To the background of pouring rain and AI-generated music, Copenhagen Fashion Week (CPHFW) rewrote the fashion industry by proving that sustainability can be a non-negotiable as long as you make it one.
As of CPHFW AW23, which took place from 21 January to 3 February 2023, all show schedule applicants have to meet 18 minimum sustainability requirements to be considered for the official show schedule. These requirements span 6 focus areas: strategic direction, design, smart material choices, labour and working conditions, consumer engagement, and show production.
As the CEO of CPHFW Cecile Thorsmark said, “Sustainability is the core tenet to our vision of Copenhagen Fashion Week as a forward thinking representation of Nordic talent to our global community”.
31 brands participated in the CPHFW SS24 show, with three “NEW TALENTS” joining Scandinavian favourites like Ganni, Marimekko, and more. Here are the ones to watch:
A. ROEGE HOVE
Having the honour to open this season’s Copenhagen Fashion Week was A. Roege Hoeve, a conceptual knitwear brand challenging traditions with textiles that twist, layer and hold into sculptural art. Just in May, the young brand was awarded Woolmark’s Karl Lagerfeld Award for Innovation – one of the oldest global awards for emerging talents.
As the founder Amalie Røge Hove noted, “showing boobs and being naked” seemed to be what people thought the brand was all about, but she calls that a misunderstanding. Sheer and ribbed pieces have indeed become an eye-catching signature, but she has been able to push the potential of textiles time and time again – proving that craftsmanship and innovation prevade.
Last season, the designer introduced wool to the collection alongside her typical combination of polyester and nylon (therefore winning the aforementioned Award). This time around, she added Circulose—a material made from 100% textile waste— and conjured it into a gridded crop top, an off-the-shoulder dress, and a pleated midi skirt.
Paulina Russo
Paulina Russo merges futurism and nostalgia through modernised craft of knitwear, natural dyeing and wood carving. This season, the Zalando Visionary Award winners presented the “MONOLITHICS” collection with models donning “warrior” makeup on the metallic runway. As the founder Paulina Russo said, “We’re always taking something that feels folkloric, but then putting it into a futuristic context and finding that kind of tension”.
In brighter colourways than season’s past, neolithic motifs are showcases on familiar silhouettes like the crossover knit top, along with a mix of jersey bermudas, tank tops, leotards, semi-sheer dresses. With sustainability in mind, the brand harnesses denim from a sustainable denim laundry based in Porto. Going back to the ethos of modernising craftsmanship, they take time to work hand-in-hand with the makers in factories.
Nicklas Skovgaard
Bringing the theatrics to CPHFW SS24 is Nickas Skovgaard and his eponymous brand, which showcased designs through a performance by Dutch performance artist Brit Liberg. The artist struts into frame and strips off her grey coat, before disappearing behind black curtains. As the electronic piano sounds, the black curtains are pulled back to reveal mannequins across the space wearing Skovgaard’s designs. Liberg ‘dresses up’ in various outfits, poses for people’s cameras and mimics the mannequins with an air of confidence and provocation.
Skovgaard’s textiles are created though weaving, which he taught himself after stumbling across a small loom and swatches of his own fabrics. When working with looms, he tries to minimise waste by using the exact amount needed for each piece and only produces to order. Using interesting fabrications, Skovgaard continues to display his love for dramatic silhouettes with a white dress that spread out like wings, a white lace gown that balloons from the hip and other designs that match Lidber’s glam eccentricity.
Latimmier
The CPHFW New Talent brand Latimmier explores how masculinity is expressed with a design story rooted in the queer legacy of ballroom. Dissecting traditionally “masculine” silhouettes and reinterpreting them with a contemporary approach, the brand questions “who can perform masculinity and what clothing can be used to do that”. Founder and creative director Erwin Latimier opened and closed the show in drag, so to be accurate, it was Aana Conda on the runway.
This season, the brand used The Wolf of Wall Street and other “archetypes of men in power in North American films and television” as reference to reconstruct how power and status is displayed through clothing. Taking the literal approach, ballpoint pens become accessories along collars, and grey trousers are shredded, leaving long tassels to swing and dangle to the model’s steps.
Stamm
Elisabet Stamm’s founded Stamm in 2021 and was soon awarded the ZSA Zalando Sustainability Award upon its debut FW23 runway during CPHFW. The brand makes use of naturally processed Indian fabrics and recycled man-made ones – think organic cotton T-shirt and pants dyed with Arjun tree bark and shells from yellow pomegranates in Gujarat, western India.
On Instagram, Stamm shared, “Sustainability is not only garments and processes – it is in my opinion almost as a natural law, that if we work in conscious mind scape and if we work on keeping sustainable relations then it’s a given that the rest will follow”.
In her formative years, the designer found solace in hip-hop music by Tupac, Aaliyah, Snoop Dogg, and Eminem. Reflected in this season’s collection is that love for the music genre, as seen from neon-coloured windbreakers, to baggy joggers, to the soundtrack arranged specifically for the event by the Paris-based producer Prince.
Rolf Ekroth
Rolf Ekroth and his young namesake brand joins as a New Talent to CPFW, bringing peppy gender-neutral utilitarian outfits inspired by rural Scandinavian farmwear. The Finnish-Swedish designer walked quite the winding path before arriving at this runway debut. He first studied social work, before transitioning to sales, then becoming a professional poker player, until finally finding fashion as per a friend’s suggestion. Even while producing the collection, the investment company he worked with declared bankruptcy, but that didn’t deter the collection’s success.
Staying true to his design lexicon, sport and outdoor references were a plenty this season with sleeping bag pieces, rope-net overlain on suits and dresses, and jumpsuit-esque printed skirts. Floras were a recurring motif, be it pink and printed on matching sets or threaded into the net overlay, blooming in exuberance.
P.L.N.
P.L.N. is on a quest to explore visual expression with a design language that blends European punk culture, workwear, Goth and antique religious attire. In previous collections, that has notably looked like braids extending from eyelids, black patchwork jeans, and leather tassels on hoodie sleeves. Helmed by Peter Lundvald Nielsen, the brand is one of the three recipients of CPHFW NEWTALENT.
In Collection III, experimental futurism is put at the forefront with models wearing black mouthguards, nose pads, knee pads made of black tights and arms bandaged in white, black and nude fabric. Introducing colour to the brand’s monochromatic universe, the pink hooded skirt and padded purple hoodie stand out among a collection of silver metallic, black and white pieces.
Editor
Karrie LamCredit
Lead Image: Vogue Runway
