These are the new talents that made a splash during the spring 2025 Copenhagen Fashion Week collections.
Yours Truly by Peter Jensen: Nobless Oblige
Copenhagen and Atlanta’s Peter Jensen received Denmark’s Statens Kunstfond, an art prize that comes with a lifelong stipend, in 2021. He’s one of the only fashion designers to have been so awarded, and not only did he choose to introduce his new line, Yours Truly by Peter Jensen, in the capital, but he also based his collection around King Christian IV, which was poignant considering recent events. “I’ve always loved Danish history, especially from the 1600s, and the regent was the biggest architect in Denmark; he built the stock exchange, Børsen, that just burned down,” the designer explained on a call.
Getting around to shows this week has required passing the building’s charred skeleton several times a day, so this is not a distant memory. But rather than mourn, Jensen was in a celebratory mood. He cast only models over-45 and they danced and made hay at his presentation. “I like the idea of people with knowledge and wisdom and a life behind them,” he explained. Several wore black dresses or coats with puffed sleeves; they’re related to 1500s attire and portraiture, though this kind of silhouette is similar to the one popularized by Cecilie Bahnsen.
While Jensen’s work can be pretty, it’s never straightforwardly so. A lovely sequined dress worn by The Cardigans’ Nina Persson is topped by a capelet made of wigs, which is unsettling. The trench capes are also hirsute and their sleeves are inverted. Something’s off, and that’s how the designer likes things. “People have always used the word ‘quirky’ about my things because they’re very naive and have a childish handwriting,” he said, yet the patternmaking is quite sophisticated. Yours Truly, he continued, is “art-slash-fashion, and focused on fabrics and based on sustainability; everything is locally produced in Denmark and in Atlanta.” Earth friendly these pieces may be, but the imagination behind them is unbound.
Scandinavian Academy of Fashion Design: Imaginations at Work
One of the most inspiring events of CPHFW was the Scandinavian Academy of Fashion and Design student presentation, and what made it so was that the students organized it themselves—with a small assist from Ann-Sofie Madsen (who took up teaching after putting a pause on her namesake label) and stylist Maya Paustian. Madsen explained that the school, founded in 1931 as Margrethe-Skolan, “is very much process; working with sketching two dimensionally and in 3D, and of course also working digitally; but it’s very much about the design process and the creation of garments.” In other words, there’s a lot of emphasis on making.
Reading the SAFD student statements was a different experience than at the Royal Danish Academy or the Swedish School of Textiles, which also showed during the week. Here, the references, in the main, were not to current events or identity but to books, fine art, and figures from history: Madame Bovary, Katharine Hepburn, and even Greek goddesses. An incredible brown velvet pannier jacket with photoprint inserts by Naja Hedelund Fleischer told the tragic love story of a general and a ballerina. That said, the menswear designers were strong across the board; Albert Hellberg Pedersen, for example, reconsidered military tropes in a purposely fantastical way so as to stand “in contrast to the uniform as a symbol of power.” There was something nostalgic about the designs of Victor Valentin Tschudi who used traditional techniques to make them.
Benedicte MacGregor’s silhouettes were narrow, an exception among women’s wear collections that largely embraced volume and femininity. Clara Sømod’s deconstructed bodice, which looked like it could have come from a painting by Edouard Degas, was paired with a draped skirt. Countering this romanticism, Sofie Tschenka secured a light chiffon dress with a sleek, weapon-like sculptural metal pin. A cozier take on fashion came from Thorunn Ragnasdottir whose felted pieces that looked like they had been dusted by snow.
Jade Cropper: Snake Charmer
Jade Cropper seemed to have won the jackpot when, soon after graduation from Beckman’s School of Design, she landed a slot on the Copenhagen Fashion Week schedule, and was commissioned by Kim Kardashian. Though her work was confident with a take-no-prisoners seductiveness, her design signatures had not quite gelled. It was a real delight, then, to feel that with her spring 2025 collection, Cropper has found a new way forward, and to sense that something had “clicked.” Like snakes, her inspiration for the season, she has shed past skins and is sliding smoothly in a direction of her own choosing.
There was great inventiveness in this collection of convertible garments. A red sequin skirt with a paper-bag waist is also a bag, and tubing is used on a belt bandeau with a pocket that can be manipulated to form undulating curves. Creating scale-like texture, but not replicating it, Cropper painstakingly patch-worked rectangles of brown leather together to create a skirt dress hybrid with a sophisticated rather than boho effect. Using hooks and eyes, a maxi dress can be transformed several ways, and there are reversible options in the lineup as well. The silhouettes remain close to the body, but the idea that you can control your own look, or destiny, is an expansive one.
Bonnetje: NSFW
Even in our casual age, a man’s suit and shirt remain symbolic. One of the things they represent is a “right” way of doing things. For many designers this is virtually an invitation for rebellion; this includes Anna Myntekær and Yoko Maja Hansen, who made a quiet showroom debut at Copenhagen Fashion Week last season. They’re back for spring 2025 as part of the week’s One to Watch initiative. Among those keeping their eyes on the brand are husband and wife power team Casper Sejersen and Rikke Wackerhausen who respectively photographed and styled the collection, which was made using upcycled and deconstructed blazers and shirts.
Myntekær and Hansen work in a similar vein to Ellen Hodakova Larsson, a Swede, who is an LVMH Prize finalist, though the Danes’ output is smaller and mostly focused on suiting, with a distinctive underlying eroticism. At their presentation models walked into an airport-like labyrinth. The designers said they were thinking about how clothes are worn, and packed, for travel. A briefcase clasp was used as a closure on a suit, and its handles appeared on shoes. The twisted and pulled pieces were a nice development which show that these two are fast tracking forward.
