Eight take-aways from Copenhagen Fashion Week

The SS24 season of Copenhagen Fashion Week was the busiest edition yet, showing that the event is still growing – and becoming a serious rival to some of the world’s fashion capitals. The Danish city is best known for its incubation of new talent, international crowd and buzzy street style – and this week was no different.

Nicklas Skovgaard was the breakout star

Instead of a traditional runway show, the 28-year-old designer held a one-person performance with former ballerina Britt Liberg, who put on and tore off his designs one by one while darting among mannequins and seducing the front row. The clothes themselves blended styles and silhouettes from different eras – Victorian corsets and ruffles, flapper tassels and high-shine ’80s sequins – which somehow came together into one cohesive collection. 

Copenhagen celebrated Copenhagen

This season Denmark’s creatives took an introspective turn, using the capital city itself as the influence for their collections. There was Stine Goya’s Homecoming, which was set on the street the designer lives on – an area with so-called “Potato Row” terraces – with models walking out of different houses before sitting down to eat at a communal, neighbourly table.

Baum und Pferdgarten was inspired by the city too, drawing on landmarks, graffiti and the harbour to create its collection, while Saks Potts’ show was inspired by Danish summers and was staged in an area near where the brand’s designers went to kindergarten together.

Laid Back played a surprise show

The Danish electronic duo, who formed in 1979 and came to embody the sound of the ’80s, performed during Sunflower’s show on day two. The synth-pop sounds of “White Horse” and “Sunshine Reggae” became the playlist for the runway, which featured blazers with shorts, leather jackets and co-ordinating denim sets.

Danish menswear is in the ascendant

Although brands such as Wood Wood, Norse Projects and Samsøe Samsøe have been contributing to Copenhagen’s menswear scene for years, this edition of fashion week saw the biggest offering so far.

The stand out shows were Sunflower, Lattimier and Rolf Ekroth, while tennis brand Palmes is staking its claim as Denmark’s answer to America’s sports-inflected brands, such as Rowing Blazers and Aimé Leon Dore.

Brands got innovative with fabric

Copenhagen puts on the most sustainable fashion week in the world, requiring its designers to meet a set of standards to be included on the schedule. One of these areas is in smart material choices, whereby at least 50 per cent of every collection is made of either certified fabrics, new-generation sustainable materials, upcycling/recycling or deadstock.

This has encouraged brands to experiment with sustainable materials – this season Ganni used Oleatex, a fabric produced using waste streams from olive oil production, for a dress, while Stine Goya made quilted bags from apple leather.

Barbiecore still isn’t dead 

Greta Gerwig may have caused a shortage of pink paint while building the set of Barbie, but the availability of pink fabric for designers seems endless – with the trend for fuschia, magenta and bubblegum still dominating the runways.

At Stine Goya, it featured in tailoring and knitwear; at Saks Potts, there were pink bikinis and tube dresses; and at Paolina Russo, it was used for gathered tops and skirts. 

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Scandi street style is changing

Copenhagen’s distinctive street style – shaped by the likes of Ganni and Cecilie Bahnsen – has played no small part in drawing global attention to the city’s fashion week, and the term “Scandi style” more generally. But where this used to rely on puffy sleeves, loud prints and “timeless” wardrobing, the look on the footpaths this year has got grittier, with influence from the dark and avant-garde – perhaps due to the increase in new-gen designers.

Show off your underwear

While sheer clothing has been ubiquitous on the runways for a few seasons, Copenhagen’s designers decided to do away with the layers and go straight to bras and undies.

A Roege Hove paired her slinky knitwear with briefs, OpéraSport teamed a pair with a quilted jacket, while Saks Potts styled underwear with a loose shirt and utility belt. Bras, too, took centre stage, with The Garment and Helmstedt sending elaborately ruffled and beaded triangle bikinis down the runway.