“Our furniture, aesthetics, the way we live, it’s really minimalistic, but the Danish fashion scene was never minimalistic,” says Charlotte Eskildsen, who is pushing things more in that direction with her brand The Garment. This season’s collection was a case in point. It was presented in Nicolai Kunsthal, a converted church with a white and bright interior, which she filled with Arne Jacobsen’s curvy Syver chairs and a few abstract white sculptures by Josefine Winding. While designing the collection, Eskildsen was thinking about the familiar—mid-century furniture— and the far away, specifically the Chandigarh Capitol Complex Le Corbusier designed in India. The designer said she wanted to carry elements of furniture making and its materials over into fashion, but that didn’t come across visually. The collection read like an offering of wardrobe staples, and was played very safe, which doesn’t mean there wasn’t lots to like.
Looks 19 and 25, both centered around miniskirts, one paired with a puffer, the other part of a skirt suit, mirrored what we’re seeing women wearing in the streets here. Menswear is an Eskildsen staple, and the designer twisted it to advantageous effect in two ensembles featuring white pants, which were unexpectedly paired with pieces in rust and a rich navy. There was an overabundance of ideas at work in this collection. The pieces that followed hand and heart stood out. Those included a velvet look, faux-fur floor-length sleeveless sheath and the final wedding dress, a fluffier white version of the same. Hats are a hot topic at CPHFW this season, but Eskildsen’s did not follow trends; instead they paid homage to her milliner grandmother—a lovely touch.
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