Change is in the air at Copenhagen Fashion Week SS24

Maybe it's the nonstop wind or the impossible-to-predict weather, but there is definitely an air of change at Copenhagen Fashion Week. The four days of shows (one more than usual) highlighted what we have already seen in the last period: the Scandinavian minimalism so dear in those latitudes is slowly giving way to the new. A new one that has many names, some better known than others. After last season's debut, for example, P.L.N. reconfirmed itself as one of the most exciting realities of the Danish scene by veering, after an initial collection with commercial appeal, toward a show with more conceptual nuances that do not, however, betray the spirit of the brand (which in the meantime is collaborating with Travis Scott).

P.L.N.

Vain

The same can be said of Vain, a Finnish brand that rose to fame a few months ago thanks to its collaboration with McDonald's and arrived in Copenhagen for its first proper show. For the occasion, creative director Jimi Vain has created a collection, dubbed Social Avoidance, that is meant to be a direct reflection of today's society, amid pandemics and economic uncertainties. Also among the surprises is Stamm, a brand that won last year's Zalando Sustainability Award in which designer Elisabet Stamm's vision combines the worlds of hip-hop and sports, exaggerated fits colorful prints for a collection that has Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 2Pac, and the MTV Generation as its cornerstones. If the debut collection had not been among the most convincing, this time Stamm has overturned expectations by showing, among other things, that he knows how to imagine a different woman from the one we are used to seeing on Danish runways.

Stamm

Paolina Russo

So did Paolina Russo. Winner of the Zalando Visionary Award and a finalist for the LVMH Prize, Alex Russo and Lucile Guilmard's brand brought to the runway a collection that looked like it came from a scene from Avatar or a remote planet born from the imagination of the two designers. Staying with the science fiction theme, Deadwood evoked the beauty of costumes from Dune and Mad Max: Fury Road without being ashamed of its inordinate passion for Rick Owens. While fashion made up of subcultures and new suggestions seems destined to find more and more space in Copenhagen, more traditional fashion continues to take center stage with its biggest names. Remain, Skall Studio, Saks Potts and Operà Sport continue to be the standard-bearers of Scandinavian style, which also registers, however, the rise of two names to mark in the notebook: A. Roege Hove and Mark Kenly Domino Tan.

Deadwood

A. Roege Hove

Of the former, there is now little to say, except how much Amalie Røge Hove reconfirms herself once again as a master of the material, capable of changing the shape of her creations, experimenting without ever losing sight of the identity of her brand (and I assure you that seeing her creations up close has a whole other effect). After a change of designer instead, Mark Kenly Domino Tan reappeared on the CPHFW runways with a collection full of cues and surprises in which, although womenswear is the absolute protagonist, there is no shortage of some noteworthy men's looks in which we can see the designer's willingness to not just adapt a vision already present to a men's collection but to create one from scratch capable of interacting with the spirit of the brand.

Sunflower

Mark Kenly Domino Tan

Ganni

The presence of menswear on the catwalk is another of the central themes of this process of change in Danish fashion, which also thanks to brands such as Sunflower (protagonist of one of the best shows and most solid collections of Fashion Week) is discovering a passion for men's fashion that until now has remained dormant. A passion that when it is not manifested on the catwalk does so through new ways that focus on the value of community, whether it is through parties as in the case of (di)vision and Soulland, or pop-ups and special events, as with Heliot Emil, who returned to his hometown to inaugurate his new store that serves as the forerunner to a series of new openings. In short, something is changing at Copenhagen Fashion Week in a process that does not leave Ganni indifferent either. Bolstered by the presence of Paloma Elsesser at the opening of its show, the brand told a "grown-up" version of its Ganni Girl who, while keeping her more classic traits intact, is beginning to enter a new phase in her life. «Even the salespeople are changing,» a girl in one of the brand's stores tells me, «now you see a lot more tattooed guys working for Ganni than three years ago.» There is an air of newness in Denmark, and we can only be happy about it, ready to find out what direction tomorrow's Danish fashion will take.

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Change is in the air at Copenhagen Fashion Week SS24