MØ, Denmark’s Biggest Pop Star, Models the Best of Copenhagen Fashion Week
After spending her teenage years navigating the local punk scene in Denmark, fronting multiple grunge bands, dressing in black, and swearing by Kim Gordon and Karen O, Karen Marie Ørsted aka MØ is now one the country’s biggest pop stars. ““I remember driving around in Ubers in California and [one of my songs] would come on and I’d be like, ‘That’s my song playing on the Uber radio!’” the singer says of her burgeoning superstardom. While she says that she spends most of her life on planes, jetting from different concert venues and record studios to collaborate with the likes of Major Lazer, Justin Bieber, and Charli XCX, last week, the singer headed back home to take in the latest in Denmark fashion during Copenhagen Fashion Week. Here, the singer models the best of the week, straight off the runway.
Three years ago, at the age of nineteen, Cathrine Saks and Barbara Potts launched their eponymous line. “We want to keep our collections funny and young, because we are still so young,” explained Saks, who helmed her own jewelry line before partnering with Potts, who was a writer for ELLE Denmark at the time. “We talked about starting our own line, it was really natural for us.” With no formal training and only a few years in the game, their fur coats have already become a hot ticket item amongst editors and influencers who proudly donned their ‘Phoebe’ coat at international fashion weeks last season. “We couldn’t find a fun-colored fur,” said Saks, “so we decided to make one ourselves.” Tourism and wanderlust inspired their SS18 collection which is comprised of colorful separates such as dresses, heavily bowed blouses, and track pants. Their newest additions are swimwear and jewelry. “We want to keep it simple, follow our hearts, and make pieces we would want to wear ourselves.”
Throughout the last seven years designing menswear, Astrid Anderson has found the perfect medium between comfort and luxury. “I believe power comes from feeling comfortable and confident,” said Andersen, who debuted her second collection of womenswear in an abandoned factory in Copenhagen last week. “It’s a sports-inspired aesthetic with a luxury approach.” Her menswear roots were evident, with androgynous, oversized wide-legged silhouettes which she feminized with bright, turquoise chinoiserie prints. The designer, who admitted she is most inspired by textures and fabrics, turned to hi-tech performance fabrics which she mixed with lace, silks and fur. All evidence shows she’s on the up and up—not only did she debut her first jewelry collaboration, but before her show, announced her first merch partnership with rapper M.I.A. “It’s a sports inspired aesthetic with a luxury approach.”
After attending London’s Royal College of Art, designer Cecilie Bahnsen worked at various fashion houses in London and Paris before starting her own line in 2015. By her second season she caught the attention of Dover Street Market for her structured cotton dresses, and was an LVMH prize finalist in 2017. The wunderkind admits to fully embracing her Scandinavian heritage, maintaining a simple, clean aesthetic and constructing her pieces from crisp cottons which has remained a key material from her first season. Her newest collection is a more feminine take on her clean-cut aesthetic, adopting a more whimsical palette of pale pinks and ballooning, yet sophisticated, baby doll dresses. She said her biggest inspiration though, was the Gallery Nicolai Wall, the space where the show was held. “It was an amazing experience to design a collection to fit a space,” said Bahnsen, “each piece of clothing was designed as a work of art to fit inside the gallery, and I really think that made it all come together.”
After attending London’s Royal College of Art, designer Cecilie Bahnsen worked at various fashion houses in London and Paris before starting her own line in 2015. By her second season she caught the attention of Dover Street Market for her structured cotton dresses, and was an LVMH prize finalist in 2017. The wunderkind admits to fully embracing her Scandinavian heritage, maintaining a simple, clean aesthetic and constructing her pieces from crisp cottons which has remained a key material from her first season. Her newest collection is a more feminine take on her clean-cut aesthetic, adopting a more whimsical palette of pale pinks and ballooning, yet sophisticated, baby doll dresses. She said her biggest inspiration though, was the Gallery Nicolai Wall, the space where the show was held. “It was an amazing experience to design a collection to fit a space,” said Bahnsen, “each piece of clothing was designed as a work of art to fit inside the gallery, and I really think that made it all come together.”
Upon graduating from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp five years ago, a school which has birthed such fashion greats as Anne Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, and Demna Gvasalia, Danish designer Freya Dalsjø launched her namesake line. While she has a lust-worthy ready-to-wear collection, Dalsjø is best known for her reinterpretation of the classic trenchcoat, which comes in six different materials and colorways, such as red leather, cream cotton, and brown patent. “This season I wanted to look back at all my work, find my favorite pieces and develop from that,” she explained of her period of self-retrospection, which informed her Spring 2017 collection. Kylie Jenner wore her recent biker pants, and she’s made clothes for Rihanna. “For me, creating clothing is always about making a statement and then a counter statement. It’s about creating harmony and then breaking it until you have a good balance.”
In 2002, Karl-Oskar Olsen and Brian Jensen, launched Wood Wood from a makeshift basement office with nothing but a fax machine and a landline. They have since become the toast of the town (they also have a store in Berlin), and are considered to be the Colette of Copenhagen, known for their frequently sold-out namesake streetwear collection, as well as their inventive collaborations with companies ranging from Disney, to Barbour, to Champion, and as of last week, Adidas. Wood Wood’s collection of puffer jackets, sophisticated track pants, and iterations of workwear have secured them a place on the international fashion map. The brand, which is currently celebrating its fifteenth anniversary, concluded Copenhagen Fashion Week with a blowout block party that featured a live performance by MØ herself.
In 2002, Karl-Oskar Olsen and Brian Jensen, launched Wood Wood from a makeshift basement office with nothing but a fax machine and a landline. They have since become the toast of the town (they also have a store in Berlin), and are considered to be the Colette of Copenhagen, known for their frequently sold-out namesake streetwear collection, as well as their inventive collaborations with companies ranging from Disney, to Barbour, to Champion, and as of last week, Adidas. Wood Wood’s collection of puffer jackets, sophisticated track pants, and iterations of workwear have secured them a place on the international fashion map. The brand, which is currently celebrating its fifteenth anniversary, concluded Copenhagen Fashion Week with a blowout block party that featured a live performance by MØ herself.
