Bicycles were parked thickly on the cobblestone streets. Sunbathers stretched out to cover every square inch of the harbor. Cafes and restaurants brimmed with people having drinks at all times of the day. Everyone wanted to be in Copenhagen, especially the style set, who descended upon the Danish capital for its ever-so-popular fashion week. The twice-a-year industry event has become the city’s ongoing strength. This year, it’s celebrating two decades of championing the region’s talents — and the energy couldn’t have been more infectious. 

Arriving at every show was like a party: everyone was kissing, hugging, reconnecting. The runways also buzzed with that spirit of optimism. Many brands, for example, leaned into live performances to arouse feelings of nostalgia, exhilaration, and even a sense of adventure. And as always, there was no shortage of talent on the roster, which this year included Institution by Georgian-Azerbaijani designer Galib Gassanoff and New York-based Collina Strada as the International Inaugural Guest Slot. So, without further ado, here are some of the most noteworthy moments that took place during Copenhagen Fashion Week spring-summer 2027, in no particular order. 

Stem: Re

As we shuffled into the venue — a former factory and waste-sorting center — the scene was set: a dozen seamstresses hunched over their sewing machines, mending and patching T-shirts collected from showgoers at the door. Giving guests an interactive glimpse into her work process isn’t exactly new to the Stem experience, but this season came with a few firsts. For one, it was founder Sarah Brunnhuber’s first runway show. It was also her first time creating a collection out of existing materials. This season, the British-born textile designer worked with Ganni’s leftover fabrics, while finding ways to stay true to the zero-waste garment-making techniques that have defined her brand for the past five years. The result was a collection full of surprises: a leopard-print dress with frayed sleeves, a red-and-white checkered dress that Sarah transformed with a special pleating technique, and more. “Even when I begin with someone else’s fabric, the process is really about asking how it can enter the same system of making,” she said in the press release.

What I loved most

Watching Sarah step outside her comfort zone and let the fabrics themselves become a source of inspiration. The floral jacquard wrap skirt was especially inspired, cut to look as though it were unraveling, with colorful strings spilling from the waist and hem.

Taus: Between Night and Morning

Walking through Møstings Hus, a neoclassical villa turned exhibition space, I stopped for the first look at demi-couture studio Taus’s presentation: a slinky, body-skimming dress in the lightest of light fabrications. Then I noticed the floor — covered in seashells and turquoise sea glass. Smash! The model stomped on a shell, pressing down and twisting the heel of her shoe as if extinguishing a cigarette. There was a certain alluring, mermaid-core sensibility to the trumpet element at the tail of an ocean-blue skirt. Elsewhere, light-as-air fabrics met more structured corsetry, while jewels (a collaboration with Pandora) were tucked inside or woven throughout sheer layers. Made entirely from deadstock materials, the collection served as an antidote of sorts to the historical bourgeois codes that founders Freyja Taus and Juho Lehiö mined when designing it.

What I loved most

Freyja and Juho always excel at bridging silhouette with setting and sound to build a story, and this presentation was no exception. It’s worth mentioning, too, that the collection was backdropped by works by Oscar Eriksson, which, according to the Norwegian artist, show “photographic fragments from queer communities across time and place.”

Institution by Galib Gassanoff: Of Sculpture 

I was a very proud Georgian when I found out that Azerbaijani-Georgian designer Galib Gassanoff had been named a finalist for the 2026 LVMH Prize — a big win for a map-dot country tucked away in the Caucasus Mountains. I was even more exhilarated when I learned that, as the winner of the Zalando Visionary Award, Galib had been invited to show his collection during Copenhagen Fashion Week. Unsurprisingly, it was nothing short of extraordinary. Inside the atrium of Copenhagen’s Statens Museum for Kunst, the floor was lined with patterned carpets from Central Asia, Northern Iran, Anatolia, and Eastern Europe, weaving together centuries-old craft traditions from across the region.

Then came the clothes: coats imploded with volume, pulled tight at the waist with delicate strings and ballooning over the body in calculated folds. Galib took a dramatic approach to pleating, creating sculptural drapes that transformed one panniered frock into something closer to a moving sculpture, not unlike the many works that can be found in various historical corners of my country. Later came gauzy, cloud-like garments, cinched and manipulated into ethereal silhouettes. Some of the show-closing looks were embellished with Georgian coins called “tetri,” which also translates to mean “white.” The fact that the coins appeared on all-white looks — a color that dominates the collection — felt particularly poetic.

What I loved most

How Galib uses fashion and craft to tell the story of his home region and its heritage. “My idea is not about fashion,” Ghalib told Wallpaper earlier this month. “It is more about culture, ethnography, craftsmanship — that is what interests me the most.”

