Capri pants and ‘cautious optimism’: What you missed at Copenhagen Fashion Week

Sign up to receive the Vogue Business newsletter for the latest luxury news and insights, plus exclusive membership discounts. Pamela Anderson! Emily in Paris! Capri pants! Copenhagen Fashion Week draws to a close today, and despite fears the city might lose some of its shine in the absence of heavy hitters like Ganni and Stine Goya this season, premium megabrands like Pandora and Zalando picked up the slack, sponsoring CPHFW designers to stage impressive comebacks and debuts, while local labels like The Garment and Rotate rose to the occasion with stand-out shows. The star power was also in full force. Jewellery brand Pandora flew in a large flock of press and influencers for the week, including Anderson, UK singer Mahalia, French model Gabrielle Caunesil Pozzoli and Canadian 60-year-old style influencer Grece Ghanem, to attend a series of dinners and activations alongside CPHFW shows. Pandora also sponsored and collaborated with Rotate on several pieces for last night’s show (Anderson was in attendance). Elsewhere, Levi’s flew scores of influencers from across Europe to attend a Levi’s x Vogue Scandinavia dinner and party on Tuesday at the city’s Soho House. And ahead of season four of Emily in Paris, Netflix staged a themed dinner on Wednesday night in celebration, also in collaboration with Vogue Scandinavia, featuring a Q&A with the show’s star Lily Collins (who incidentally lives in Copenhagen). It made for a rich week, where Scandi designers learnt to adapt to the current climate and carve their own paths. Here’s the key takeaways from the week — from new retail models to trends to know. Presentations added new flavour CPHFW has always been skewed towards runway shows. But this season, organisers added presentations to the official schedule, and encouraged new ‘One To Watch’ designers like Stem and Bonnetje to start with presentations instead of launching into costly shows. Many designers, including rising star Nicklas Skovgaard, comeback kid Jade Cropper and newcomer Stel (by Astrid Andersen) also opted for a presentation format, to centre the touch and feel of the clothes (and for some, to keep costs down). “I want people to touch and feel the clothes for the first time, to understand the quality and how they’re made as well as see them on models,” Andersen says outside of the Stel presentation, which took place in The Krane, a one bedroom luxury hotel featuring a series of glass and metal rooms, stacked in the sky beneath a crane in the north of the city. That night, the space was transformed into a Stel rave, in collaboration with Dazed. “The presentations at CPHFW deserve special mention,” says Richard Johnson, chief commercial and sustainability officer at Mytheresa. “The immersive experiences crafted by the brands are truly remarkable, offering a deep dive into their unique identities. This approach feels particularly apt for Copenhagen, where smaller, emerging brands excel in storytelling and creating intimate connections with their audience.” The presentations this season typically took place in smaller, more cost-effective venues and showed tightly edited collections of five to 10 looks, making the process cheaper and easier for growing labels. “It’s really nice this season to see presentations on the schedule, so some brands that aren’t as economically comfortable can still put themselves out there,” says Allyson Shiffman, print editor of Vogue Scandinavia. “Copenhagen Fashion Week has done a good job of facilitating spaces for brands to do that without showing this season.” Nordic designers are in a ‘cautiously optimistic’ mood Nordic designers are not immune to the economic downturn and retail turbulence affecting the global fashion industry, says CPHFW CEO Cecilie Thorsmark. But the mood felt “cautiously optimistic” this season, adds Shiffman, partly due to a cohort of returning designers, including A Roege Hove, (Di)vision and Jade Cropper, who had each taken breaks due to economic challenges. “We are so delighted to see these brands returning to our schedule — they all have brought their own unique point of view and the reception that they have received for returning back to the schedule has been no less short of momentous,” says Thorsmark. “This season has really felt like new beginnings and [provided] some renewed energy that was very much needed. The mood is uplifting!” Upcycled contemporary label (Di)vision, which went viral in Autumn/Winter 2023 for its tablecloth-dress moment, returned to the schedule this season after a two-season hiatus “to find the roots of the brand again”, says founder Simon Wick. The Ordinary sponsored their comeback, in a heavily co-branded show that even featured co-branded tank tops and a chainmail dress made from The Ordinary labels. “The Ordinary was the best partner possible,” Wick says, “I love working with a powerhouse. And I think we managed to tell a strong story together.” As part of its Visionary Award, German retailer Zalando supported London-based designer Sinéad O’Dwyer with a €50,000 grant and production support to show on-schedule in Copenhagen this season, her largest show yet. It featured custom-built sculptures and star-studded inclusive casting from the likes of Mahalia, supermodel Alva Claire and blind TikTok star Lucy Edwards, who walked the runway with her guide dog Molly. Zalando flew out international names like US influencer Luka Sabbat, and UK models Deba Hekmat and Claire to attend the event. Brands are rethinking the wholesale model Copenhagen Fashion Week brands have long relied on wholesale for international growth. And while it remains an