Five disruptive designers from Copenhagen Fashion Week AW25

There were murmurs throughout the fashion circuit about whether Copenhagen Fashion Week could survive after Ganni and Cecilie Bahnsen packed their bags for Paris. These fears intensified when the recent shuttering of Saks Potts and (Di)vision, two of the biggest brands in the city, left a gaping hole in the fashion week schedule.

But CFW pushed on, with emerging designers stepping into the breach and giving the week a much-needed injection of energy. New to the schedule came Bonnetje, a brand dedicated to making clothing out of deadstock materials, and Birrot, with its contemporary fusion of Japanese and minimalist sensibilities. Then there was Stel, returning after last season’s debut (which was styled by A$AP Nast). Styled this time by Julia Sarr-Jamois, their off-beat layering saw sleeveless puffed-out gilets married with blazers, and origami-style shirts paired with raw denim.

The New Talent Programme – which aims to support Nordic talent on the runway, financially and through mentoring – also flung open the doors to Berner Kühl, Alectra Rothschild, Stamm, Bonnetje and Taus, with all five up-and-comers joining this year’s roster of shows. Emerging designers, much like the LFW’s Fashion East talent incubator, allows each brand to be a part of the New Talent Programme three times. All told, it made for a fashion week that refused to be deterred by the departures and closures of established brands and was, instead, intent on platforming the future faces of fashion.

​“This season was a lucid reminder of how important it is to spotlight the next generation of creative talent,” chief operating officer Isabella Rose Davey told THE FACE. ​“From the moving and raw rage against the violence towards the trans community that was witnessed at Alectra Rothschild’s show, to the directional vision of Bonnetje, the deeper social purpose at Stamm, the celebration of craft and community at Berner Kuhl, and the romanticism of artisanal practices at Taus, the schedule glistened this season with the impact that was felt by the vanguards of the Nordics.”

What she said. But if you missed this season’s line-up of disruptive shows, all isn’t lost. Meet five of those designers who turned Copenhagen Fashion Week on its head.

Donald Trump’s inauguration speech about trans people’s rights played on a loop before the words ​“Give the girl a gun” reverberated around the hushed room at the Alectra Rothschild show. They were the words of Cassandra Augusta Jørgensen, the performer who opened the show. Cassandra, dressed in a white corset decked in spikes and makeshift heels covered in tape (a detail often seen on Alectra’s footwear), circled the runway while repeating the phrase. Only then did the first look come bounding down the blackened catwalk.

As much a performance as a catwalk show, flashing lights, thumping techno and a barrage of looks were sent down the catwalk, from a sheer draped white dress to a corset paired with a minuscule thong to a deconstructed metallic dress. Then the models took to the floor to display their impressive dance and acrobatic skills.

“The new talent scheme has truly allowed me to speak and to bring my friends, family and community into it,” Alectra, post-show, said of the collection. She was galvanised by the message that bodily autonomy is priceless – and, of course, personal. ​“My life as a trans woman and the violence it has come with informed the collection,” she added, pointing out the ​“blood-gushing latex pieces, [and] dresses that are ripped off the body to show the bruises and scars from existing as a trans person in our society.” As her third and final collection under the new talent umbrella, she admitted it was both an emotional moment and relief to put the pieces out into the world. ​“This collection was something I’ve struggled to face, as it’s a very sensitive subject. I’m very happy that it’s done now.”

Anna Myntekær and Yoko Maja Hansen, the creative directors behind Bonnetje, didn’t have to look far to find their source of inspiration for their latest line. ​“Our studio is based in an old abandoned office building, where the previous owners left a lot of office furniture et cetera,” says Anna. ​“For this collection, we have been very inspired by our surroundings. When you work in an old office building with old suits, you can’t stop thinking about who used to wear this suit.”

Suited and booted TV shows and films that have infiltrated the zeitgeist over the decades – from American Psycho to Severance via multiple points in between – were a focal point as the pair ruminated on the sort of person who previously inhabited their repurposed office space. ​“How you put your suit on and be a professional one can trust? Who’s inside? We had a lot from the office environment on our mood board.” The results? Old suits were dissected and recombined to create jackets with multiple pockets, shirting with cut-outs and dresses encased in transparent covers. We say: it’s only a matter of time before Julia Fox’s paws are all over the bra made of office blinds.

Freyja Taus, the founder of Taus, has taken her love of four-legged creatures to another level. To mark her label’s second run on the showroom roster, and its second year in business, she unveiled a beast of a collection called… Bæst.

Teeing up the themes, the show’s notes featured phrases such as ​“He was a cold-blooded beast” and ​“We, unlike dumb beasts, can reflect upon our impulses”. ​“Bæst explores the complex relationship between humans and other animals,” the designer says of a nine-piece collection that included an upcycled leather skirt and a fringed dress made from a vintage scarf. ​“It challenges the idea of who the real ​‘beast’ is in today’s world and subverts bourgeois codes of animal interactions, such as horse riding and hunting.”

Taus teamed up with premium deadstock company Recovo. Their lavish fabrics were used to craft an oversized wool trench coat, a leather riding skirt – because a trip to the barn deserves a serve – and a cashmere blend, poncho-style coat. Those secondhand leather finds were a highlight for the designer. ​“My favourite look this season features an upcycled design made from two pairs of leather trousers found in a Finnish thrift store. We transformed them into a top with hand-cut leather feathers and a skirt with waistlines at both the top and bottom. Those pieces represent an evolution of our work.”

It’s a big responsibility being the only menswear brand showing during the Copenhagen AW25 calendar. However Berner Kühl, founder of the namesake brand, proved he’s more than up to the task. Berner eschewed the runway for a more scaled-back presentation, one centred around the street he lived on while acquiring his masters at Polimoda fashion school in Florence.

​“It’s very much in this location that all the initial thoughts for Berner Kühl were born,” he explains of his brand values. Rather than shying away from the notion that Scandi’s love minimalism, Kühl leaned into it. Models stood on plinths in the Berner Kühl store window in espresso jackets, plain oatmeal tops, slouchy trousers and trench coats. The interchangeable business-to-casual pieces were a hit with the fashion crew.

Patches of astroturf, muddy boots and numerous pairs of ever-polarising split tabi boots made up the foundations/​what we might call the base notes of the Stamm presentation this season. Creative director Elisabet Stamm took the adage green fingers literally, transforming their mood board into a runway-turned-greenhouse. Aloof models posed in monogrammed hoodies, rose-printed bottoms (an ode to the rose garden next to the Stamm studio), manipulated joggers and reversed jeans, all complemented by flats resembling hooves and chunky boots caked in muddy grass. It was Elisabet’s love letter to Copenhagen’s lush greenery. Chat, shall we take bets on whether SS25 will be shown in an allotment?