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There is a point in the ‘If You See What I See’ exhibition in the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg, northern Denmark, where you land in front of what at first looks like several blown-up photographs of children sleeping. Look closer, and you realise they are actually videos: you can see their bodies move with their breath, and eventually, some of them roll over, stretch or wake up. The caption tells you they are Ukrainian children who were deported to Russia (the work was produced by Kyiv-based artists Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk).
It’s a powerful artwork within an exhibition that explores challenging themes of separation, loneliness, hope and desire. But this exhibition wasn’t curated by an art historian; instead, it was put together by Danish fashion designer Stine Goya — better known for creating sculptural womenswear in dopamine-bright colours and prints. On Friday night, Goya hosted her Autumn/Winter 2025 show amid the artworks, rounding off this season’s Copenhagen Fashion Week (CPHFW).
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Hosting the event in Aalborg showed a certain flex: the 40 editors and friends of the brand that attended stayed on an extra day — the rest of the CPHFW shows wrapped on the Thursday — and took a four-hour train journey from the capital to Aalborg, some returning late that night.
“It’s quite unique to get the chance to have a show inside an exhibition, among artworks that you have chosen yourself within a theme that you have chosen, which you feel is relevant to you and to the world that we live in right now,” says Goya. “It felt very natural to bring people here [to Aalborg].”
Kunsten invited Goya to curate the exhibition around 18 months ago, and it opened to the public in November 2024. “We were thinking about how to approach our collection in new ways and how to encourage new perspectives,” said chief curator Caroline Nymark Zachariassen in a speech on Friday, ahead of the show. “Often, when you visit an art museum, you will see a very chronological hang of the permanent collection. We thought it could be fun to do it differently.”
The intimate show helped to cement Stine Goya’s status as a tentpole of CPHFW amid the latter’s ongoing evolution. “The collection was one of the strongest the designer has presented of late,” wrote Vogue Runway’s Laird Borrelli-Persson in her review. It was also an important storytelling opportunity: something Stine Goya shows are known for, but which the brand is leaning into even harder to drive awareness and build its world against the backdrop of a difficult market.
The business — which is privately owned by Goya and her husband Thomas Hertz, who is CEO (they have one minority shareholder) — reached over €16 million in turnover in 2023 but experienced some “setbacks” last year due to the market conditions, Hertz says, declining to give 2024 figures. In particular, the UK and US — traditionally two of its biggest markets outside of Denmark, which currently account for 13 per cent and 15 per cent of sales, respectively — have been challenging.
“Times are not easy at the moment,” says Hertz. “There’s uncertainty in general in the Western countries due to inflation and war. People are spending more on food and travelling, and products that make you look younger, and a little bit less on fashion. And then you have Trump, Brexit, the Suez Canal. We are really facing pressure on our margins, so it’s difficult to keep the growth. And it seems that everybody has too much stock, so there’s discounting on discounting, starting earlier and earlier.”
The importance of the show
Despite the challenges, Goya and Hertz remain calm and focused. There was no question of skipping fashion week this season, they say. “When you meet tough times financially, you have to consider where to cut and [cancelling a show would be] such an easy way to save money and also a lot of stress and work. Yet, if we stop telling stories, we don’t exist anymore. We are not relevant anymore,” says Hertz. “From that perspective, a show is extremely important.”
Goya has a track record of hosting shows that hold meaning for her personally. For SS24, she invited guests to come to the street where she and Hertz live in Copenhagen. “All the neighbours were hanging out of the windows,” recalls Hertz. “It was a way to bring people a bit closer to what it is to live in Copenhagen.” The season before, the show was held in the brand’s atelier, accompanied by portraits of its team. These smaller-scale, more intimate shows can have “huge impact”, Goya says.
She does not rule out a move to the Milan or Paris schedule at some point, following in the footsteps of other Scandi brands like Ganni and Cecilie Bahnsen, but for now, her sights remain set on Copenhagen. “We love to show where the brand was founded to the audience that comes from abroad,” she says. Hertz adds: “With the size we are, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to change. If we were opening new markets or stepping up substantially in volume, it could be relevant. But at the moment, I think it fits perfectly that we can support Copenhagen Fashion Week and show in our own backyard.”
Moving production closer to home
Like many brands, Stine Goya makes a proportion of its collections in Asia and has been hit by disruptions to shipping through the Suez Canal due to the threat of Houthi militant attacks. It also cannot transport goods via train through Russia amid the ongoing war with Ukraine. Meanwhile, it has internal targets to use air freight as little as possible for sustainability reasons.
All of this is reshaping its sourcing strategy. “We have always had production in Europe, but we also had a lot in Asia. Now, we have a new strategy to make more of our products [closer to home],” says Hertz. In the past, such a move was unrealistic given the much higher labour costs in Europe. “We think it might actually level out, which is new,” he says. “We couldn’t have done this a few years ago. But transportation costs are rising. And the delays are a huge problem.”
Sourcing closer to home opens up new possibilities. “It’s exciting for me as a designer because there is amazing workmanship in Europe, and I want to also build more quality into the collection,” says Goya. “Being closer to [how the product is made] is something I’m extremely excited about.”
Will this result in price rises for the consumer? “We are at a very good level with our products, but I think we can go slightly higher on some SKUs that can be a bit more special and work with qualities where people actually want to pay a little bit more,” says Hertz. “So I think we can definitely raise it a bit.”
Looking ahead
Next year will be 20 years since Goya founded the brand in 2006 — an impressive achievement given its private ownership. “It’s quite crazy. Twenty years!” she laughs.
The brand has stayed faithful to its DNA and distinctive design handwriting throughout nearly two decades. This year, it will double down even further, refocusing on its core ready-to-wear offer and putting less of a strategic emphasis on footwear and accessories. “Where two years ago we worked towards building a proper range of shoes and bags, at the moment we find it too difficult,” explains Hertz. “We’d rather focus on what is really working for us and then maybe bring it back at a later stage. The accessories that are working for us, we will keep on having, as well as some shoes — we’ve done these ballerinas that are really working nicely.”
The challenges in the UK and the US have prompted a rethink about which markets to target in 2025 and beyond. Stine Goya’s only store outside of Denmark (where it has three) is in London. “We’d been performing super well in the UK, and it has changed drastically since Brexit,” says Hertz. “It forces you to make some decisions. You have to find other ways to grow.” He notes that, while wholesale has struggled, Stine Goya’s DTC e-commerce channel is still strong in the UK; it has a bonded warehouse in the country, which means it does not have to pay customs duties on goods shipped from Denmark.
Nonetheless, Stine Goya plans to pivot some of its investment to smaller but faster-growing markets. “We have quite a nice turnover from all over the world. For example, in the Middle East, where we’ve put no attention, no investment or PR focus. In the next year, we will start focusing more on these areas,” says Goya.
Collaborations will continue to be a cornerstone of its awareness-growing strategy. Stine Goya will unveil a partnership in June linked to the Uefa European Women’s Championship, marking the first time the brand has ventured into the world of sport. It comes as more fashion and beauty brands lean into sport — and women’s sport in particular — as a way to tap into a wider audience. “It’s been quite a fun challenge for us,” says Goya, though she’s keeping the details firmly under wraps for now.
Did she think, when she founded the brand, that it would become what it is today? “I’ve always had a dream that I wanted to grow it big,” she says. “I didn’t want to have a little shop where I would be sewing in the back room, one piece at a time. I don’t know if I imagined that I would do it for 20 years, but I always knew that I would be making clothes. And when you found a company, you don’t get rid of it that easily. It’s like a family here.”
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