Ones to Watch: The Copenhagen Fall 2022 Edition
COPENHAGEN — Copenhagen fashion came onto the international spotlight thanks to its vibrant mix of contemporary labels, all of which nailed the “Scandi 2.0” look of sorbet hues, vibrant patterns and easygoing silhouettes — usually served on fresh-faced Danes riding their bikes across town.
The fashion crowd might be growing out of that Instagram-famous look, yet Copenhagen Fashion Week remains relevant and continues to give international buyers and press reasons to keep returning — even when mainstays like Ganni go digital or retailer Birger Christensen‘s “It” labels, Rotate and Remain, take the season off.
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Part of the enduring appealing — apart from the event’s sustainability strides — has to be the new crop of young talent flocking to the calendar for the first time and garnering international attention.
New names like A. Roege Hoeve, Kerne.milk and (Di)vision are quickly gaining ground, with their work helping to associate the Copenhagen fashion scene with a different kind of look: one that’s sexier, more directional and usually upcycled. It’s the kind of look that has been getting the seal of approval from everyone from the TikTok generation to the Kardashians.
Here, WWD speaks to some of the most interesting new names showing as part of the fall 2022 lineup at Copenhagen Fashion Week, which begins Tuesday.
Courtesy of (di)vision
(Di)vision
This will be a big year for (Di)vision, with a new Copenhagen flagship and a foray into the metaverse all in the works.
The young label’s show has become one of the hottest tickets at Copenhagen Fashion Week after the brand exploded on Instagram, with its limited-edition, deadstock pieces drawing the attention of everyone from Denmark’s cool kids to the likes of Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber.
Nanna and Simon Wick, the brother-sister duo behind the label, are confident they can live up to the high expectations with a compelling narrative, one-of-a-kind designs, and a venue to remember. Inside the Danish capital’s Planetarium, the duo plans to tell an extraterrestrial story for fall, inspired by the videos of UFO sightings recently released by the Pentagon.
“We were thinking of someone from Nevada looking up at the stars desperate to spot something. What would he be wearing? What would the government officials trying to shut down the truth, or the aliens themselves, be wearing?” said Simon Wick, adding that the result is all about pop colors; stretchy, alien-like silhouettes, and plenty of the brand’s signature patchworks.
Courtesy of (di)vision
“Our universe is super loud, it’s all about that one piece that makes the outfit pop. In Denmark, we’ve grown up with [the opposite] attitude of being like everyone else, not putting yourself on a pedestal. But Danes are getting tired of all that, so our concept is more interesting — plus it can also have a bigger international appeal.”
The duo also plans to apply its playful, experimental attitude far beyond the design of the garments. Guests at their Tuesday evening show will be able to scan a QR code, receive an NFT of an alien wearing a digitized look from the collection, followed by the physical item six months later. It’s the first of many digital fashion initiatives the label has coming up. There are also plans to sell digital equivalents of its full ranges as of next season, as well as to use NFTs to create customer loyalty programs, with NFT holders receiving in-store discounts for physical items or being invited to the label’s runway shows.
Courtesy of (di)vision
“Much of my interest in fashion came from seeing what people wear in gaming. It makes sense why digital fashion is a thing these days — it’s already happening in gaming: those platforms are free and all people pay for are the [characters’] clothes,” explained Wick.
For all its digital savvy, the designers are keen to be part of the Copenhagen Fashion Week platform and prove that the label is “more than just an Instagram brand.” They are also working with established retailers like Selfridges and Browns, and investing heavily in their craft — which has upcycling and one-off garments at its core.
“We started with a vision of doing things a bit differently,” said Wick, adding that with no design background, deconstructing preexisting garments, like surplus military jackets or vintage T-shirts, made more sense to him. “We moved to using deadstock, sourced from Italy, to create a more scalable business, but there’s still a limited nature to everything we do. We’re now at a point to hire people to focus exclusively on our ‘Deconstructed’ project, which is all about that original energy of creating one-off pieces using anything from tents to parachutes. It’s our playground.”
Courtesy of A. Roege Hoeve
A. Roege Hoeve
Amalie Roge Hove developed a love of knitwear as soon as she entered the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.
“Machine knitting was like my temple, I loved the idea of being able to create a textile with a life of its own, where I can determine the texture, the surface and use it to create unique shapes,” said the designer in an interview.
She wasn’t always sure that specializing was a good idea. But after spending more than three years mastering her craft at school, followed by stints in the knitwear departments of established Copenhagen designers like Cecilie Bahnsen and Mark Kenly Domino Tan, she decided to take the leap and start her own knit brand in 2019.
“I had so many ideas for knitwear and spent so much time in school just knitting, I no longer wanted to compromise. I realized my concept was big enough to create a brand,” said the designer. “All our clothes are now made using one material composition and the same ribbed technique, but there are so many ways you can create a rib. It’s all about getting into all the geeky details of this one craft and making the most out of it. For a while I wasn’t sure how long I could pull this off for, but now all I see is endless possibilities.”
Courtesy of A. Roege Hoeve
Indeed, her collections of ribbed-knit separates have proven to be adaptable and ever-evolving. Roge Hove is quickly making a name for herself for her play of proportions, bold use of color, and the way her designs, ranging from minidresses to knitted pants and cutout cardigans, can stretch and adapt to different body types.
