She argued that the capital could offer a roster of talent worthy of the industry’s time and attention. Though she was met with some skepticism at first, nobody could deny that there was something exhilarating in the air. Copenhagen was already home to established labels like Munthe (then called Munthe plus Simonsen) and By Malene Birger, which proved there was a viable industry to build on. At the same time, there were also talented newcomers on the way up, who were bringing a cool new aesthetic that stood apart from the prevailing Scandinavian minimalism. 

In 1999, Rikke Baumgarten and Helle Hestehave — who met while studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts — launched Baum und Pferdgarten, with the vision of offering a playful, graphic take on everyday dressing. A couple of years later, Henrik Vibskov, then a recent graduate of Central Saint Martins, founded his eponymous label and quickly became known for his avant-garde sensibility and audacious use of prints. Another Central Saint Martins alum, Stine Goya, also made her debut shortly after, building her brand around exuberant prints and a bright, optimistic color palette.

What Copenhagen lacked, however, was a shared stage — a place where these Nordic designers could be seen together, by press, buyers, and each other. In its early years, fashion week felt local and more personal. It was more like a party where everyone knew each other, and up-and-coming designers shared a runway at City Hall. There were no celebrities, no influencers, no international hype. “Remembering how it was in the beginning, where we were doing 12 or 14 shows,” Eva recalled in an interview nearly a decade ago, “we flew in one reporter. We had one car driving around. When we filmed the shows, everything went onto a hard drive and was delivered by bicycle to the office.” 

It took time for this aspiring fashion hub to convince the world it belonged among the major fashion capitals. But fast-forward 20 years, and Copenhagen Fashion Week has most definitely secured its place on the global calendar — standing apart for championing sustainable practices and nurturing and developing emerging designers across the Nordic region. The event has also become an integral part of the wider culture and identity of the city. Upon arrival, posters greet you everywhere you turn at the airport. Billboards are slung across buildings all over town. Everywhere you look, visitors fill the streets with a non-stop fashion show of colorful, upbeat styles of their own. When fashion week is on, the entire city knows it. 

Normally, at this time of year, I’m halfway through a two-week stay in Copenhagen, where I’ve been covering fashion week for several seasons now. This year, though, I’m staying put in Los Angeles, reporting from my humble desk. And while it’s sunny and bright here, I won’t pretend I don’t miss the gray quilt of clouds that greets me when my plane touches down in the Danish capital every winter. (I also won’t pretend I don’t miss the city’s postcard-worthy cobblestone streets and its heart-shatteringly delicious pastries!) Luckily, I’ve come to know the city and its fashion scene intimately over the years — enough to feel confident reporting on the brands I’ve grown with and loved for so long. So, without further ado, here are the collections that excited me most this season. 

Forza Collective: Minimalism in flight

Forza Collective designer Kristoffer Kongshaug rolled out a lavender carpet through an otherwise stark, barren industrial second-floor space on a freezing, snow-covered winter day in Copenhagen. The four-ish-year-old brand’s designer (who cut his teeth at Raf Simons and Dior) looked to a personal reference point: his aunt, who worked for Air France and regularly flew between Copenhagen and Paris, always impeccably dressed. That sense of poised, in-transit elegance translated into a collection rooted in his signature minimalism-with-mystique. Simple garments were elevated with clever twists — an asymmetrical blazer with a folded-over front, tailored trousers with peplum-skirted waists, and a twill suit closed with a single button. The neck became a focal point, too: shirts featured exaggerated collars with elongated, stiffened tips, and there were ruffled collars rising high enough to cover the chin. 

What I loved most

Kristoffer’s ongoing play with sheer fabrics, bra cut-outs, and drop-waist piped pleating was very much present throughout the collection. The standout was a blue sheer dress with panniers that thrust the hips outward. One word: Gorgeous!

SSON: The Fortunate Ones

Inside an airy, raw gallery space in Nørrebro — all concrete floors, stark white walls — colorful, discarded garments were piled haphazardly all the way up to the ceiling lights. Dubbed “The Fortunate Ones,” the collection’s message was impossible to miss. “We value ownership, and even though we are drowning in increasing landfills stacked with unused items we once believed would bring us joy, we keep producing more,” the brand stated in its press release. Launched in 2024 by Yulia Kjellsson and her business partner Ellinor Håkansson, the label was built around the mission of not letting existing materials go to waste. That ethos came alive at the gallery space, where garments were reimagined with intuitive spontaneity — a knit V-neck sweater flipped upside down and folded into an asymmetrical skirt, fur-lined hoods transformed into quirky outerwear, and a purse recast into a mini.

