This was a season of emerging talents and new approaches to fashion showcases for Copenhagen Fashion Week, dubbed as the fifth main fashion capital in the world after New York, London, Milan, and Paris. Absent from the official spring-summer 2025 calendar, cult Scandi names (think Ganni, Stine Goya, and Saks Potts) sit out, taking time to rethink their show strategy and new paths of moving forward while the young creative talents take the spotlight, opting out for inventive presentation formats.
JEWELRY TAKES CENTRE STAGE
It’s a new trend: when fashion designers team up with local jewelry brands and integrate dazzling precious details into their collections. For instance, the Finnish emerging designer Rolf Ekroth, for his collection “Lavatanssit” (an ode to local open-air summer parties), joined forces with one of the oldest Finnish jewelry manufacturers, Kalevala, to bring his rose pattern into versatile 3D earrings that could be attached to t-shirts, dresses, and wherever your imagination takes you.
The fashion mastermind behind the Forza Collective brand, Kristoffer Kongshaug, for his third collection, created corsets in plated silver with deconstructed cups and chain straps in collaboration with jewelry duo Räthel & Wolf from Berlin. Rotate teamed up with the Danish jewelry Powerhouse Pandora to create ornamental maxi dresses featuring 2000 timeless silver tennis bracelets and belts, pins, and all kinds of fashion embellishments inspired by the brand’s signature peony and handcrafted from 300 gold-plated necklaces.
REINVENTING SHOW FORMATS
In times of economic downfall, staging a classic runway show can be an inaccessible luxury, especially for emerging brands who don’t have huge marketing budgets behind their back. So the young are coming up with new ideas to capture attention and present their fashion in the best possible way. For example, Nicklas Skovgaard took over the Bricks gallery space to produce another art performance in between a fashion show and a theatre play. Emilie Helmstedt presented her whimsical collection to buyers at the CIFF and organized one-to-one intimate appointments with editors at her studio, overlooking Christianshavns Kanal so that visitors could enter her playful universe, where art meets fashion. And Jade Cropper invited the audience to an intimate presentation at a garage at Papirøen lively area to show how versatile her collection is, where a jacket can become a bag and a dress a coat.
DRESSED IN WHITE
White was one of the main colors of the season, omnipresent on Copenhagen’s catwalks. The set at Munthe replicated the lace pattern but in XXL size, and the collection featured an array of clear white silhouettes in a variety of styles: shirt dresses, tunics, and statement skirts adorned with three-dimensional flower embroidery. Flower appliqués were also spotted at MKDT studio’s runway, where the show started with ivory 50s-inspired elegant looks. At Skull Studio, the designer duo made a bet on cream GOTS-certified denim and white bohemian shirts, skirts, and tops with lace encrustments. Inspired by Eva Jesse’s abstract artworks, the Lovechild 1979 collection featured cotton work uniforms in cream, white, and wheat hues. The Garment’s latest collection was inspired by the arts as well and put into spotlight white semi-transparent silk pyjamas, polo shirts, and a showstopper floating top, styled with contrasting black pants (brand’s designer Charlotte Eskildsen says she found this amazing fabric at flea markets in the South of France). Finally, Brazilian designer Joao Maraschin presented mindblowing eveningwear hand-crocheted in off-white macrame from recycled fish wire and industrial loom waste.
THE ULTIMATE COMEBACKS
This season has been rich in exciting comebacks. (di)vision is back on the calendar after a one-year hiatus with a bold showcase created in collaboration with beauty company The Ordinary. So is Swedish designer Jade Cropper, whose list of celebrity fans includes Kylie Jenner, Gigi Hadid, and Kim Kardashian. She organized an intimate presentation at a garage space, where models made their way to the center stage, walking on red sand. After closing down her namesake brand due to financial struggles last October, Amalie Røge Hove returned to the runway with her signature stretchy and sexy knitwear, a new investor, and a new business plan, staging a stunning show at the ÅBEN brewery.
This CPHFW also marked the comeback of Danish national icon Peter Jensen with a new brand of artist’s artist-inspired smocks, “Yours Truly.” The show was developed with his close collaborators, artist Julie Verhoeven and photographer Annie Collinge; the casting celebrated the notion of ageless beauty and included a surprise appearance of Jensen’s muse, The Cardigans’ lead singer Nina Persson.
A SEASON OF ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS
Absent from the show schedule, Saks Potts kicked off fashion week with a 10th-anniversary dinner. Later, the Skall sisters’ presented its 10th-anniversary collection full of signature feminine shapes and chic bohemian silhouettes inspired by British designer and style icon
Loulou de la Falaise, while the icon of Finnish fashion Marimekko honored 60 of their iconic Unikko print with head-turning patterns and a charming denim selection. The week went on with Munthe celebrating its 30th Birthday with a dinner party at Bar Amore and a show at Bella Center, where the elder step-sister of Gigi and Bella Hadid and activist Alana
Hadid made a surprise catwalk appearance.
THE NEW WAVE OF GERMAN DESIGNERS
For the 63rd edition of the Copenhagen International Fashion Fair (CIFF), German creative and brand consultant Julian Daynov was given carte-blanche to bring the best from his native country to Denmark. He made a selection of avant-garde fashion talents (some of them, such as International Citizen, Avenir, or Société Angélique, are well-known from Berlin Fashion Week), but also lifestyle, jewelry, design, and beauty brands, proving to the international crowd that German design is living a powerful renaissance moment, thanks to this new wave of creatives. Dubbed “Neudeutsch”,Julian’s choice included 33 brands and was a highlight of the busy Copenhagen Fashion Week.
STRIPED SHIRTS
We will be seeing more and more stripes next summer. This season, Baum und Pferdgarten are inspired by the world of sports and officewear with a twist, placing a bet on extra-large striped polos and office shirts with white or blue collars, styled with sequined midi-skirts or mini shorts. For his show held at Freetown Christiania, Danish legend Henrik Vibskov made a selection of striped polo shirts and dresses with eye-catching psychedelic color combinations. And Opéra Sport takes the trend to the next level with light blue silky poplin shirts with 90s-inspired stripe prints and matching bags.
THE 80S ARE BACK!
The over-the-top silhouettes, acid colors, and playful dressing from the 80s screaming “Fashion!” are back on the catwalks. Rotate’s spring-summer 2025 collection featured puffed skirts, balloon sleeves, and a bold pink hue, while Forza Collective’s selection was crafted in
energetic and vibrant shades of blue, green, and red and included showstopper embellishments in plated silver. This season, the Danish fashion darling Nicklas Skovgaard dedicated his collection to his mother’s style when she was in her thirties and played with acid sky blue, puff volumes, broad shoulder jackets, and high-cut aerobics one-pieces.
Martin Asbjørn for Remain focused on the superhero women and their uniforms for work and leisure time and built his collection around oversized tailored jackets and an 80s pop of colors.
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