Copenhagen Fashion Week Turns 20: Drag in an Underground Reservoir, a Skate Park Rager

Copenhagen Fashion Week's 20th edition didn't celebrate by going bigger — it celebrated by widening the gap within "the same week." CPHFW CEO Cecilie Thorsmark told Dazed: "There's a real sense of momentum this year. Even with the challenging economic environment, our community of brands has shown incredible resilience, and this season proves just how relevant and dynamic Nordic fashion is." This edition packed in 34 shows and presentations, carried by Nordic labels, emerging designers, and international guests like Collina Strada — but what actually stuck in people's minds were the handful of shows that took apart what "a show" even means and put it back together differently.

Doll Parts in the Reservoir: Alectra Rothschild / MASCULINA

This season's most intense show happened at Cisternerne — an underground museum converted from an old water tank, thick with fog, late on a Tuesday night. Alectra Rothschild / MASCULINA's "Doll Parts (A Transsexual Choreography)" had models striding and dancing down the runway in sequin beading, lace, denim fishnet, fringe, inflated latex, and corsetry. In the show notes, the designer wrote: "Corsets that cinch the waist. Patches that hide what's underneath. Inflatables that exaggerate curves. These, too, are doll parts." The whole show was about the objects that both affirm and constrain trans women's bodies — not reduced to a slogan, but built into actual body politics.

A Party Open to the Public in a Skate Park: Paolina Russo

If MASCULINA was an underground secret ritual, Paolina Russo's "Lone Star" was the exact opposite move — staged at Nørrebrohallen and opened directly to the general public. Floral-print pieces, denim shorts, loose knits, and chain trims walked down the runway first, then the models who happened to be carrying skateboards just dropped in and started skating on the spot, with Grace Ives and local band Haloplus+ trading off live performances, before everyone ended the night dancing together. This show wasn't selling a concept — it just handed the space back to the people who actually showed up.

A few other shows treated "place" and "recycling" as raw material in themselves. Nicklas Skovgaard's 13th collection had models emerging one by one from vintage cars, carrying bags made in collaboration with HVISK in a range of shapes and sizes, drawing inspiration from '60s girl groups like The Supremes, The Shangri-Las, and The Ronettes — he described it as being about "the power of belonging while still insisting on individuality," with the whole show broken into mini three-piece wardrobes, soundtracked by a live set from Maya Laner's solo music project True Blue. Collina Strada, meanwhile, closed out CPHFW with its European debut, "Delirium in Bloom," in which designer Hillary Taymour emptied out every box, bin, and shelf in her studio, building the entire collection from years of accumulated fabric, trims, and scrap material. In the show notes, she wrote: "It's a reminder that transformation doesn't require more — it requires ingenuity."

Galib Gassanoff, of Azerbaijani descent and raised on the outskirts of Tbilisi, Georgia, founded his label Institution in 2024. This time, his sixth collection, "YAD," explored the idea of "elsewhere" — "the place where we exist and display memory" — through sculptural knitwear, silks with an otherworldly quality, and layers upon layers of fabric. The runway was covered in rugs from the Caucasus, Anatolia, northern Iran, and Central Asia, with models walking barefoot in handmade jorab traditional socks. Opening day belonged to Anne Sofie Madsen's final presentation under the NEWTALENT program, "The New Desire" — ruffled micro-shorts, cascading necklines, and peach silk chiffon layered over metallic star-print lingerie, with Escentric Molecules named the show's official scent and Danish recorder player Michala Petri performing live on progressively larger instruments throughout.

Mfpen founder Sigurd Bank reportedly comes from a hardcore background, and that anti-establishment energy ran through the entire SS27 show — guests climbed several flights of stairs and squeezed into a sweltering room to watch models walk a makeshift runway in the brand's signature loose-cut pieces made from surplus fabric, with nobody looking bothered by the heat. Copenhagen-based label Solitude Studios, meanwhile, delivered a pivot: known for building a nature-driven identity around felted wool and natural dyes (including some sourced from the marshland near their studio), this season's "Time Will Tell" leaned heavily into sequins and lace, drawing inspiration from the limestone quarries of southern Zealand and mapping geological timescales onto memory and garment construction.