All the best of Copenhagen Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2023

In the whirlwind of Fashion Weeks that goes from Milan to Paris, finishing in London and then starting again, Copenhagen seems to have become the atoll of peace to which the fashion industry goes in search of a moment of normality. For years now, the Danish city's fashion week has become a valid alternative to its more emblazoned colleagues, capable of attracting both local insiders and press from the rest of the world. After the last edition, staged in August, Copenhagen has once again hosted the three days of shows and presentations, although without its summer feel, and adapting to the far from cozy winter weather made up of sporadic rays of sunshine and sudden, insistent storms. This is certainly nothing new for the city, which never before as in this edition seems to have channeled this duplicity into the shows, divided between the colorful and playful spirit that has become a CPHFW trademark and another, the darker and more subterranean spirit that seems to go hand in hand with a city that in the early afternoon already plummets in total darkness.

Opening the dances in this edition was Aeron, the Hungarian brand founded by Eszter Áron, at his second Danish outing after his debut a few months ago and once again reconfirmed as one of the most interesting realities among those of Copenhagen Fashion Week. This time, the reflection on shapewear previously made has been taken beyond the walls of the home, expanding the brand's concept into an "out of home" vision that does not, however, betray the spirit and vision of its founder. Speaking of certainties, Holzweiler was no different, putting on a show in which the pragmatic nature of the looks seen on the catwalk was the absolute protagonist, reconfirming the ambitions of one of the top names of the Danish fashion week. The same argument, but in a much more pop key, can be made for Ganni, which has now become the highlight of Fashion Week, capable of staging a show that is always faithful to the spirit of the brand: a club in which the search for design is secondary and the clothes are nothing more than the "dress code" of the perfect Ganni Girl. The show staged at the ARKEN Museum, saw the debut of the collaboration with BY VENEDA CARTER, the Danish stylist's brand also seen on the catwalk at Sakks Potts' show in the Tivoli theme park in front of more than a thousand people. 

OpéraSPORT, Lovechild 1979, and The Garment carried the reflection on womenswear in a Northern European sauce, made of minimalism raised to the maximum power that found its best form in the vision of Roe and Eskildsen. Among the confirmations, it is impossible not to mention (di)vision, masters of virality with a show omnipresent on social feeds all over the fashion world with a collection that once again underlined the brand's punk and rebellious spirit. STAMM, on the other hand, is the winner of the Zalando Sustainability Award, the prize assigned by the online retailer and long-standing partner of the CPHFW, choosing Elisabet Stamm's brand for its use of more sustainable materials, such as recycled goose down in its jackets and Indian Khadi, a traditional fabric made from hand-spun organic cotton. Tobias Birk Nielsen, on the other hand, took us into his conceptual universe through the gorpcore of ISO.POETISM in which collaboration with Kappa also found space. Remaining on the theme of pleasant surprises, an honorable mention must go to P.L.N., an eagerly awaited return after last August's show, which confirmed what creative director Peter Lundvald Nielsen had already shown us. He was able to use his past at Vetements and Balenciaga to create a collection with an apocalyptic spirit, baptized by the storm that hit the city during the show.

Last, but certainly not least, was the WOOD WOOD show, called to its relaunch as ambitious as it was promising through the vision of Dominic Huckbody and Cecilie Engberg, formerly of Burberry and Balenciaga respectively, who with Heaven Out Here put the first piece of what has everything in place to become one of the most interesting mosaics of Danish fashion. WOOD WOOD, as well as other names mentioned, is indeed one of those big names capable of bringing luster and attention to Copenhagen Fashion Week, thus offering the chance to those minor brands to find their stage in a reality in which the pressures of Paris and Milan seem to have definitely eased and, and designers seem to be at ease in creating the foundations to take Danish fashion beyond national borders. Season after season.