The Tamesis
“Maybe it has something to do with the unusually cold weather this week, but it feels a little less dramatic and a little over the top in a way,” Schiffman said. “These shows have a more intimate feel and are a great opportunity to really get to know the collections.”
Caroline Bille Brahe’s Caro Editions is staged as an intimate salon-style show at her husband Frederik’s Apollo Bar, where guests receive a glass of wine on arrival and a saxophonist performs live, making it feel like a party in an extension of the couple’s home.
Backstage after the Garment show, designer Charlotte Eskildsen hugged the models she selected from her Next Generation Friendship Group. “The people I cast for this show were all my friends’ kids,” she shared after the show. “It’s like a whole new team of 20-year-olds. I’m friends with their parents.”
This focus on community seems no coincidence, as a more volatile retail environment forces brands to double down on their direct-to-consumer (DTC) channels. “When it comes to DTC, our focus is on being more intentional with content, considering volume, and creating a clearer dialogue with our community through content, events and physical touchpoints,” Opéra Sport’s Stelter said. “Building your brand around people, rather than pressure or perfection, is especially important right now. Creating space for connection, collaboration and shared experiences feels like a meaningful way to move forward in an industry that can feel alienating or transactional.”
Coping with extreme weather
Escaping the biting cold and snow outside, designers seemed to anticipate the extreme weather in Copenhagen this fashion week, focusing on performance fabrics and footwear.
At MKDT, each model wore rubber-soled khaki wellies paired with jackets and silk slip dresses, which creative director Caroline Engelgaar said was both a nod to local lifestyle and a response to unpredictable climate change. Anne-Sofie Madsen takes winter footwear in a decidedly disruptive direction, teaming up with Ugg to launch a spiky, claw-like variation of her classic boot.
Meanwhile, at Holzweiler, the brand’s typical down and windbreaker outerwear has been paired with snow boots in collaboration with Norwegian high-tech performance brand Viking. “We come from a place with four distinct seasons, where nature and weather strongly influence what we wear,” Holzweiler said after the show. “We always say we were born out of necessity, and snow boots are a direct response to that.”
Embrace handcraftsmanship
Over the past two decades, Copenhagen has earned a reputation as the most responsible fashion week, setting minimum sustainability standards for all brands that take part in the event. This season, young designers are leaning into heavier knitwear, embracing ancient craftsmanship by working with local artisans to create sustainable wools while innovating in materials and forms.
Brunnhuber named her latest Stem collection “To Wool,” which reads as “thank you, like an ode to wool, but also like a verb ‘wool,'” she told me. fashion business. At the launch event, guests were encouraged to sit at a large central table and participate in a live knitting workshop, while models walked around the table showing off the new collection. Even the models’ eyelashes were made from recycled wool fibers. “I think what’s amazing about wool is that it has all these properties, some of which are explored through different techniques, but the collection is really led by a yarn that I’ve been developing for a few years, which I call elastic wool,” Brunnhuber said. According to Brunnhuber, the wool, which is “like stretchy yarn and has a super high twist,” is sourced from female shepherds in Denmark and then spun in local spinning mills.
