Nordic designers are best at effortless, airy minimalism: Their approach is elegantly straightforward—not stark—yet still lively. This season, Copenhagen Fashion Week attracted much attention due to the plethora of emerging brands showing their collections, with motifs of these offerings ranging from sexy knitwear, body positivity, and sustainability to the emerging aesthetics of Scandinavian maximalism.
The Royal Danish Academy
The Royal Danish Academy, one of Scandinavia’s most esteemed art institutions, has produced some notable names in product design and architecture, with the likes of Brge Mogensen and Kaare Klin as their Alumni. The fashion generation of this year demonstrated that such a legacy also applies to dressmaking. There were a variety of different narratives on display from the 16 students that displayed their work as part of the graduate exhibition: Last Pieces, with “diversity, inclusivity, and sustainability” among the prevalent themes. These original perspectives are based on an idealistic worldview that is manifested in one-of-a-kind, limited-edition collections that reject the idea of mass production and advocate durability and the genuine love of clothing instead.
Rikke Krogsgaard Mikkelsen worked with historical allusions to the feminine form within contemporary shapewear as he introduced the show. The normally sleek shapes were broken up by corsets and bustles, which revealed a fresh interpretation of the form-fitting norms. Amorphia, a group of six sculptures by Jeppe Juel, was an optical journey that explored the concept of “clothes as an extension of the body, physically and metaphorically, a second skin to our own.” Cengiz Güdücü created a tribute to loving oneself as the longline silhouettes explored “the limbo between art and fashion, that I find myself in,” revealing the intricacies of his Kurdish roots.
Baum und Pferdgarten
Outside of their new Copenhagen store, Helle Hestehave and Rikke Baumgarten unveiled their spring collection. The show’s unforgettable opening outfit, a purple leather jacket layered over a small coat dress referencing 80’s maximalism, was undoubtedly a standout. While there were some prints in the collection, the concentration was predominantly rich colour, proposing a striking buoyancy and a certain air of sartorial optimism.
Ganni
Run by Ditte Reffsstrup and Founder Nicolaj Reffstrup, Ganni has grown tremendously with its Scandi 2.0 style approach. While Ganni has always been recognized for its patterns, for SS 2023 the duo proposed heavily blocked colours. reflecting the dopamine-dressing trend we’ve seen in previous seasons on the streets of Copenhagen. To convey the Danish capital’s summertime excitement, a theme of waves, modelled by the line that appears on heart monitors to depict our collective heartbeats punctuated the runway.
Roege Hove
Copenhagen Fashion Week welcomes an up-and-coming designer every season for the unofficial spotlight segment, which gives them the opportunity to make their premiere as a part of the show. This special occasion belonged to Amalie Roege Hove’s for SS23. A. Roege Hove’s display validated all the enthusiasm surrounding the company, which has five collections under its belt and a devoted following that appreciates the brand’s distinctive ribbed knitwear.
A.Roege Hove’s conceptual effortlessly casual yet opulent knitwear was on full display this season, pushing perceptions of shape with the designer’s distinctly intuitive and experimental approach to working with classic knitwear. Airy and silky translucent chiffon was juxtaposed with skin-baring knit co-ords and slinky rope motifs throughout to create a collection that perfectly embodies the future of Scandinavian style.
Jade Cropper
Although Jade Cropper is one of the younger designers on the CPHFW roster, she was undeniably one of the most talked about throughout the event. Founded in 2020, the creative label gained traction on social media with celebrity fans like Madison Beer after being selected for Swedish Fashion Talents. As part of the sustainability-focused mission of CPHFW, Cropper partnered with Circulose to create her SS23 collection. Models wore cut-out knit separates, denim dresses, and more on a dust-covered runway in a shopping mall parking lot.
Tala is an Editorial Intern at Liminul. She’s a creative writer/director, graphic designer, and event coordinated based in Toronto. Tala is a third year student majoring in Fashion Communications at X University.