Copenhagen Fashion Week: Six things to note

“Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it’s unbelievably cold this week, but it feels a little less showy and over the top in a way,” says Shiffman. “The shows have felt more intimate and it's been a great opportunity to really actually take in the collections.”

Caroline Bille Brahe’s Caro Editions was staged as an intimate salon-style show at her husband Frederik’s Apollo Bar, with guests handed glasses of wine upon arrival and a live performance from a saxophonist in what felt like a party in an extension of the couple’s home.

Backstage after The Garment’s show, designer Charlotte Eskildsen hugged models that she’d cast from the next generation of her own friendship group. “It’s all my friends’ children really, that I have cast for this show,” 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 seemed like no coincidence, as the more volatile retail climate forces brands to double down on their direct-to-consumer (DTC) channels. “On the DTC side, we’re focusing on being more intentional with drops, keeping volumes considered, and creating a clearer dialog with our community through content, events, and physical touchpoints,” says OpéraSport’s Stelter. “Right now, it feels especially important to build brands around people rather than pressure or perfection. Creating spaces for connection, collaboration, and shared experiences feels like a meaningful way to move forward in an industry that can otherwise feel distant or transactional.”

Extreme weather-ready

Sheltered from the biting cold and snow outside, it was as if designers had foreseen the extreme weather that hit Copenhagen this fashion week, with a focus on performance fabrications and footwear.

At MKDT, every model was clad in rubber-soled khaki wellies, paired with both outerwear looks and silky slip dresses, in what creative director Caroline Engelgaar said was as much a homage to the local lifestyle as it was a reaction to the unpredictability of climate change. Anne-Sofie Madsen took winter footwear in a distinctly subversive direction, collaborating with Ugg on spiky, clawed variations of its classic boot.

Meanwhile, at Holzweiler, the puffer jacket and the anorak outerwear typical to the brand were paired with snowboots in a tie-up with Norwegian high-tech, performance brand Viking.“We come from a place with four clear seasons, where nature and weather strongly influence how we dress,” Holzweiler said after the show. “We often say that we are born from a need, and the snow boots are a very direct response to that.”

Embracing artisanal craft

Over the last two decades, Copenhagen has carved out a reputation as the most responsible fashion week, with its minimum sustainability standards set for all brands showing on-schedule. This season, younger designers leant into heavy knitwear pieces, embracing ancient crafts by collaborating with local artisans to create sustainable wools, alongside innovating with materials and form.

Brunnhuber titled her latest Stem collection To Wool, intended to be read both as “a thank you, like an ode to wool, but also like a verb ‘to wool’,” she told Vogue Business. At the presentation, guests were encouraged to sit at a large central table and participate in a live weaving workshop, as models walked around it showcasing the new collection. Even models’ eyelashes were made from recycled wool fibers. “What I think is so amazing about wool is that it has all these characteristics, some of which are explored through different techniques, but this collection is really led by a yarn that I’ve been developing for a few years now, which I’ve called elastic wool,” Brunnhuber said. The wool, which “behaves like a stretchy yarn, and is super high twist”, according to Brunnhuber, was sourced from a Danish female shepherd, before being spun on a local spinning mill.