By Ian Morales | Photos: Copenhagen Fashion Week ®
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The true essence of fashion is being able to reinvent yourself. This maxim not only applies to designers, stylists and style publications, but also to Copenhagen Fashion Week.
Fashionistas don’t sweat. But as the temperature outside City Hall hit a record 30°C many required more than one glass of champagne to keep cool. The other major surprise for visitors arriving on the opening day of Copenhagen Fashion Week SS14 was the truncated schedule: 22 shows, compared to an average of 40. This was partly due to increasing competition from emerging fashion weeks such as Stockholm, Oslo and Berlin, as well as a decision by the most acclaimed Danish labels to opt for an alternative to the traditional catwalk format.
The event was officially opened by the Danish enfant terrible Asger Juel Larsen. The thirty-year-old London College of Fashion graduate earned his stripes showcasing two previous menswear collections that evoked his signature dark, edgy, urban style. For SS14, Larsen takes us to an asylum where the inmates escape, only to regret their action and return. Entitled “A Triple Distilled Dream” the show kicked off with white, oversized, medical-inspired mesh jackets and progressed into a series of sporty looks punctuated with forward-thinking tailoring. Clockwork digital prints occasionally emerged from a treasure chest of insanity. Larsen’s show went down a storm with the international press. But many Danish fans hooked on his first collections could not help notice a shift towards a more commercial approach.
Henrik Vibsov staged his SS14 collection in an empty warehouse on Paper Island, near the hippie commune Christiania. This season’s installation “The Bathtub Observer” featured models parading in a gigantic, catwalk-sized bathtub, complete with ubiquitous tufts of yellow and white hair. The observer, or audience, was introduced to a universe overloaded with visual disorders and dysfunctions that comprised oversized tops, baggy trousers, layered dresses and light knits with enlarged herringbone patterns, Cubist and African inspired prints, and hand printed dots. Unfortunately, Vibskov’s staging was not as compelling as in previous seasons where the models interacted with the installation and few had expected the avant-garde designer to present such a wearable collection.
One of the most anticipated shows at Copenhagen Fashion Week was Anne Sophie Madsen. Growing from strength to strength each season, the new star of Danish fashion showcased her latest collection “Post-Human Speed” inspired by Kapser Hauser, Inochi and Rubber Johnny: three different stories of teenage boys from the Romantic and Millennium eras who never grow up. Influences of the teenage sport motocross can be seen in her oversized leather jackets and trousers. The collection featured a lot of leather – embossed and moulded – including several exquisitely crafted white mini leather dresses with whip stitching and open back. The monochrome palette was complemented by 90s Japanese pop art prints. By far the most inspiring show of the week.
Princess Mary of Denmark was spotted on the front row of the Bruuns Bazaar show. Presented in the beautiful courtyard of the label’s headquarters in Copenhagen, the master minimalist unveiled a classic summer collection inspired by Baubotanic – a new technique advocated by a group of German architects of using living plants in building construction. It was a Scandinavian affair with clean lines and simple silhouettes. Delicate floral prints and models with wavy hair and round, oversized frame glasses added a touch of cool.
Charlotte Eskildsen, co-founder of Designers Remix, never fails to impress with her choice of location. This season she showcased the label’s SS14 collection in the newly opened The Blue Planet aquarium on the outskirts of Copenhagen. The setting was breathtaking. The Shark Tunnel was converted into a catwalk with top models sashaying fearlessly alongside hammerheads, stingrays and other exotic fish, swimming an arm’s length away on all sides. Inspired by the 1980s Luc Besson film The Big Blue, the models appeared from the “sea” sporting a wet-look with body-hugging aquatic inspired silhouettes in black, white and power green. Special guests included Princess Marie of Denmark.
The new boy on the block in Copenhagen is Mark Kenly Domino Tan. Fresh from competing as a finalist at the H&M Design Award 2013, the Kolding School of Design graduate presented his debut collection at the Nimb Hotel. Tan’s experimental mix of materials such as neoprene and silk and wool and foam were unveiled as cocoon style coats, pencil skirts, two-piece suits and bell-shaped skirts. Exaggerated rounded shoulders and a delightful palette of red, white, blue and black added a unique feminine touch. Tan is currently studying at the Royal College of Art in London.
The event was marked by a noticeable absence of the most prominent brands on the main schedule as they opted to present their collections in alternative formats: Soulland presented his “Katastrophe” collection at an exclusive pop-up cafe; Malene Birger unveiled “Ladies of the World” at a dinner at the 5-star Hotel d’Angleterre; and Stine Goya used the occasion to open her small flagship boutique on Gothersgade. Things are changing in Copenhagen. Let’s hope next season’s schedule includes all.