Copenhagen Fashion Week will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year. To prepare for the celebrations, it is beyond Denmark and has started to welcome a number of Nordic talents from Iceland, Finland, Sweden and Norway.
The spring edition 2026, which was wrapped on Friday, was larger than ever with 45 established and new brands that were displayed on the schedule, including Cecilie Bahnsen, change, tree and rave, ranra, Anne Sofie Madsen, Freya Dalsjo and Rave Review.
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Other talents such as Madsen celebrated a comeback.
“Anne Sofie has held a long -standing business for many years that was shown in Paris and Tokyo before making the decision to close the label. Her entry into the CPHFW Newtalent Scheme shows a valuable perspective that it does not meet young people.
Cecilie Thorsmark, Chief Executive Officer of the Copenhagen Fashion Week, said that the focus of the showcase is on the community – how we have to play a fashion week as a platform for building bridges and presenting the diverse role that fashion can play on the wider landscape. It is an incredibly hard climate for brands on a global level and the brands.
Cecilie Bahnsen, one of the commercial and creative successes of the city that has transplanted in Paris, returned a special unique show for the 10th anniversary.
The designer visited her archives as a starting point for her show.
“The past and the present became a creative collage in which each piece was reinterpreted or redesigned. This season was about freedom and most of the clothes are individual supplies, which enabled us to design with a total instinct,” said Bahnsen.
She worked with a color palette of white and silver for her finely female dresses, a Björk daughter, artist ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney, wore to open the show.
On the runway, Bahnsen slowly builds the blocks for their business by opening her first shop in the city in a hidden courtyard.
“For a long time it was a dream for us to create a space in which the Universe of Cecilie Bahnsen can live closer to customers and bring closer. The intention was to support something increased but intimate, near home and near the people who supported us in the past 10 years.
The brand will present its collection in spring 2026 during the Paris Fashion Week in October.
Reaching an international clientele in Copenhagen in every designer is in mind.
Kristoffer Kongshaug from Forza Collective will take over his daring designs for Harvey Nichols Kuwait in September while he continues to develop his wholesale.
The designer, who previously held positions with Raf Simons, Christian Dior Couture, Balmain and Lanvin, was inspired by Annie Lennox, Grace Jones and Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman” for spring 2026 with slipdressing, pluck skirts, ties and cinema tailoring.
Turned, designed by Jeanette Madsen and Thora Valdimarsdottir, returned this season with an optimistic collection with light and flirting fabrics.
“We see special strength in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. [There’s] Remarkable growth in the Middle East, ”said Madsen.
“One of our most important advantages in today’s climate is that we have kept a sharp price. Like all fashion shops, we are not untouched by macro printing, including US tariffs, bankruptcies in retail and caution of the entire market,” added Valdimarsdottir.
Adapt fatigue
The Copenhagen Fashion Week has become synonymous with a certain type of tailoring: box -shaped, oversized blazer with wide leg pants that brush the floor, but this season the seamstress reached a saturation point. Each runway showed a dozen of the same look and asked the question: How many blazers do a woman need?
Skall Studio followed a refreshing approach with jackets and outerwear in the bouclé style, which can be worn without excitement.
The brand’s clear designs have led to steady growth because the industry is suspended.
Skall Studio stated that there was continuous growth, as in the 2024 annual report of the brand, in which the net profit of 3.6 million Danish crown or $ 562,000 in 2023 rose to 5.8 million Danish crown or 905,000.
“With a view to 2025, we see opportunities for further international growth. Our focus will be on expanding our presence in key markets and continuing to strengthen the brand awareness through strategic partnerships, our wholesale network, the e-commerce platform and the selection of new business,” said the brand.
Opérasport designer Awa Malina Stelter and Stephanie Gundelach also distanced themselves from bulky tailoring.
The designers were recently inspired by a trip to Seoul and published the pastel-colored urban landscapes of the city, the traditional Hanbok silhouettes and the Hibiskus flower for their spring collection excursion in 2026.
Opérassport Opera coats and dresses with resortwear dresses and swimsuits have found a loyal clientele in Scandinavia, the USA, South Korea and Japan.
“Last year we recorded an increase in DTC sales and continues to expand our retail network with a focus on selective, long-term wholesale partnerships,” said the brand.