Birrot: International Relations
Founded six years ago by Yeongmin Kim and Seyoung Hong, Birrot marries the founders’ Korean heritage and clean-lined Scandi minimalism. Though their spring show featured simple silhouettes that carried a whiff of Camelot dressing, especially the looks featuring opera gloves, it was inspired by “Spread Silk on My Skin,” a ’90s song by the Korean band Sanullim. The material that many of the clothes were made in wasn’t that smooth fabric but a proprietary bonded crepe jersey they’ve developed, called lay, which comes in various thicknesses. Garments made of lay feature raw edges which are precision cut, by hand, by artisans in Seoul; the result is that the clothes lay flat, like paper-doll’s, when off the body.
In Birrot’s small, gallery-like store, models pushed through the densely packed crowd to stand against a wall hung with large prints of the somewhat lascivious campaign images. These were in dramatic contrast to the ladylike looks especially. Even so, it was the cast that stole the show. The 16 models were all Korean or had Korean roots and, the designers said, “represent Korean heritage across ages, generations, gender, and life stories, and showcase the often-overlooked diversity that Korea has.” It was beautiful to see.
Deadwood: Only Happy When It Rains?
Maybe the soundtrack should have included Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” because, against the odds, scrappy resilience rather than armor for dystopia was on display at Deadwood. Co-founders Felix von Bahder and Carl Ollson aren’t the jolliest of fellows when it comes to their aesthetic. At the show, models made their way over cobblestones set between yellow brick buildings in Copenhagen’s meatpacking district. This stark, utilitarian setting was a sort of stand-in for Kowloon Walled City, aka the City of Darkness, now reduced to rubble, in Hong Kong. “The last year has been a challenging one, both professionally and for me personally,” von Bahder messaged. “This place became the perfect metaphor for the mental quarters of which I had become an inhabitant…. I wanted to create a collection that is about navigating one’s way out of the darker alleyways of the mind.” He was abetted in that mission by the weather, a perfect blue-sky day.
The strongest looks in the collection were the most straightforward, like a military-inspired number that was soft rather than stiff, and men’s leather pants with laces or buckles from their hems to a few inches above the ankles. Then there was a raw-edged coat with red velcro closures; double denim, dark gray jeans with a center-front seam and a jacket made of the reverse side of the material; and a vintage Mickey Mouse T-shirt worn with a hoodie, cap, and sarong-style pants that folded over at the waist. It’s worth remembering that a tiny mouse can scare a gigantic elephant. The message, suggests von Bahder, is “using whatever is at your disposal to mend what’s broken, and to see beauty in everyday objects and use them to express oneself.”
Alectra Rothschild/Masculina: Happily Ever After
Alectra Rothshild’s banger of a show featured her club-crawling “Masculina dolls” vamping, bumping, and grinding en plein air on a perfect summer night in Copenhagen. The showmanship and energy were electrifying and dominated all conversations, but the deeper import of the show was the bringing into the light (literally and figurally) of a community that has often been in the shadows by choice or necessity. This is the third in a series of collections in which the designer has charted her transition. Last season’s rebirth evolved into this one’s “after” theme. “It’s a very romantic and hopeful collection,” Rothschild said. “It’s like you’ve come home and you’re still wearing your latex club dress, but then you throw a robe on top of it, this idea of dressing down and things coming off.”
A set made of scaffolding and the arrival of models on motorcycles was a bit Jean Paul Gaultier Mad Max, but in a pre-show interview the designer said her reference was Chicago’s Cell Block Tango. Showing as part of CPHFW NewTalent program, Rothschild used materials and techniques like latex, cutouts, corsets, and thongs; much seemed derived from fetish wear. Looks that had a broader appeal included a jacket of layered ruffles, feathers, and lace and a delicate halter dress made of strips of chiffon that wafted around the body like a kind of deconstructed bandage dress.
Sól Hansdóttir: Sewing Circles
“Antidisciplinary” is how London-based Icelandic designer Sól Hansdóttir has described her practice. True to form, her debut, which was supported by the CPHFW NewTalent scheme, felt more like a site-specific performance art piece than a fashion event, especially considering the clothes didn’t seem to be the top priority. Hansdóttir partnered with Superpool Architects on the set design, John-William Watson on choreography, and artist Ásta Fanney who wrote and performed what seemed to be a sound poem. Her voice sounded like the caws of seagulls, the barks of dogs, and unknown things, and cast a spell-like feeling over the collection. The spiral was the basis of the designer’s no-waste patterns; the garments may have been intricately constructed but there was both a feeling of folklore and dress up. Like a children’s story book of a medieval romance (note the caps with pointy “ears”). The idea, Hansdóttir said, was “opening my world and then inviting people to either agree or disagree with me or even just understand me.”
The designer works on a made-to-order basis and she is passionate about her craft. “I make everything by hand,” she explained. “Of course I have people working with me, but all the patterns and everything is sewn by me because I’m so hands-on… If I had multiple selves or more hands, I would love to absolutely create everything.” That passion was palpable, and best expressed in the draped jersey pieces and a linen corset jacket.
Stem: Pulling Strings
Stem designer Sarah Brunnhuber is a woman on a mission. She has already created biodegradable clothes with natural materials using no waste weaving techniques, but she’s not content to stop there; at the presentation of her spring 2025 collection the designer announced her next big project, bringing weaving back to Denmark by founding Stem Mill where she can produce for herself and others. Investors take notice.
In the meantime, her collection, which she titled Pulling in reference to the way you can manipulate fit and look by pulling at the warp or weft of a weave, was a delight. The hero piece was a woven rugby-style shirt. The chunkier weaves were familiar from last season’s collaboration with Ganni, but the fringed skirts, slightly rustic in feeling, were new. This line up was a convincing demonstration of the designer’s range and of the viability of Stem as a brand.
