For generations, fishermen have harvested its waters. Sailors have spent lifetimes navigating its currents. It is as much as a geographical frame as it is a metaphor — of opportunity and danger, tragedy and beauty, freedom and uncertainty. You can see the country’s maritime past in the boats that dot the harbors, the coastal villages and shipyards, and the many museums that tell stories of Viking voyages across fjords and wind-whipped open waters. And you can certainly feel it here, at Nordatlantens Brygge — a former warehouse on Copenhagen’s waterfront that once served as a trading hub for Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland. 

It’s here, inside the building’s white-painted interiors, that Rene’s spring-summer 2027 collection, titled “Sea Marked,” begins its sea journey. And who’s a better raconteur to start the tale than a cellist? Hair half-up in a high, bulbous bun and face framed by bluntly cut micro bangs, Danish composer and cellist Josefine Opsahl anchors her instrument to the floor, lifts her bow-arm and starts playing. 

A few long-held wistful notes rupture into a fiery passage that sets in like roiling storm clouds. In this kaleidoscopic swell of music, the opening looks glide into view. A structured, balloon-leg pant finished with cuffed hems and an abbreviated trench coat — both cut from the same mottled fabric. The effect is instantly intriguing; like a shoreline that has pulled back by miles, leaving behind exposed salt flats and golden sand. 

But first some background: Husband-and-wife duo Jens Skov Østergaard and Kridipat Østergaard founded their genderless brand in 2022, blending both of their backgrounds — Scandinavian minimalism with Asian influences. “Our Asian influence comes from paying a lot of attention to oversized loose-fit shapes, especially when it comes to patternmaking,” Jens said in an interview with The Fashion Codex earlier this year. “We [utilize] the Thai heritage by working with local manufacturers. We use a lot of Japanese fabrics for our garments too. We essentially mix the two different design styles of Scandinavia and parts of Asia.” 

For its Copenhagen Fashion Week debut, the duo leaned hard into Nordic seafaring history and traditions, drawing their inspiration from the sea. On the runway, this translates to easy jackets with broad, relaxed shoulders, fisherman-style pants with generous volume, and slouchy, loose-fitting shorts that skim just below the knee — all filtered through a nautical lens. Enormous bottoms plume with excessive fabric, flapping like sails with every step. Collars are exaggerated, shifted off-center, and stretched down, down, down low to the hipline. 

Jens and Kridipat were especially inspired by the Danish village of Skagen, or rather, the close-knit group of Scandinavian artists who depicted it through their paintings. The Skagen Painters, as they were called, made a name for themselves by capturing the 600-year-old fishing hub — its picturesque beaches and golden, oceanic light. 

Drawing from the practical nature of a fisherman’s uniform, elements of utility emerge in vests packed with pockets, with straps that allow you to adjust their height. There are also garments with zip-off or attachable components; you can, for example, slice off length from a pair of dark denim pants. Elsewhere, drawstring details allow the wearer to adjust their sleeves for greater freedom of movement. 

Throughout the collection, hems are folded up and buttoned in place to reveal the contrast lining. (This reminds me slightly of the fisherman’s hems, rolled upward to keep them dry from the frothing water, in Launching the Boat, Skagen by Oscar Björck.) There are sou’wester-inspired hats (a waterproof hat with a wide, slanting brim that’s longer in back to shield the wearer from the sun), reminiscent of the one the fisherman wears in one of Michael Ancher’s Skagen paintings. Fish-shaped belt charms and necklaces mimic the woven details of fishing creels. Dangling strands and rope detailing are rampant throughout. 

Rene borrows its color palette from the works of Skagen painters; the aforementioned mottled golds, the warm, earthy shades of a fisherman’s uniform, the slate grays of a stormy sky, and the glistening silver skin of fish. Dark blues capture the deep twilight tones of Denmark’s northern coast during “the blue hour,” and creamy whites evoke the color of sailcloth. Everything is rendered in fabrics that range from easy-breezy linens to weightier, more robust denim. 

“We work a lot with deadstock,” Jens said in the aforementioned interview. “Our main suppliers for this are furniture companies in Copenhagen. It allows us to create structured, beautiful silhouettes.” This season, we see the designers continue at full-steam ahead with this approach, sourcing their deadstock fabrics from Denmark, Japan, and Italy.

As the show draws to an end, the music turns tender — optimistic, even — as the melody begins to waft us back to shore. As all journeys do, this one too has to end, but what Jens and Kridipat do so well is remind us of the transformative possibilities of a well-told story on the runway, backed up with well-crafted clothes. “We just want to get our clothes out in the world and have a sustainable, healthy business,” Jens said when asked about their future goals in the aforementioned interview. “We want to set ourselves apart by making nice, distinctive clothes which people will cherish.”