Meet the great Danes of global fashion

A bitingly cold evening in Copenhagen and a crowd of 150 journalists, buyers and fashion insiders is cramming into the shop and HQ of Danish brand Saks Potts. Models, dressed in festival-ready minidresses and fringed boots, perambulate what was once the city’s royal pharmacy, as editors and photographers elbow each other for a good shot.  

“We like to do things in an unconventional way,” says Barbara Potts, who, along with Cathrine Saks, co-founded the womenswear label straight out of high school in 2014. “We never think in a straight line.” Best known for its signature fur-trimmed Foxy coat (€1,330), Saks Potts has become one of Denmark’s biggest fashion exports, with 50 stockists around the world and fans including Leandra Medine Cohen, Alexa Chung and Bella Hadid. The clothes, such as eyelet-embellished leather trousers (€695) and reversible shearling jackets (€1,800), meld playful design with thoughtful details: jeans come with detachable leather coin purses and jackets feature D-rings onto which you can clip your AirPods case. “We’re very inspired by the Copenhagen lifestyle and biking everywhere,” says Saks. “Our design philosophy is built on practicality.” 

With its focus on wardrobe staples with unexpected twists, plus social media savvy, Saks Potts represents much of the appeal of Copenhagen’s fashion scene, which – for a city with a population of around 1.4mn – has had an outsized influence globally. If you’ve noticed a flurry of oversized collars or whimsical, billowing dresses on the street, it’s in large part down to the influence of labels such as Ganni, Cecilie Bahnsen and Stine Goya, who have spearheaded a peppy, maximalist approach to dressing. According to the Danish fashion and textile association DM&T, the industry’s revenues have grown by more than 30 per cent since 2014, from €5.8bn to €7.6bn last year, with exports of clothing and footwear rising by almost 50 per cent (as opposed to a five per cent rise in domestic sales). 

Practical doesn’t mean you have to look boring

“I remember walking around the fashion fairs where we would show our collections in the early days: everything was either grey or off-white,” says Stine Goya. She launched her namesake label, “a challenge to the Danish fashion scene”, in 2006 after graduating from London’s Central Saint Martins. Inspired by the art world and the colourful palette of Copenhagen’s harbour, Goya’s exuberant, hand-drawn designs are now stocked with 400 retailers; sales have grown by 30 per cent over the past five years, with the UK and US its biggest markets. Its success is due, in part, to its democratic price point (knitwear starts from £155, while dresses, its bestselling category, start from £190).

“Our customers say that they like it because it’s aspirational, and you still have to think about it, but it’s accessible,” says Goya. “I think most of us [designers] are in that category here in Copenhagen.”

“Where the Danes have been successful is in having a unique point of view and combining that with an affordability and a really strong community-building strategy,” says Browns’ former buying director and creative agency founder Ida Petersson, who has attended Copenhagen Fashion Week for the past eight years. “It’s that holy trinity that has made them be able to stand out in a very busy landscape.” 

A focus on sustainability also binds these brands, thanks in part to Copenhagen Fashion Week’s sustainability standards, which mandate participants to adhere to strict criteria across areas such as show production and materials. Petersson credits the appointment of Cecilie Thorsmark as CEO of the fashion week in 2018 as a turning point. She’s pushed “a social and environmental responsibility”, says Petersson. “Even Paris, which has always been the leader when it comes to that, has started to look to Copenhagen and adopt some of these practices.”

Ganni has phased out virgin animal leather and Stine Goya favours plant-based alternatives, while buzzy newcomer Nicklas Skovgaard, who creates romantic, renaissance-inspired puffball dresses and skirts, prioritises waste minimisation by using thrifted fabrics from second-hand stores and flea markets and weaving his own textiles to the exact amount required. “It’s a very time-consuming process,” says Skovgaard, who worked as a stylist before setting up his label in 2020. “It takes two to three days to make a jacket. But I feel it should be done the right way.”

Other brands are refreshing the classic pared-back Scandi aesthetic. Co-ed labels such as Another Aspect, Mfpen and Mark Kenly Domino Tan are ushering in a new kind of Danish minimalism, focusing on well-crafted, wearable staples and simplicity of form. “When you grow up in Denmark with architects and furniture designers like Arne Jacobsen and Poul Henningsen, there’s always this idea of good taste,” says Sigurd Bank, who founded Mfpen in 2016 after working as a fashion buyer. “I don’t want clothing that makes too much noise. I think that’s very Danish – to have simple stuff but good stuff.”

Mfpen, whose revenues grew by 30 per cent in 2023 from the previous year, has a loyal following for its casual tailoring and shirting made from high-quality deadstock fabrics (trousers start at €240, blazers at €450). Though it still channels a Scandinavian classicism, there is a countercultural informality to the designs – such as raw edges on trousers and blazers with unstructured shoulders. “Most men don’t want to look like a douche bag when they’re wearing a suit,” says Bank. “We offer a suit that is 100 per cent tropical wool and has a slightly looser fit, so I think we’ve hit a sweet spot where you just get a very high-quality suit and it feels nice to wear.”

Striking a balance between contemporary and classic has also been behind the success of jewellery and accessories brands such as Lié Studio, whose elegant sterling-silver and gold-plated designs, such as the bestselling Elly necklace (from £295), parlay the style of its founders, models and twin sisters Cecilie and Amalie Moosgaard. Launched in 2021, the brand has already become a multimillion-euro business, listing revenues of €2.5mn last year, which it is expected to double this year.   

“In Scandinavia, we’re very practical but it doesn’t mean you have to look boring,” says Amalie. “We might just wear a kitten heel instead of a high heel because you don’t want your heel to get stuck in a grate.”

Then there is Sophie Bille Brahe, whose understated approach to classic pearl and diamond jewellery has helped her to become one of the world’s most exciting fine jewellers (revenues grew by 259 per cent from 2019 to 2022, with the US driving 35 per cent of sales). Her clean, sculptural creations, such as the Embrassée de Diamant earring (£11,500) and bestselling Collier de Tennis necklace, a delicate string of diamonds graduating in size (£44,000), draw inspiration from the city’s starry night skies. 

“In Denmark, everybody is close to the sea and close to the sky in a way. It’s very clean,” says Bille Brahe, who trained as a goldsmith before founding her eponymous label in 2011. “I feel that is what defines my aesthetic. Whenever I want to use a diamond, I always think, how clean can I show this diamond? How can I show the beauty of a pearl itself? And growing up with Georg Jensen and all this very clean Danish design, I feel it’s in our blood. It’s in the air we breathe.”