Ganni’s Joyride Had Table Dancing, Karaoke, and an After-After-Party

One of the first things Ditte Reffstrup, Ganni’s creative director, told me when I first met her last spring was that Danes know how to party—and that the Ganni after-party is the highly anticipated after-hours affair of Copenhagen Fashion Week.

The Ganni “Joyride” kicked off after the SS23 show on Ofelia Plads, one of Copenhagen’s stunning waterfront piers. Friends of Ganni hopped aboard a riverboat for a not-your-average tour of Copenhagen, led by the hilarious duo Maj Mokaj and Proxy Server. We docked along one of Copenhagen’s colorful canals, lined by Danes relishing the late afternoon summer sun, and made our way into Copenhagen hotspot, Apollo Bar.

Local restaurateur and chef, Frederik Bille Brahe, had a feast waiting, centered around a sculpted artichoke tower, inside the vine-covered courtyard surrounded by the stone buildings of the Royal Arts Academy and gallery spaces full of contemporary art peering through the windows above. Brahe is a longtime friend of Reffstrup—the two bickered like siblings about precisely how long they’ve known each other. This isn’t the first time they have partnered on a dinner or party during CFW. They have been collaborators for many years—and Brahe’s wife, Caroline, even modeled in Ganni’s first runway show.

As the drinks started flowing a little faster and Reffstrup herself, alongside DJ Louise Chen, started spinning late 90s and early 2000s hits from the era’s leaders in music like JLo (J Affleck?) and Mary J. Blige, the vibe shifted. Models, stylists, and even the brilliant Ganni staff took center stage, table dancing in the courtyard and riling up the partygoers in a welcome and provocative way.

When the music outside turned down, things inside Apollo Bar turned up. Sweaty-but-cute friends and guests danced on benches against the walls and shuffled up and down the bar itself– accompanied by a gentleman in a full denim outfit by Ganni whipping a sunflower above his head to the unmistakable beat of Eminem’s timeless jam, “Without Me.”

For those of us who made it past 3 AM, the after-after-partygoers walked around the corner to Café Malmö, a below-ground level pub with red and white checkered tablecloths where you can smoke cigarettes inside. Under the full moon, beers flowed onto the street overlooking the water, and we foreigners tried to recall the taxi dispatch number.

Ganni girls in attendance—some on tables, some not—include models Richie Shazam, Sophia Roe, Erin Wasson, Edie-Rose Liberty, Ana Kras, Ganni president Louise Du Toit, Kwamie Liv, Anna Shaffer, and Emilie Lilja.