Copenhagen this year's World Capital of Architecture rocks when it comes to fashion too. The Scandinavian aesthetics meets rock 'n' roll in a variety of edgy styles and innovative proposals by the brands from the very first day, from brands like 7 Days Active to Marimekko and Baum und Pferdgarten and many more.
7 DAYS ACTIVE
Established in the Spring of 2019, 7 Days Active is an fashion & sportswear label dedicated to inspiring motion for the mind, body, and soul.
SPRING/SUMMER 2024 by 7 Days Active. (All images: James Cochrane© , unless otherwise stated.)
From its home in Copenhagen, 7 Days Active propels the agile and sporty mindset by providing functional and fashionable pieces, easily adapting to an active lifestyle across all arenas.
7 Days Active, believe in taking the right choices in everything we do! Product, People, Prosperity and Planet should all be respected equally and preferably be adding value in the world instead of using unnecessary resources. This goes for their collections, employees as well as their suppliers - and they strive to make a positive impact in all communities which they meet on their Journey.
Marimekko marks six decades of Unikko print
The Finnish marque Marimekko showcased their Spring/Summer 2024 collection at the gardens of the Danish Design Museum, marking the 60th anniversary of its most recognizable and well-known print design, Unikko. "The print is celebrated in the Spring/Summer 2024 collection in more ways than ever, including scale, placement, coloring, and techniques. We wanted to reflect Marimekko’s design legacy by highlighting two equally meaningful design aspects of Marimekko – the dress as a canvas and bold patterns bringing joy to people's everyday life.”, says Rebekka Bay, Creative Director at Marimekko.
In order to highlight its distinct position at the nexus of fashion, design, art, and culture, Marimekko decided to present its collection while live music was playing right in the center of the Danish institution. An open-to-all format was used to exhibit the collection. For more than 30 years, Marimekko has organized an annual, open-to-the-public fashion show in its hometown of Helsinki. Now that Copenhagen was included, the notion has expanded. Huge Unikko blossoms in their original, 1960s-inspired hues were displayed on the catwalk.
Marimekko’s Spring/Summer 2024 collection merges feminine minimalism with modern utilitarian workwear, both equally representative of the rich design heritage of the brand. The robust material qualities of washed canvas and heavy cotton-twill meet with crisp colorful poplin in printed dresses and effortless summer layering styles. The seasonal palette creates a playful meeting point of opposite hues in the spectrum: Neutral tones of Dijon brown, ash grey, endive and antique white meet invigorating fuchsia, prism pink, tangerine, chlorophyll green and sodalite.
Henrik Vibskov
Since graduating from Central St Martin's in 2001, Henrik Vibskov has produced more than 40 fashion collections and exhibited in several international design fairs, festivals and museums all over the world, including MoMA in New York, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa and the ICA in London, to name a few.
Vibskov collaborated with jewelry designer Vibe Harslf to produce silver accessories and showpieces for this season. The entirely handcrafted items include headpieces with comical birds around the removed head and silver birds as pendant earrings, necklaces, and nose pieces.
All fabrics have been upgraded to be recycled or organic within their means. Henrik Vibskov aims to raise this percentage for the upcoming seasons. For the SS24 Studio collection, 83% of our clothing is made from certified textiles. GOTS Organic, GOTS Made with Organic, GRS Global Recycled Standard, and nontoxic dyes and prints are among the certifications.
TG Botanical Spring-Summer 2024
Tetyana Chumak, the brand's designer, finds beauty in nature's periodic destruction cycles. The chaotically sewn pieces with elastic thread that make up the bulk of the TG Botanical SS24 collection, in the designer's opinion, evoke the surface of the Earth and corroded metal. Each garment gains an organic sense from the distressed look, strengthening its femininity and anchored in the body architecture of a woman. Stitched styles have a fluidity that gives the impression that they "live" on the body and are integrated into it. Traditionally, the designer's choice of materials reflects their strong connection to nature.
This season Tetyana Chumak uses certified batiste, cottons, silks, organic nettle and linens for kinetic skirts, cargo trousers, daring tops and dresses. For the very first time the brand introduces accessories to the collection, which are made of an old nettle cloth, sourced from local artisans. Nettle mules and mini-bag are produced in limited quantities. The color scheme of the collection is earthy with bright brushes of ocher and cyan blue. The latter is brought to the collection with the old technique of cyanotype, which allows to reach the specific shade of blue as seen in this collection.
