

Scandinavian style is synonymous with a sure look that’s at the moment in vogue: oversize blazers, wide-leg trousers, slouchy (however not too slouchy) denims, mismatched prints, and slicked-back buns. Assume Matilda Djerf however with a bit extra edge. So it’s no shock that Copenhagen Trend Week is more and more turning into in style — particularly since Nordic style, with manufacturers like Ganni and Saks Potts, has seeped into the aesthetic of different components of the world, notably seen in New York Metropolis and on-line on TikTok.

So far as world runway shows go, if New York Trend Week is the subtle massive sister, Copenhagen Trend Week is its comparatively saccharine youthful sibling (albeit all the time on the verge of doing one thing mischievous). The week felt prefer it oscillated between the minimalism and performance Nordic model is understood for and one thing completely totally different and new — a bit extra playful and, at instances, gritty. Manufacturers like Stine Goya and (di)imaginative and prescient leaned into experimentation, artistry, and Gen-Z aesthetics: the previous created a futuristic, spage-age-appropriate set, and the latter used a grungier really feel, straying barely from the simplicity that’s king to the area. However regardless of this, in my expertise at Copenhagen Trend Week, much less continues to be extra (in a great way).

Whereas the entire week felt like a win for Nordic manufacturers and the way critically the remainder of the style world takes (or a minimum of ought to take) Copenhagen’s model scene, there have been a number of bits and items that sparked pleasure and stood out to me. Listed here are my highlights.

Every of the manufacturers chosen to current at Copenhagen Trend Week needed to meet 18 necessities of tangible sustainability — together with a minimum of 50 % of every assortment being licensed, made from most well-liked supplies or new technology sustainable supplies, upcycled, recycled, or made from deadstock. As well as, every present’s set design and present manufacturing needed to have zero waste and samples should be given a second life. After all, the most sustainable path is creating fewer garments, however shifting the needle towards circularity is commendable and notably lacking in style reveals elsewhere.

You would possibly know the model Saks Potss from its pastel-color, fake-fur-collared jackets that took New York by storm final yr. This yr’s assortment leaned into one thing that appears as if The Row and Carhartt had a toddler and, I’m positive, will likely be equally coveted as soon as it hits shops. The true win right here, although, was how a lot enjoyable the presentation was. The model had a youngsters’s marching band carry out previous to the present, which was held at Tivoli Gardens — the third-oldest working amusement park on the earth. There was a way of pleasure within the efficiency, and the fashions (a lot of whom had youngsters connected to their hips or of their arms) helped reintroduce each magic and practicality to style.

Talking of children, they featured each on the runway with their mannequin mother and father and have been notably current within the viewers at reveals — one thing I feel I’ve solely seen at Elena Velez in New York previous to this. It felt beautiful to witness essentially the most fashionable household you’ve ever seen take an outing like that and made every occasion really feel extra homey. It highlighted the methods mother and father proceed to take their rightful place on the style scene even with newly added accountability.

I went to the Mark Kenly Domino Tan present with a real sense of curiosity and left feeling moved by its quiet storytelling by clothes. In Caroline Engelgaar’s first assortment because the model’s artistic director, fantastically tailor-made and considerate items floated down the runway — ones that Laird Borrelli-Persson of Vogue Runway advised me had a way of “purity” to them somewhat than minimalism. That struck a chord. Engelgaar despatched half-skirts down the runway that I actually liked and that jogged my memory of a dressier model of chaps. I can’t wait to see this silhouette styled within the wild.

Scandinavians know tips on how to costume. Individuals there have an aesthetic that, at its core, is sort of unimaginable to authentically replicate. The garments I noticed coming out and in of reveals all week have been in some way each easy and intentional, utilitarian and playful, unique with out hinging on the weird. The outfits worn to those reveals have been the identical ones I noticed on the road 5 minutes in a while individuals strolling to the bus cease or driving a bicycle. I left Copenhagen feeling concurrently impressed to discover my wardrobe extra and assured within the outfit decisions I already make.

Ganni has a cultlike following of worldwide cool ladies — this season, Amelia Dimoldenberg, Sarah Lysander, and Veneda Carter notably sat within the entrance row on the present. (Carter launched her personal jewellery collaboration with Ganni, which premiered in the course of the presentation — one she referred to as genuine each to herself and to Ganni.) The garments are enjoyable at their core, and the present was no much less so. Fashions walked the runway in outfits that represented “the metamorphosis of the butterfly,” artistic director Ditte Reffstrup advised me backstage. Once I requested Reffstrup what she considered the worldwide viewers the model had drawn, she started tearing up, saying she’d by no means anticipated this to occur. “A day like this, you get up and it seems like this isn’t actual,” she stated. “And it’s not solely me. It’s a crew effort.”

In the course of the present, a drone whizzed between and round fashions dubbed the Ganni Ladies — a time period of endearment used amongst individuals who put on the model and ladies Carter described as “constructive, cool, attractive, easy.” The gang cheered for the faces they acknowledged. A bag emblazoned with Ganni’s new brand, one I believe will develop into extremely sought-after, swung from the arms of ladies who appeared like they by no means needed to wait in line at any bar. Flowing cloaklike coats, a collaboration with 66° North, hung from fashions’ shoulders. The present got here to an finish with a blast of colour within the type of yellow confetti because the fashions danced within the colourful paper rain. It doesn’t matter what you considered the garments that got here down the runway, it’s unimaginable to say that it wasn’t time.

The house the place Cecilie Bahnsen’s clothes is made seems like the right illustration of her namesake model. The highest flooring is crammed with pure mild, curved home windows, and delicate pastel colours. Simply as Bahnsen’s garments carry a sense of nostalgia, ease, and playfulness, so does this house. Once I walked in, a bunch of workers clinked their glasses. It was 10:30 a.m., and my information, Belinda, giggled. “They’re celebrating somebody’s birthday at this time,” she stated. Pleasure is clearly cultivated on this house, and it interprets into Bahnsen’s draping, frilly, billowing garments!

By Malene Birger has undergone a metamorphosis prior to now two years, which turned more and more obvious on a visit to its showroom. I noticed delicious leather-based items, all of which come from by-products of the meat trade, in addition to high-quality woolen knits and lovely baggage. I feel this can develop into a covetable model in New York within the coming months and years!

In the course of the week, I fell in love with Copenhagen. There’s an unstated ease right here, and it pulses by the streets. Did I point out how organized it was? There was even a Copenhagen Trend Week–branded bus that attendees may hop on to go from present to point out. As a New Yorker, one may solely dream of such accessibility.