From Nicklas Skovgaard’s elaborate collection to Saks Potts’ pared-back offering, modelled by friends of the brand, Madeleine Rothery reports back from the Danish capital’s Autumn/Winter 2024 shows
Nicklas Skovgaard
Copenhagen Fashion Week kicked off with the golden child of the Danish fashion scene, Nicklas Skovgaard. Although it’s only his second show, the designer was not afraid to take up space: exaggerated volume and weightiness defined the elaborate collection which was paraded by models in a salon-like theatricality (his long-time creative partner and muse Britt Liberg stole the show). From bulbous dresses and skirts to sinking drop-waisted knits, Skovgaard continues to reimagine the intersections of space and materiality – albeit slicked back with a gloss of old-school 80s glam.
Saks Potts
Family is the beating heart of Saks Potts so, fittingly, for Autumn/Winter 2024 founder-designers Cathrine Saks and Barbara Potts decided to bring the show home to the intimacy of their wood-paneled flagship store (which was once the Danish royal pharmacy). The pared-back collection, presented by a star-studded cast of “friends of the brand” such as Stella Maxwell and Tish Weinstock, read as a best-of list compiled from past seasons – though this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s a confidence, from both themselves and their community, in their signature styles and singular styling.
Wood Wood
Presented in a side gallery of Copenhagen’s Thorvaldsen Museum, Wood Wood’s show caught guests by surprise: there was no music. Just the soft pattering of the models’ Asics sneakers as they paced the marble floor. The sounds of silence, appropriate for the museum setting, demanded absolute attention on the brand’s collection and allowed the garments to speak wholly for themselves. And luckily the collection needed no distractions: of note were ornate golden yellow velvets sharpened with leathered layers and off-kilter tailored shirts paired with lithe tights and perfectly slouched trousers.
Henrik Vibskov
Only Henrik Vibskov who could develop an entire (coherent and exquisite) show around something as banal as chewing gum. Following an employee’s suggestion to offer company-wide daily therapy sessions to help navigate the murky state of world affairs, Vibskov concluded that his nicotine gum habit was, for him, a form of therapy (hence the collection’s name: The Daily Chewing Gum Therapy Session). Aside from the obvious references to gum – like the ribbons of pink fabric that unravelled across the stage at the start of the show – the designer stretched his imagination to interpret other therapeutic mundanities through textile and technique: magnificent jacquards referenced chess, while elegant flannels and knits were wrapped around the body (including, oddly, the head) just like a good old hug.
Paolina Russo
For Paolina Russo, the sky is the limit – as the show’s opening performance (developed in collaboration with Danish artist Esben Weile Kjær) of balloon-bound bodies clambering for the moon attested to. Continuing their exploration of coming-of-age rituals, as shaped by suburban life, the set was designed as a sort of prehistoric cul-de-sac, hemmed in by monoliths and around which the models circumambulated (or writhed with the handmade balloons resembling ancient cave drawings). Within their mythical world, the designers’ optical knitwear continues to take centre stage, crafted this season in a wintry palette inspired by the prismatic magic of when light hits snow.