BAUM UND PFERDGARTEN
Founded in Copenhagen in 1999, Baum und Pferdgarten is one of the leading Danish fashion houses. Their timeless and design-led collections are full of unexpected playful contrasts.The brand showcases their SS24 collection to the background of the iconic Christiansborg castle, the seat of the Danis Parliament. The show's venue reminds of the recent Dior show hosted at the Gate of India in Mumbai. There are more parallels with the leading fashion brands and Baum und Pferdgarten, the two co-founding Creative Directors, Rikke Baumgarten and Helle Hestehave have their finger on the pulse.
Throughout their long-standing partnership, Rikke and Helle have continuously complemented and pushed each other, resulting in covetable pieces in beautiful fabrics, memorable prints and bold colours. The SS24 includes ping items and more masculine denim pieces. "We want to create designs for women who want to have fun with their personal expression. Our collections can be worn in many different ways by many different women. We create clothes that help women tell their own story." say Creative Directors, Helle Hestehave and Rikke Baumgarten.
FINE CHAOS hosts an immersive show followed by the 'closing party' on CPHFW
On the last day of Copenhagen Fashion Week, FINE CHAOS the Danish emerging androgynous fashion brand based in the heart of Copenhagen, hosted its second runway show that was shortly followed by the brand's afterparty, officially the 'closing party' on the CPHFW.
The show itself felt like a party from the very beginning. As the show started at the venue Motopol—an industrial area built entirely of workshops and containers, with a culture encompassing the beautiful, grungy aspects of the rave culture—with the recognizable falsetto of the emerging popband ‘Kind Mod Kind’, a water curtain started pouring down from the ceiling behind the performer, further enhancing the idea immersed in one of the artworks - ‘Nature we keep alive’.
For the show, the popular Danish band had made a full EP for the show, mixing melancholic, gloomy sounds with intense, dystopian tracks - with a live performance from their lead singer. To create the soundscape for this, Marc C. Møllerskov (the Creative Director for FINE CHAOS) spent multiple days in their studio, perfecting the soundscape for the show together.
Danish popstar of Infernal, Lina Rafn on catwalk for FINE CHAOS. All images: Andrea Brandt, unless otherwise stated.
This opening was followed by renowned Danish popstar of Infernal, Lina Rafn , modelling a futuristic-looking top with adjustable multi-size pieces and a pleated bleached skirt that wonderfully encapsulated the brand's contrasts of beautiful yet destructive aspects. Rafn is not only part of the brand's vision and guest to their many events, gatherings, and other activities, she clearly demonstrates to be a very close member of the community. Another illustration of the highly regarded Community by FINE CHAOS, which aims to create a setting where individuals may feel accepted regardless of their position in life, who they are, or where they are from.
FINE CHAOS SS24. Image: MorzaStudio.
The crowd was a mix of artists, buyers, celebrities - but most importantly, the majority of the crowd consisted of people within the FINE CHAOS Community. The fashion company places a great value on introducing the apparel as more than simply "products," tying verbal and visual narrative, and experiences as associations for each piece of FINE CHAOS. The model lineup reflected this variety as well, with models representing a wide range of sexual orientations, physical characteristics, races, and ages. This is essential for the brand to maintain inclusivity. And it works well and surprisingly authentic.
A potential hyper-futuristic, post-apocalyptic world taking place in 2072 is presented in the SS24 collection. In this scenario, the earth's natural resources are limited, and technology has transformed everything from nature to infrastructure to every fiber in the human body. This idea creates a contradiction between the clothing in the collection, which aims to show off the merging of nature and hyper-futurism yet is shown to be in direct opposition to one another.
The socially critical elements of this collection are showcased through numerous different artworks portraying the wearer in different social classes.
Finally, the whole show ends with the full ‘Zipper’ look - a jacket only purely of heavy metal zippers, and trousers which are made of 50% wool and 50% zippers going down the legs of the trousers, almost ‘dragging’ the wearer down - creating an aggressive, brave and vulnerable look through the zippers’ unevenness. This is where the couture selection of FINE CHAOS takes form - as a form of art.
The whole show ends with the team behind the show coming out, from designers, to hair and makeup, to dressers, and the creative director Marc C. Møllerskov. By embracing the duality of the upcoming generation—one in which revolt and the art of expression collide—FINE CHAOS aims to push the limits of the brand itself.The oxymoron represents the brand's vision and the various ways that things in today's dynamic society may be seen. It does this by juggling the balance between "FINE" and "CHAOS," revealing the harmony between the two facets of its one universe.
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