What I loved most

Referencing the “fortunate” upper class, the collection leaned into a posh sensibility — think: sporty polos and sweaters layered neatly over crisp shirts. It was preppy but also very playful. 

Bonnetje: Cadavre Exquis

The collection was named after the Surrealists’ parlor game “Cadavre Exquis” (or Exquisite Corpse), where participants contributed to a drawing, folded the paper over to hide their work, and handed it to the next player. For co-founders Anna Myntekær and Yoko Maja Hansen, this meant taking pre-existing garments, mutilating them, and putting them back together in surrealist constructions that teetered on the brink of couture. Deconstructed suits and their linings are a leitmotif at Bonnetje; as are the classic shirting accoutrements. Crisp white shirt cuffs were set into everything from a midi skirt to a floor-sweeping dress. Simple tank tops and padded suit shoulders were cobbled together into showpiece dresses. One standout mini was made from layered white shirt collars curved precisely over the waist and hips. Every piece felt more artful, more striking than the next. 

What I loved most

The duo presented a tightly edited collection that pushed their ideas to their conceptual edge. They won’t likely make the leap from the runway to the street — but they’re not really meant to. Having followed Bonnetje from their first-ever presentation and spoken with Anna on numerous occasions, this body of work felt exceptionally faithful to their brand’s identity. 

Caro Editions: Private Showing

Hidden in the courtyard of the Kunsthal Charlottenborg, just steps from the touristy Nyhavn canal, Apollo is an airy cafe typically reserved for lingering over lunch with friends. This week, however, it became the setting for Caro Editions’ show, staged by founder Caroline Bille Brahe (and yes, spouse of chef Frederik Bille Brahe). The concept nodded to the intimacy of early haute couture presentations: a focused, almost reverent atmosphere where the clothes took center stage. “I love the idea of couture — that extra, extra, extra,” Caroline said in the show notes. A roaming spotlight followed the models as they moved slowly and deliberately through the room. The clothes themselves felt couture-adjacent, filtered through an ’80s lens — strong shoulders, swishy skirts, belt-cinched waists, and a liberal scattering of polka dots — but keyed to the everyday needs of the wearer. It had the joyous colors of Caroline’s world: mustardy yellows, purples, bubblegum pinks and blues, often punched up with bright berry red. Lace introduced lightness and transparency; denim, too, had a strong showing. 

What I loved most

How joyful this collection was! Caroline’s designs carried a genuine expressive warmth — and were all made locally in Copenhagen, by seamstresses who worked with upcycled pieces and deadstock fabrics. 

Herskind: A Woman’s World

The Danish brand returned to Papirøen in Copenhagen, where it staged its last two shows. This time, the venue’s stark, almost brutalist interior was softened by bands of sheer white fabric stretched horizontally across the runway’s backdrop, lending the space a gauzy, airy lightness. The set echoed the collection itself, which marked a shift from past seasons’ borrowed-from-the-boys cuts toward something a lot more fluid. “We used to do a lot of masculine power dressing with structured shoulders,” creative director Birgitte Herskind told Vogue Scandinavia. “Now we’re taking a deep breath and allowing ourselves to be a little more feminine. Strong females don’t need to put themselves in a man’s world anymore.” That softness came through clearly: Rigid shoulders were relaxed, and wide, concealing silhouettes were drawn closer to the body. Outerwear — Herskind’s perennial strength — shone with oval sleeves, wrap-style closures, ballooned ankle-gathered trousers, and plenty of hug-me fur textures. (I was happy to see there was still a smattering of padded shoulders here and there.) 

What I loved most

Herskind never fails to deliver no-brainer, easy-to-style winter pieces with every season. The interplay between soft tailoring and bias cuts looked especially languid and easy on the runway. 

Gestuz: Smokey Mirrors

A wraparound bar anchored the runway, its lacquered surface lined with olive-skewered martinis. The scene evoked a New York bar in the ’80s — a microcosm of Manhattan archetypes: the businesswoman grabbing a drink after her nine-to-five, the woman on a first date, the regular who knows the bartender by name. Models emerged from the rough and tumble of the outside cold into the bar’s warm glow, bundled in shearling scarves and jackets. After completing their loop, they sidled up to the bar. Some read. Some swirled their drinks. Others observed the goings-on. “I saw this bar as a place where many personas exist at once,” creative director Sanne Sehested said in the show notes. “Different roles and expressions of femininity.” The lineup moved fluidly between these characters’ wardrobes: suits with broad shoulders, a staple of the ’80s career woman; a roomy bomber paired with a sheer, date-night skirt and heels; a standout pinstriped funnel-neck coat styled with lace-trimmed silky shorts, which gave it a more casual slant. The palette stayed dark and moody — colors plucked from the barroom — punctuated by flashes of martini olive green: silk ties, oversized beaded bracelets, a cool floral print, and a sumptuous cardigan tossed over an animal-print lace slip. 