Rene: Sea Marked

As soon as we stepped inside Nordatlantens Brygge — a former warehouse on Copenhagen’s waterfront — we were taken on a journey. First, through sound: Danish composer and cellist Josefine Opsahl opened Copenhagen-based Rene’s spring-summer 2027 show with a swelling, moving prologue. Founded in 2022 by husband-and-wife duo Jens Skov Østergaard and Kridipat Østergaard, the brand marries Scandinavian minimalism with Asian influences. This season, the designers turned to Nordic seafaring history and traditions, dreaming up oversized, loose-fit shapes designed to move freely around the body. You could see it immediately in the opening looks, where mottled fabrics evoked shorelines of exposed salt flats and sand. Pants ballooned and flapped like sails. Fisherman’s uniforms inspired utilitarian details: multiple pockets, zip-off and attachable components, and drawstrings that let the wearer adjust and transform each look. The nautical references continued with sou’wester-inspired hats, and fish-shaped belt charms and necklaces.

What I loved most

That the designers fully embraced the theme without veering into obvious nautical tropes. Everything felt thoughtfully constructed. And the musical performance alone? Worthy of massive applause.

Mr. Larkin: Lucky

The spring-summer 2027 show marked Mr. Larkin’s first-ever appearance on the Copenhagen Fashion Week schedule, and Casey Blond, the founder and creative director, was feeling lucky — for plenty of reasons. It’s been 13 years since Casey, a Texas native, opened her colorful, multi-brand shop with an in-house label in Copenhagen. (After an eight-year hiatus, Casey also brought Mr. Larkin’s wholesale business.) That sense of optimism was captured throughout the collection. Think: an airy shell-pink lace dress, black capri leggings edged with delicate gold charms, and bright and silky, vintage-inspired silhouettes with broad shoulders. She punctuated the garments with playful seashells, beads, and jewel-like trimmings. “The pieces are artful and individualistic — a bit difficult to pinpoint — but the silhouettes function in your life, whether for a special moment or a standard Tuesday,” Casey said. “Every piece has a reason to be worn, always born from a real-world perspective.”  

What I loved most

Casey drew inspiration from everywhere — her travels, her Texas upbringing, her years in California and Paris, her family roots in Palermo, and her current life in Copenhagen. Nowhere did it come through more vividly than in the collection’s color palette: dusty pinks and turquoise blues, shades of sea and sky, sun and nostalgia. 

Gestuz: Double Exposure

Walking into the sprawling venue for Gestuz’s spring-summer 2027 show, it was hard not to notice the many analog photo booths scattered throughout the space. After a musical performance kicked things off, models would occasionally duck into the booths, and then emerge fanning freshly printed photo strips. “I wanted to dwell on rituals as a feminine language,” the brand’s creative director, Sanne Sehested, said. “These small gestures without productivity, without purpose beyond just pleasure. Something quite hard to explain, but still so clear on an emotional level.” Sanne launched Gestuz back in 2008, and the brand has been a fixture on the Danish fashion scene ever since, known for its shoulder-padded, cool-girl aesthetic  —  effortless and oversized, with a touch of rock ’n’ roll. For this collection, Sanne leaned into the ’70s, playing up those power shoulders in boxy blazers, loose-fitting polos, and peplum-waisted leather jackets. She dialed up the confidence with a series of zebra prints that showed up everywhere from a floor-sweeping slip to a mini skirt with a textured, napped finish, complete with a matching clutch. 

What I loved most

Sanne is the queen of outerwear, and this season’s offering did not disappoint. There were some seriously fantastic leather trenches and paneled jackets — the kind I already know I’ll be thinking about as soon as the slightest bit of chill returns to the air later this year.

Paolina Russo: Lone Star

At around 7 p.m. on the second day of Copenhagen Fashion Week, the square outside Nørrebrohallen, an enormous sports complex, was packed to the gills with a crowd of desperate-to-get-in fans. The reason? Paolina Russo had decided to throw a concert — and then took it one step further by opening it up to the public. Grace Ives and Copenhagen band Haloplus+ delivered kinetic, inventive live sets in a kind of “battle of the bands” as the show went on. It was all part of the story behind the collection: a heroine who spends summers at her grandmother’s house hand-piecing a lone-star quilt by afternoon and then sneaking out to the skatepark by night. That sense of escape and self-expression pulsed through the collection, which was chock-full of bright colors and optimism of the early-aughts. Paolina’s innovative textiles were shown alongside laser-etched denim and canvas. Delicate floral prints came alive in daring acid greens and reds, bringing the heroine’s two disparate worlds together. Long tops were layered over low-slung, baggy cargo pants, and semi-sheer, flouncy dresses were offset by flashes of bright leggings.

What I loved most

The energy was unmatched — especially when some of the models actually skated the runway in their looks. And the concert didn’t stop when the show did. The party kept going, giving fans plenty of reason to be happy they’d snuck out for the evening. 

Henrik Vibskov: Keep The Moisture Rising

The set for Henrik Vibskov’s spring-summer 2027 collection is grand: a black frame, like construction scaffolding, punctuated by red-and-white, parasol-like spirals turning in the wind. It’s massive and instantly eye-catching, as Henrik’s sets tend to be — elaborate constructions that often double as art installations. Fittingly, this one was installed in the courtyard of Designmuseum Denmark. So, given its grandeur, you’ll be hard-pressed to believe me when I tell you that the jumping-off point for the collection was actually — wait for it — a tube of cream. But not just any cream; it’s one Henrik has habitually reached for his whole life to fix, well, just about anything.

