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These days, fashion is entertainment for the masses, a fact that’s reflected in the growing affordable luxury and premium high-street markets. For Danish fashion, this is the industry’s core segment (and where it makes its buck—last year’s fashion exports were up 8.7 percent on the previous year). Day two of the Copenhagen shows was dominated by the heavyweights in this category who produce wearable, trend-aware pieces that will slot directly into women’s present wardrobes.
“We’re not born into fashion; we come from a much more architectural background. Danes are casual and we dress comfortably. We bike a lot and we spend our money on homes and not on clothing. I guess that’s what gives our clothes that kind of effortless air,” noted Charlotte Eskildsen of Designers Remix, who showed at an indoor go-kart track in one of Carlsberg’s old depots. Her minimal, futurist codes were softened by a retro Charlie’s Angels twang, set off by a yearning for positivity and her “ugly family pictures” from the ’70s.
Designers here are riding the feel-good ’70s wave that has been set in motion by the likes of Saint Laurent, Céline, and Louis Vuitton. For Baum und Pferdgarten, it was the golden age of Yves in Marrakech, his Majorelle blue, and the city’s burnt tobacco hues that beckoned. The designers translated North African rugs into graphic prints and bouclé with frayed edges, and in a Burberry Prorsum vein, they sent out their fluffy lace skirts and tops to a live guitar soundtrack.
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By Malene Birger is a major Danish player, and this season saw creative director Christina Exsteen introduce a more mannish, slouchy vibe into the collection with roomy tailoring. A languid mood also played out at Bruuns Bazaar, whose contemporary essentials were layered with wispy chiffon hemlines contrasted by fluffy glitter knits, and it was felt at Ganni, too, in their take on deshabille languor.
Tucked in among the bigger brands was Freya Dalsjö, a young designer who studied at Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts. She screened a film that offered a close-up of her texture-focused work and tactile fur pieces. Seen from behind, fur coats spliced from mink, leather, Mongolian lamb, and broadtail revealed pleated backs nipped in by stylized bulldog clips. Her models wore translucent necklaces reminiscent of garden hoses wound around their necks by Danish jewelry designer Christine Bukkehave.
Backstage, Dalsjö said she enjoys the challenge of being a young designer in a high-street-focused industry. Looking at the Danish fashion industry as a whole, you can’t help but notice that it’s missing the kinds of platforms for young designers of the kind that London and New York have. There are several high-street giants here (who don’t show at Copenhagen fashion week) that could easily do a Topshop NewGen setup for the graduates of the country’s design schools.
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