That Girl
What Really Happened to Copenhagen Fashion Week
The Cool Girl Fashion Week Isn’t Enough Anymore
Article by Gili Biegun
1/2/26
Herskind AW26 Collection. Images Courtesy of the brand
I’ve been coming to Copenhagen Fashion Week long enough to remember when it still felt like a secret. “I didn’t even know they had a fashion week there,” Italian colleagues would say. Five or six years ago, it was small, intimate, and strangely addictive. The original IYKYK. The kind of week you attended out of curiosity, not obligation.
Back then, the hype came from the girls. Scandinavian girls arriving at shows with that very specific mix of effortlessness and je ne sais quoi you only see in Copenhagen. Layered looks, bold color, clashing prints on prints, or the opposite extreme of Danish minimalism done so well it felt fresh and precise. Street style photographers loved it. Social media loved it. International editors took notice. For a few seasons, Copenhagen became the cool girl fashion week, almost by accident.
Baum Und Pferdgarten AW26 Collection. Images Courtesy of the brand
But the industry is shifting, and so is the way attention works. Loud street style moments, clashing colors, and viral outfits shot outside shows are no longer the currency they once were. Fashion has moved toward something quieter. More elegant, more minimal, more mature. Less about the street and more about what happens inside. Even though Scandinavian women still dress beautifully, an elegant look simply does not command the same attention as a bold, colorful one. It is less viral, less clickable, and with that, some of the international focus has slowly begun to drift.
This shift becomes more visible when looking at what has disappeared. The closure of Saks Potts. Major brands like Ganni leaving for Paris. Stine Goya choosing pop cultural visibility through Emily in Paris over a traditional runway show. Remain, my personal favorite, no longer showing on schedule. Meanwhile, brands that presented strong collections this season, such as Herskind and Baum und Pferdgarten, risk being overlooked if Copenhagen Fashion Week continues to lose momentum and relevance.
Herskind AW26 Collection. Images Courtesy of the brand
At the same time, the entire system around fashion weeks has changed. The traditional runway calendar, showing collections six months ahead for buyers, no longer serves every brand. Many labels have realized that if consumers watch a show today but cannot buy anything until half a year later, the impact is limited. Some brands have shifted to direct to consumer models. Others have replaced runway shows with dinners, private events, presentations, or intimate showrooms. And some simply ran out of money.
The result in Copenhagen is visible. What used to be five packed days has been compressed into one intense day of major shows, accompanied by two days dominated by emerging names that often fail to attract buyers or international press. Concentrating all the big brands into a single day sounds efficient, but in reality it hurts everyone. When six or seven strong shows happen back to back, experiences blur. Guests forget what they saw where. Buyers struggle to remember details. Everything collapses into one vague impression of Scandinavian fashion. No one wins.
Baum Und Pferdgarten AW26 Collection. Images Courtesy of the brand
Then there is the sustainability conversation, which for years has been Copenhagen Fashion Week’s strongest narrative. The idea of a green fashion week helped set it apart and positioned the city as morally ahead of the curve. But that story has started to crack. A recent must-read Forbes column by Stephan Rabimov questioned the reality behind these claims, pointing to contradictions between messaging and practice. Levels of production, material choices, waste, and travel all come into question. Flying people in from all over the world. Producing temporary sets. Printing endless paper. Clothing made in cheap materials in big volumes distributed around the world. It raises an uncomfortable but necessary question. How sustainable can a fashion week really be?
This critique did not hurt Copenhagen because it was written. It hurt because it articulated doubts that were already there. When sustainability becomes a slogan instead of a structure, credibility suffers.
Herskind AW26 Collection. Images Courtesy of the brand
Timing has not helped either. The August edition lands in the middle of European summer holidays, when much of Italy, France, and beyond is effectively offline. Asking people to leave their families to attend shows becomes a hard sell. The winter edition overlaps with Paris Haute Couture Week and with sales campaigns, forcing buyers and journalists to choose. And when the choice is between Copenhagen and Paris, Paris usually wins.
All of this has made recent editions feel less productive, not only this winter but over several seasons. Less focused. Less effective. Less essential.
And yet, I do not believe Copenhagen Fashion Week is finished. I believe it needs to go back to basics.
Right now, the most interesting thing happening in fashion is intimacy. In Paris, the coolest shows are no longer the biggest ones. They are small, private, almost discreet. Fifty people in a room, not a thousand in a stadium. That sense of closeness creates desire. It creates memory. It creates meaning.
MUNTHE AW26 dinner and MUNTHE Magazine presentation
Copenhagen was once great at this. It was small, and that was the point. Somewhere along the way, scale became confused with success. Bigger venues, bigger audiences, bigger gestures. But bigger is not always better. Especially not now.
The dinners in Copenhagen still work because they do what shows increasingly fail to do. They bring people together. They create real conversation. They build relationships. They feel human. That is the energy the city should lean into again.
Copenhagen will always be the cool girl fashion week. That part is real, and it still matters. The challenge now is converting that cool factor into a business that actually works. Brands need to sell. Buyers need clarity. Editors need space to think and remember.
Exclusivity does not mean exclusion. It means intention. Smaller shows, more intimate settings, clearer focus. Less noise, more meaning.
If Copenhagen can recalibrate, resist the pressure to perform, and choose connection instead, it still has a future. Not as the loudest fashion week, but as one of the most thoughtful. And in today’s fashion landscape, that may be the most powerful position of all.
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