“We make everything in two sizes, but it’s all about the stretch, so they can fit sizes ranging from XXS to XXL. You can personalize each piece simply by the way your body is shaped, which is something quite beautiful. Customers can also choose the bigger size if they want more fabric or a smaller one if they want the item to be more transparent,” said Roge Hove, adding that this approach also makes for a smarter, less wasteful production cycle and less returns from customers due to sizing concerns.
“I can’t always determine if the customer will like the piece, but I know sizing isn’t likely to be an issue. So we’ve been amazed at how well the collections have been selling.”
The brand sells in 18 independent boutiques across Japan, a market which was quick to give her designs the thumbs-up. Bigger online retailers like Ssense are also on her client list, followed by the likes of Browns and Nordstrom, which came on board after the label’s blockbuster fashion week debut last summer.
Courtesy of A. Roege Hoeve
“We picked up 35 stockists after our show last season and I’m now also aiming to get some partners closer to home and see the take of European retailers on our brand,” said the designer, who usually finds her inspiration by seeing how her clothes fit on different clients’ bodies.
“There’s more demand and a lot of potential, but I don’t want to be too flattered and say ‘yes’ to everything. Growth hasn’t been a goal in itself, it’s more important for us to be in a position to keep up with our values and all the orders we get. I don’t want to ruin it by growing too fast.”
It’s why for her upcoming fall 2022 show, the young designer is maintaining a sharp focus on her niche and continuing to evolve her signature knitwear techniques. She has been experimenting with adjusting small details like stitching or using different color gradients “that can completely change how you experience the knit.”
“Inspiration comes from within the knit and how we try it on and drape it on different women,” she said, also pointing to how light her pieces are to allow the wearer as much freedom as possible. This also creates space to experiment with layering, and this season Roge Hove will be proposing a more “layered look” instead of focusing on individual pieces, to show her growing audience all the dressing options her designs present.
Courtesy of A. Roege Hoeve
“It’s not just about daring to wear something transparent and tight, or showing as much skin as possible. That’s not the end goal at all. So we’re evolving from showing one single dress to a full outfit with four pieces working with and against each other. That’s where I get really excited about the abilities of knits.”
Courtesy of Kerne.milk
Kerne.milk
Designer Marie Mark didn’t have a plan when she started her label in 2019: She was simply hand-sewing pieces she wanted for herself, and posting images of her work — raw, unfiltered snaps, always taken with an iPhone — on Instagram.
Katrina Wittig soon joined her as an intern, but the two spent so many hours sewing away in Mark’s apartment that she stayed on as a partner and Kerne.milk was born.
“It’s a very personal, intimate process of designing. It created a bond with our customers, as they were invited into our universe right from the start: they could order a piece and come pick it up from Marie’s apartment,” said Wittig, adding that they were able to keep this process going throughout the pandemic and grow their community.
With a background in dance, Wittig and Mark set out to create body-hugging silhouettes, often accentuated with curved lines mimicking the natural curves of the body.
“It’s always about the body. As former dancers it’s natural for us to embrace the female silhouette with different techniques, it’s almost like painting a picture with the different lines,” said Mark. “The aim is to create clothes that you can dress up in, but also feel comfortable enough to move and dance in, it has to be a mix of those two.”
Courtesy of Kerne.milk
Their silhouettes also tick many year-2000-related trend boxes of the moment — hence why requests from Kim Kardashian West, soon followed by Kendall Jenner, started coming in last year, putting the label in the international fashion spotlight.
“It helped us get through the borders,” said Wittig, pointing to increased demand at home and in the U.S. after Kardashian shared many a selfie in a neutral-hued, semisheer dress by the brand.
But the duo isn’t too concerned with riding trend waves or using the Instagram buzz to make a quick buck — they’re in it for the long run. Even after picking up a handful of retail partners like Wood Wood and taking on production partners last spring, they continue to create one-off pieces by hand in their studio using fabric offcuts — an ongoing project they call the Scrap Edition project.
They are also planning to open a studio space-cum-store in Copenhagen later this year, where other artists and designers will be able to take up residence.
“It’s important that as we grow, we still use our hands and keep that intimacy of our early days. We’re always asking ourselves, ‘how do we expand while keeping our integrity?’ And with this new studio space we will be able to sew every day, connect with other creatives from jewelers to ceramicists, and share knowledge or use each other’s scrap materials since we’ll be sitting next to each other,” explained the duo. “There’s always this sense of competition between young brands, but it shouldn’t be like that, we should support each other.”
Courtesy of Kerne.milk
For their debut at Copenhagen Fashion Week, taking place on Tuesday, they also leaned into their creative community, joining forces with artists and dancers to create a film that will be projected on multiple screens.
“It’s more of an art installation than the kind of show people would expect. We wanted to focus on creating a feeling rather than just presenting the clothes,” said Mark. “It’s been quite overwhelming, as we’re used to working to our own deadlines and we’re still figuring out how to do [fashion week]. We would also love to go outside Copenhagen soon, as we know we have an international audience.”
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