Copenhagen Fashion Week

It was a smooth, cool slide through Copenhagen's Fashion Week and its 39 Scandinavian shows last week. The strictly commercial fare was artfully off-set by the impressive proportion of directional, artistically innovative and well-structured collections. Sequins and shine was the trend during the first day, but the shows themselves were somewhat lacklustre. By the second day, however, Danish creativity began to shine through. Max Factor Award winner Wackerhaus was a standout, showing gold gelfling ear cuffs on models sporting graceful suede silk jumpsuits, copper-coloured chiffon and jackets with fascinating folded details. Later on, Designers Remix did a gorgeous Gothic collection in the wood-paneled House of Parliament where a cast of models dressed all in black vamped and channeled Tim Burton while a contrasting troupe of powdery pale blonde beauties in eerie pastels wore mirrored heels covered by light sulphur-hued stockings like ghosts of Margielas from seasons past. Then Noir magnificently demonstrated a more seductive definition of darkness when a harem of models in black lingerie Sapphicly dressed and undressed each other in the centre of the Hotel Nils cozy gilded catwalk, as if in a live version of an Ellen von Unwerth shoot.

After the viewers shook off their erotic tingles while waiting in the cold for the delayed Stine Goya show, they were offered the sensual and cerebral gratifications of Vilsbøl de Arce's sculptural lacerated leather, knit and jersey garments inspired by insects’ exoskeletons. Henrik Vibskov's much-anticipated show at a warehouse in the meat-packing district was a dreamscape where models in mirrored glasses navigated around Calder-inspired raw wood mobiles wearing realistically beautiful garments which rendered the surreal ambiance even more uncanny. And Kim Jones styled the Wood Wood show as an authentic ode to non-pretentious integrity with Kurt-Cobain-like Kool-aid coloured hair complimenting the cool Copenhagen-based label’s simple street-style.

But the week’s real star was an authentically cool, non-affected 13-year old. Blogger prodigy Nicklas Skovgaard’s ragged knit sweater was reminiscent of Tavi in Rodarte, but his sweet personality is all his own. “I would love to go to Paris someday,” he said when asked whether he’ll be taking more time off school for other shows (which his teachers allow, as an internship). “But really, I am from a very little island in Denmark. I am really, really lucky to be here in Copenhagen.” So were we.

Ana Finel Honigman is a Berlin-based critic, curator, PhD candidate at Oxford University and lecturer at NYU. She writes regularly on contemporary art and fashion for Artforum.com, ashadedviewonfashion.com, Interview.com, the New YorkTimes, Style.com, V, British Vogue and many other publications