Copenhagen’s biggest fashion event is known for its Earth-conscious agenda.
It was the first fashion week to enforce sustainability requirements for brands showing on its schedule, spanning everything from the use of smart material to their production and labour practices, so it not surprising that innovative fabrics formed a common thread at this year’s event.
At an intimate presentation in the brand’s own studio, hangers displayed looks featuring antique lace and velvet, and Indian silks layered under Japanese indigo-dyed cotton.
The result was luxuriously worldly but distinctly Danish in execution, with Malling’s eye for colour and texture helping bring the disparate pieces of the puzzle together in a seemingly effortless way.
Another take on deadstock made noise at (di)vision, a Copenhagen-based streetwear-adjacent brand known for its viral fashion show moments: last year’s autumn show saw a model rise from a table, taking with her the tablecloth, which was attached to her dress – cutlery and all.
This season, founder Simon Wick’s collection was an ode to urban maximalism, and fused upcycling with childhood nostalgia and grunge. Reworked cycling jerseys, military uniforms and denim were mixed with lace sourced from bridal gowns.
“It’s probably the opposite of Scandi minimalism,” Wick said with a laugh.
Five years ago, he started selling split-coloured bomber jackets made by repurposing old military styles – they were all he could make because he was not formally trained. They remain his bestselling product.
“There was already too many clothes in the world and I didn’t know how to make them, so that’s how we started out,” said Wick, who went from making all his pieces out of old product to shifting towards using deadstock fabrics and incorporating traditional (i.e. factory) production into his supply chain – the brand could no longer rely on upcycling once wholesale clients came knocking and asked to place larger orders.
Many customers are confused these days, so our way of innovating is making it less complicated
Wick is currently figuring out how he can balance growth with staying true to (di)vision’s ethos.
“I’d love to be able to work with only deadstock [and] upcycling but I also want to have entry-level products for my customers – they’re young and I want things to be affordable,” he added.
“It was almost impossible to run a business with upcycling while keeping low prices. Your competitors are these multibillion-dollar companies. It can feel super restrictive, but you can play with it – it’s all about the mindset.”
Wick’s dilemma is relatable for many small businesses in an industry where it is hard enough to survive without the extra costs of being planet-friendly. But, considering the number of emerging labels with circularity and innovative textile use baked into their business models, the overall outlook in Copenhagen is optimistic.
Take Stem, an up-and-coming Danish brand that flanked its runway show with models sat knitting – a reference to the business’ radical, hands-on approach to production.
A dreamy palette of reds, creams, and baby blues and pinks helped foreground the rich, earthy textures of each look, which put spins on wardrobe fixtures such as the white button-down and the striped rugby shirt.
With Stem, founder and textile designer Sarah Brunnhuber is looking to address waste, overproduction and the growing designer-customer disconnect.
For some brands, the most effective innovations are the simplest. “Many customers are confused these days, so our way of innovating is making it less complicated,” said Louise Nyboe Andersen, head of PR at Danish label Skall Studio.
Skall’s latest show, which was a perfect match for the balmy temperatures, played up the brand’s sustainability credentials with a display of breezy, timeless basics.
Jeans, which this season appeared with lighter washes and slouchier boyfriend silhouettes, are rendered in 100 per cent organic cotton – a monofibre, meaning they can be easily reused.
The jeans are produced in Turkey in a factory using eco-tech that drastically reduces water consumption throughout the denim production process.
They embody Skall’s sustainability strategy of tackling the granular aspects of the supply chain – such as only working with 100 per cent natural fibres – while making clothes that are meant to be worn long term and refined over time, rather than producing newness for newness’ sake.
Elsewhere on the schedule, textile tech companies worked with emerging labels to further the scope of their innovation.
One example was Spinnova, a Finnish company that has developed a patented machine to create cotton-like textile fibres from raw materials such as wood pulp, and waste from leather, agriculture and textile production.
Clothing and textile designers were not the only ones advocating for a more circular approach to the design process.
Kinraden, a Danish jewellery label founded by architect Sarah Müllertz, is doing so with sculptural pieces realised in recycled 18-carat gold and sterling silver.
A striking addition to the brand, however, is not a metal, but mpingo wood, an African blackwood that Müllertz discovered through her architecture practice. The brand sources mpingo from a World Wide Fund for Nature-owned forest in Tanzania, East Africa.
Because mpingo wood is so hard and dense, Kinraden is the only brand making jewellery out of it.
“You need to work with diamond cutters because it’s so hard. But it doesn’t work against the metal – it has the same structure,” says chief executive Christina Neustrup. “The hardest part was convincing people to work with the wood. It’s so hard that if you’re a normal woodcutter, it ruins your machines.”
To fully shape the wood to Müllertz’s designs, the brand has developed a special machine capable of working with its properties. Some may say the jewellery brand’s approach to sourcing is over the top, but Neustrup sees it as an imperative.
“These metals don’t degenerate – there’s so much gold and silver in the world that’s already been dug up, and you don’t have to do more mining. There’s no excuse not to use it.” It is a perspective that speaks to Kinraden’s name, the Old English form of “kindred”.
“We want to say every choice you have will have an effect on others,” says Neustrup. “It will always have a consequence for someone else.”