At Stel, Astrid Andersen kept the practical styles of her label. She even showed pieces from previous collections.
“It is definitely a difficult time in this current climate to build a brand,” she said. “I think it is very important that we, as creative people and people, try to be patient. I think this is something our industry is missing. We always want to celebrate the pieces that you bought last time. It is not about replacing it from one season to the next. We undertake how the clothing is presented and want to show the consumer that what you have bought, still has the value.”
At Filippa K, consistency means to avoid difficult times, with a strong focus on wardrobes: trench coats, wrinkles and pin-striped suit.
“After a few difficult years, the business is on an upward way. In 2024 we recorded a positive trend with a sales increase of 3 percent by 3 percent – including growth of the sales of DTC channel by 8 percent,” said Marie Forssenius, CEO of the brand.
The Swedish company has made changes in the business, from reducing operating costs and optimizing logistics to the investment in technology and strengthening its management team.
A feeling of fun
The Copenhagen fashion week was not immune to the unpredictable weather forecasts in Europe. There was rain, sunshine and gray clouds, but the Danes did not let them dampen their crazy mood.
Caro Editions’ Caroline Bille Brahe invited the guests to meet them under the Knippelsbro Bridge, where she married her husband Frederik Bille Brahe, the man behind the Hotspots Atelier September of the city and the Apollo Bar, seven years ago.
She showed a collection of Pick ‘n’ Mix prints: Gingham, Polka Dots and Checks.
“I was super inspired when I was neatly designed at wedding guests or a little punk with beautiful silk dresses and sneakers, a reserved seamstress with head scarves and hats or almost naked tips [dresses]”Said the designer.
Caroline Bille Brahe worked with Mulberry to revise the brand’s vintage bags and add silk arches from the opposing food of the bags.
“I have a weakness for Mulberry; my mother had one of her pockets when I grew up and I loved her. This collaboration was a new undertaking for us and there will be more where we have the same kind of affinity,” she said.
Escape from the city
The Copenhagen Fashion Week also took a sheet from the Playbooks of London and Paris Fashion Week by taking guests outside the city’s changing room.
The tree and horse garden organized his show on a horse stable in the north of Copenhagen and the clothes were for a jockey or royal ascot participant with horse scarves, sloppy riding boots and blankets that are wrapped by leather straps and worn as bags.
The sustainable outer clothing located in Iceland has repeated its factory in a warehouse with its almost hundred -year -old patterns. There were live clothing repairs from members of the design team, and a Gore-Tex weather box brought the brand’s weatherproof jackets to the test.
The brand will bring a special capsule collection with a hero product for each decade next year.
CEO Helgi óskarsson said that the company has proven resilience in a challenging industry.
“We have seen two -digit growth in our most important international markets, including Denmark and Great Britain in the past five years. The continuous annual growth of Denmark was 19 percent and 41 percent in Great Britain. This growth is the result of our intentional expansion strategy,” he added.
The charm of materials
The jewelry designer Sophie Bille Brahe continues to find gold and diamonds in difficult times.
In 2024, the brand closed by 30 percent with its strongest sales of year ends and an increase in its DTC channel.
“Since Anne-Sofie Møller occurred as a CEO in 2019, the company’s turnover has increased by 400 percent and the number of employees in the same period,” said Bille Brahe.
“Last year we also had a strong focus on the US market and the opening of our boutique in the Madison Avenue,” she added.
This season, the designer wanted to tell the whole story of my designs with a collection of the “wish of completion,” she said.
Bille Brahe visited three of her favorite designs: The Escargot, The Fleur and The Amis – and then played with extravagant and minimalist touch with their dimensions. She also set a new design, the cosmos, with petals in pear -shaped diamonds.
Uniqlo took over a softer substance as diamonds and opened a soufflé house pop-up that is inspired by the autumn collection of soufflé cooking and let customers come to the soft yarn in the form of a hill.
“We move beyond traditional retail or campaign moments and create something more insistent. It is a sensory world that invites people to contact the product emotionally and not only visually,” said Simone van Starkenburg, Marketing and PR director at Uniqlo Europe.
“Uniqlos business is flourishing, especially in Europe, which has become one of our most important growth regions worldwide,” he added.
The brand will open nine new locations in Europe in autumn.
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