What I loved most

Gestuz’s outerwear never misses — supple leather jackets, sharply cropped trenches, and furry statement coats that will take you to the bar and beyond. 

Holzweiler: Preservation

Holzweiler was one of the first shows I attended in Copenhagen during my very first fashion week, which is why its return to the schedule — after a two-year absence — felt especially exciting to me. “Coming back to Copenhagen Fashion Week feels very personal to us,” co-founder and creative director Maria Skappel Holzweiler said in the show notes. “Copenhagen is where our international journey first took shape.” That homecoming unfolded at Vandflyverhangaren, a former seaplane hangar turned creative hub. This season, the Oslo-based brand leaned into the concept of memories. Some memories are so easily preserved and fresh with detail; others blur and fade. This was articulated through leather puffers and sleek, minimal jackets paired with long, gauzy skirts. Sheer, lightweight pleated garments were layered head-to-toe. Parkas took on new form when gathered with drawstrings at the neck and waist, and finished with cape-style shoulders; equally standout were the denim velvet jackets and jeans in coffee browns and dusty lilacs. 

What I loved most

What Holzweiler continues to do best is master functional, everyday dressing for colder weather that still feels exciting. I’d be remiss not to mention the long, skinny scarves in bright colors, which made as bold a statement as the outerwear offerings.

Baum und Pferdgarten: Airborne

Inside a historic athletic hall in the center of Copenhagen, a gray runway marked with white lines gave the impression of a ground-lit airstrip at night. The inspirational jumping-off point, if it wasn’t obvious already, had everything to do with aviation — and one iconic female aviator in particular. “Inspired by Amelia Earhart, we explored how uniforms originally designed for a masculine approach can exist alongside elegant and sophisticated wearers,” creative directors Rikke Baumgarten and Helle Hestehave said in the show notes. The collection channeled the trailblazing pilot’s unconventional, menswear-leaning approach to dressing. (It’s easy to forget that Earhart designed the jumpsuits she wore in the cockpit — and even ran her own fashion label, which some would consider a precursor to athleisure.) Baum und Pferdgarten’s expedition into her wardrobe opened with a distressed leather aviator jacket, styled with a shearling tie collar and matching leather bottoms. Outerwear, a longtime strength for the brand, anchored the collection. More aviator jackets followed, alongside herringbone coats, floral-print bombers, utilitarian-inflected shirts, and a standout denim jacket with a contrast corduroy collar. 

What I loved most

Leather and denim were teamed up with fluid dresses, lace trims, and just a flicker of sequins — keeping the collection light on its feet and ready for takeoff. The compass-printed scarves with ditsy florals were also a nice touch.

Rave Review: Playing dress up

Josephine Bergqvist and Livia Schück, founders and creative directors of the Stockholm-based Rave Review, are deep into motherhood, so it came as no surprise that a playful, childlike influence ran through their latest collection. Using their own children’s wardrobes as a blueprint, the designers leaned into a sense of naïveté that still felt decidedly grown-up: folded-over oversized collars, skewed button plackets, chunky belts, and low-slung bottoms that felt like a size or two too big. Since the brand is known for its inventive use of deadstock and upcycled materials — particularly vintage home textiles — it felt especially fitting that the show took place within an intimate, salon-like setting at the Swedish Embassy. There were paintings on the walls and glittering crystal chandeliers overhead, and guests were seated in mismatched armchairs that lined the rooms. This season, the designers leaned into fairytales like Beauty and The Beast, animating household objects on the runway through chunky buttons recalling button-tufted sofas, drop-waisted skirts pleated like rippling curtain folds, and hemlines trimmed with fringe reminiscent of old lampshade tassels.

What I loved most

Rave Review delivered a joyous, even whimsical, collection viewed through an adult lens. The real news, though, was the genius of the garments’ versatility — skirts designed to button at different lengths, revealing a printed lining when folded up and over. Just like the life stage that inspired them, these are clothes that adapt and evolve with you.