Whenever a brand is inducted into the Copenhagen Fashion Week One to Watch scheme, I pay attention. Not because they’re seeing a huge sales uplift (they’re usually pretty small), but because, more often than not, they offer a fresh take on making clothes. Sophisticated womenswear label Studio Constance will make its Copenhagen debut on Tuesday via the program, bringing its slower approach to fashion to the flocks of press and buyers hitting the Danish capital.
The brand was launched as a side hustle in 2019 by Swedish designer Rebecca Dovenryd Almberg. After 10 years designing for brands, Dovenryd Almberg decided to experiment on her own, knitting sweaters from reused yarn. She was living in LA at the time, designing knitwear for Proenza Schouler, but returned to her native Sweden following the pandemic to work freelance for Scandi names like Acne Studios and Toteme.
Away from LA’s balmy climate is where the business began to take shape, and where the designer would wear her pieces out and about. “That is where the company grew roots. On the streets of Stockholm, people took an interest,” she says. “They would come up to me and ask, ‘Where can I buy this?’ and we started to get orders quite quickly.” She named it Studio Constance, after her grandmother, a keen seamstress and crocheter, who had long inspired her design career. But the brand remained on the sidelines until May 2025, when Dovenryd Almberg was asked to show at the newly relaunched Stockholm Fashion Week. By then, the vision was clear: eschew trends through upcycled pieces made from the previous season’s unsold inventory.
The designer is in Paris when we speak on Zoom, one week out from the brand’s Fall/Winter 2026 show. It’s the start of the sales season and things are going well so far. “The feedback has been very positive,” she says. The brand is built on refined knitwear, separates, denim and outerwear that’s simple with a twist, like contrasting shearling trims on leather, or oversized cuts. “We’re not at the price point of Prada or Phoebe Philo, but we want to give out the look or the strength of that type of brand, with a more approachable price.” Prices range from €180 for a simple knit vest, to €2,890 for a long shearling-trimmed coat.
Up until last season, the brand relied entirely on its direct-to-consumer (DTC) channel, before opening up wholesale for SS26 and securing Palm Springs concept store Comma as a stockist. Revenues in 2025 were below six figures, but Dovenryd Almberg hopes to reach that this year by scaling both DTC and wholesale. To help achieve this, she is starting work with US-based sales agency Plus Plus Showroom, to participate in showrooms across London, New York and Paris.
Low-waste sampling
Studio Constance uses 100% natural or recycled materials, as is a requirement for all CPHFW brands, working mostly with recycled yarns or deadstock fabrics.
“Thanks to my background in the industry, I have strong relationships with factories that I know are capable or want to support us to do this. So we have an Italian supplier that has a big capacity to work with deadstock fabric, and they allow us to produce small quantities, for example,” Dovenryd Almberg says. “If we have an inspiration for what fabric we want, we don’t develop that new. We ask the factories to find something similar from their deadstock library, and we pick that instead.”
This often requires compromising on design. For FW26, Dovenryd Almberg wanted to implement tailoring for the first time, but when the deadstock cotton arrived, it wasn’t quite what she’d envisioned color-wise and there was a different weight to the fabric. “We ended up using something else, but it still turned out beautifully,” she says. “Working with deadstock, there’s a risk that you take. Sometimes you think, ‘Oh my God, what is this going to be?’ but then you see it. It could be horrible, but most of the time — thanks to our supplier — it’s great, because they understand what we want.”
Aside from the low-waste benefits, this approach helps the business financially, too. Some factories have bigger order minimums, so Dovenryd Almberg will place the minimum order and use any leftover fabrics or garments the following season — reworking them, recycling them and designing something new. “We don’t end up with stock that we can’t sell, ever,” she says. “More companies could work this way. But it’s difficult when you grow, there’s not a lot of people involved right now; it’s mainly me, so I can make those decisions.” Studio Constance also isn’t trend-led, so each collection is a graduation from the last, she adds.
Copenhagen and the international stage
On the topic of growth, Studio Constance’s biggest challenge is financial. “It is super difficult, but with my background and my personality, it’s a fun challenge,” Dovenryd Almberg says. But putting together the right team has helped sow the seeds. “You need to find the right people to work with you, you need someone that believes in you and your brand, and that you get along with. I’ve been super lucky and fortunate to have found so many great people along the way.” The team comprises two full-time employees (production and design) and six freelance consultants across PR, sales and business development. She also works with WAT Agency design studio in Paris.
Dovenryd Almberg is hoping the Copenhagen Fashion Week show will drum up more brand awareness and boost the DTC business, while placing Studio Constance on buyers’ radars. For the show, Studio Constance has tapped stylist Gabrielle Marceca, who worked on Khaite in its early years, to translate the vision and “bring a more international vibe to the brand”, she says. “We love Scandinavian style. I mean, that’s still our core, but also it’s nice and fresh to come in with another angle.”
Copenhagen Fashion Week is the “perfect foundation” for this show, Dovenryd Almberg says, particularly in its 20th-anniversary year, which will draw a lot of eyeballs to its next two editions. Studio Constance will also continue to present during Stockholm Fashion Week. “As a Swedish brand, we should support Stockholm Fashion Week,” she says. “It’s exciting that it’s coming back. The [organizers] are really trying, and I think as a brand we should be there for that as well.”
While not necessary for a more minimal, wearable label, runway shows are important to demonstrate to consumers, press and buyers how the pieces exist within a full look. “The show was a way to express the bigger picture — the mood, the woman, the emotion and the lifestyle behind the clothes themselves,” she says. “Today, it’s important to show the investment into buying a garment is worth it. People today want cost per wear.”
As she aims for scale, Dovenryd Almberg is trying to build her business on her terms, before seeking outside investment firepower. “We’re really setting the requirements, and later we can bring in investment,” she says. “I don’t see this as a trend brand that will boom and then go away — it’s for the long term.”