This season, he reached for it again, this time as a source of inspiration, pulling visual cues from the formulation as it’s squeezed from the tube, slathered in spirals, and smoothed over the skin. From there, the idea expanded to creams of all kinds: coffee cream, whipped cream, milkshakes. On the runway, unevenly textured bumps lent depth to checked boiled-wool jackets, robes and separates. Elsewhere, fabric was manipulated into ruffles and all-over shirring, conjuring the swirls and ridges of cream. The standout was a series of fantastic lightweight coats, their elasticated construction creating puckered, ruched sections around the waist, sleeves, and pockets. One word: genius.

What I loved most

Henrik’s ability to take such a tiny, unexpected inspiration and spin it into a full-blown collection. It’s offbeat, it’s fun, and — best of all — incredibly wearable and texturally rich.

Baum und Pferdgarten: After the Rehearsal

Rikke Baumgarten and Helle Hestehave aren’t the first designers to find inspiration in ballet, but they are among the few to look beyond the barre. “We were drawn to the moments when the performance is over, but the feeling remains,” the creative directors said. “There is something beautiful about dancers once they leave the stage — when elegance feels effortless. We wanted to capture that confidence and translate it into a wardrobe for everyday life.” The setting couldn’t have been more fitting: a former royal pavilion, now a cafe, tucked inside the grand grounds of Rosenborg Castle. Backdropped by ornate statues and columns, models walked in looks that borrowed liberally from a dancer’s off-duty wardrobe: ruffled, tutu-like belts, leggings peeking out beneath skirts and capris, and an abundance of leg warmers. There were some corset-like lace-up details on jackets, borrowed from traditional dance costuming, and sheer, floral-beaded moments that brought a hint of frothy femininity.

What I loved most

The dancewear-inspired aesthetic (or balletcore) has been everywhere for the past few years. But in this collection, the ballet references were just subtle enough, cleverly folded into the designers’ sharp Scandinavian tailoring and distinct design language.

Iamisigo: Sacred Ecologies

At the entrance, we were each assigned a color and told to wait until ours was called. When my turn finally came, my ears perked up as I stepped into the next room. It was dark. I rounded the black curtain — and there it was: Iamisigo’s spring-summer 2027 presentation. We huddled in front of it. Figures meandered like moving sculptures through the sand-colored set, scattered with rocks — slowly and deliberately, exactly the way Babu Ogisi designed the scene to be appreciated. This season, the Lagos-based designer (last year’s winner of the Zalando Visionary Award) sought inspiration in the Lukasa memory board: an hourglass-shaped tablet decorated with beads and shells in special configurations that the Luba people of south-central Congo used to record their history. So, when developing the collection, Babu asked: What if clothes could also act as a living record — of land, history, and ancestral knowledge? 

The designer has built her brand around African crafts and traditions, and this season, she’s continuing that mission, using the continent’s natural resources to tell its story: banana fiber sourced from Uganda, sisal from Tanzania, recycled aluminum from Kenya, and cotton from Nigeria. The result was a textural wonder, full of architectural silhouettes: a concave corset shaped like the Lukasa; massive, padded braids crossing over the torso; thick strips of fabric woven into a checkerboard-type effect; heavily frayed hems hanging from hems and sleeves. 

What I loved most

Can I say everything? The signature beaded pieces in particular were a standout, especially an all-black look that featured a beaded tie with a writhing snake. What’s more: Everything came in burnt oranges, russets, blacks, and slivers of blue — colors that felt plucked straight from a landscape of earth and sky. 

Collina Strada: Delirium in Bloom

For the last show on the schedule, we gathered by the waterfront near Copenhagen’s Opera House to see what New York-based Collina Strada would present as this season’s international guest. By the time the show began, the temperature had dropped several degrees. Off in the distance, I heard the sound of plucked strings. The wind stirred the branches as if the trees themselves were dancing to the swell of music. Above us, the sunlight flickered from bright to dim, dousing everything in golden light and just as quickly, taking it all away. All to say: There was a distinct fairytale-ness to it all, and that was only amplified by the collection itself. 

Rather than sourcing new materials this season, founder and creative director Hillary Taymour went back to what she already had. As the press release put it: “We opened every box, bin, and shelf in our studio and committed to creating an entire collection from the fabrics, trims, notions, and remnants we’ve accumulated over the years.” The show opened with lots of creamy, paper-thin layers and delicate lace — twisted, puckered, pleated, and gathered in the most artful ways. As it progressed, Hillary showed even more technical mastery, proving that you don’t really need new fabrics; all you need is a new way of looking at them. Take, for example, a blue dress made with woven strips of fabric, and a skirt with material repeatedly gathered into very tight, irregular ripples. 

What I loved most

Everything had this sort of destroyed-yet-ethereal glamour, and of course, no one could keep their eyes off the toeless socks and all that head-to-toe glitter.