important channel — with buyers from Ssense, Neiman Marcus, Net-a-Porter and more, in attendance this season — some brands are eschewing the typical wholesale model to focus entirely on direct-to-consumer (DTC) and/or see-now-buy-now presentations and shows, amid the challenging multi-brand retail climate and as they continue to upcycle and produce in limited runs. Before its hiatus, (Di)vision was stocked at retailers like LN-CC and Ssense, but is now 100 per cent DTC, and the collection of upcycled hoodies, jorts, sports-inspired jackets and more was made available immediately post-show on the brand’s website. “The last few years have been tough for everyone, including me. So I decided to make a collection for the community,” says founder Wick. In practice, this meant producing upcycled, conceptual pieces that would never work for wholesale, like garments made from kids toys and cut-up The North Face jackets, alongside the brand’s signature wearable logo hoodies and bombers. “Working in wholesale I feel like I get too distanced from what’s actually going on and who buys my clothes… [Plus] almost everything is upcycled in our atelier, which is something that’s hard to do when you produce full-range collections for wholesale. I’ve been so happy about the feedback so far. I can already tell that it really works,” continues Wick. In future, (Di)vision might add a few “key accounts” for branding and positioning, but he doesn’t see it becoming a wholesale-reliant business again. Slow fashion, made-to-order label La Bagatelle held an exhibition on Tuesday, presenting a small selection of handwoven pieces and vintage textiles. The brand is 100 per cent DTC, and the collection was available to buy on the brand’s site straight after the event. “I think that is far more exciting,” says La Bagatelle founder Malene Malling. “Personally, I hate waiting, and so does my audience. As everything is tailor-made in Copenhagen, I can have everything sewn up in two weeks. When a customer orders something a tailor gets on it straight away. That way everything is made for my customers personally, which I think is a true luxury.” The brand has grown steadily year-on-year since its launch in 2021, the founder adds. “We have seen so many pivots this edition, which we only want to encourage brands to foster,” says Thorsmark. “This is the era of rethinking from the ground up, and also exploring what business models work best for the individual rather than following formulaic industry formats.” Capri pants to earthy textures: Trends to know Of course, Copenhagen will always have minimalism as a focal point, with many designers sticking to the programme this season through sophisticated tailoring and simplistic eveningwear from The Garment, Skall Studio and menswear label Berner Kühl; Mytheresa’s Johnson notes The Garment as a highlight, for championing an “ethereal aesthetic”. “This season, we observed several compelling trends. A notable shift towards lightness was evident, both in colour palettes and fabrications, with sheer, fluid materials and soft drapes in shades of cream, beige and pastels taking centre stage,” says Johnson. Capri pants were the hero item of CPHFW Spring/Summer 2025, both on and off the runway. It’s no surprise: in cyclist-heavy Copenhagen, it was only a matter of time until the pedal-pusher trend took off. Capri pants are a signature of buzzy knitwear brand A Roege Hove, which returned to the city to show this season after shuttering last October (due to unpaid retailer orders), though the style was also spotted at OpéraSport and Stel. We can expect the trend to continue through the Big Four in September: search for “capri pants” has surged 143 per cent over the past three months, according to Lyst. By contrast, there was an eclectic Y2K influx this season, from labels like (Di)vision and Stamm, coupled with Gen Z’s signature bold — and sometimes mismatched — styling codes. The former featured nostalgic motifs like Gogo toys, a gown made entirely out of fluffy animals, and moto jackets. The latter? Slogan T-shirts, yin-yang symbols, and cartoony Japanese writing across slouchy thigh-high boots. O’Dwyer also brought an injection of eclecticism, with her signature mesh knitwear in shades of brown, yellow, pink and the now-ubiquitous Brat green (the designer assures the colour was actually chosen prior to the ‘Brat’ album release in June). Finally, as we saw throughout the men’s SS25 season, designers are preoccupied with the outdoors, giving rise to earthy colour palettes — from fully neutral looks to khaki, terracotta and tan. Rotate swapped its usual sequins for floral embroideries in neutral tones. Mark Kenly Domino Tan held an all-white, cream and neutral show, featuring artisanal textures, where models carried hay fashioned into handbags. There were camouflage and earthy patterns at Deadwood, patchwork prints at Henrik Vibskov and florals and camouflages at Rolf Ekroth. As menswear increasingly permeates CPHFW, and young designers debut or return to the schedule, the city continues to offer new iterations of the Scandi aesthetic. “Maybe it’s that we have better weather than last summer. But I agree the vibe feels very optimistic this season,” says Shiffman, who attended all the above events. “It’s been so international. It really feels like we’re on the world map in an exciting way.” Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com. More on this topic: Can Remain become Copenhagen’s next major export? Introducing the ‘One to Watch’ 2024 cohort at Copenhagen Fashion Week ‘The instinct to empower is the same’: Astrid Andersen on her return to fashion

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