A gown by Cecilie Bahnsen is a should. Romantic, voluminous and as dreamy as a fairy story, the distinctive creations of the Danish designer are artworks that may be worn for any event.
And through Paris Vogue Week, in a breezy whitewashed gallery nestled within the bustling Marais district, women in an array of breezy, maximalist clothes in black, white and powder blue – layered cool over denims and Uniqlo base layers – are busy taking of patrons’ orders. Days earlier, that they had prepped seems, made remaining changes, orchestrated the lineup, and shot content material, whereas a small little one (stylist Emelie Johansson’s) performed with an iPad on the ground, fortunately sniffing half a cucumber the scale of hers. forearm.
It is the day after Bahnsen’s Fall/Winter 2023 present, and her assortment – recent off the runway on the Palais de Tokyo, starting from lemon pastel and sunflower yellow by cerulean blue to rose blossom and magenta crimson – is now being displayed on mannequins. Main as much as the present and sale interval, the Copenhagen-based inventive, greatest recognized for the aforementioned clothes, transports her complete workforce to the French capital – lock, inventory and a pair of softly buzzing stitching machines. “My workforce is like an prolonged household — we now have lunch collectively daily — so this looks like a household outing,” Bahnsen tells ELLE.com.
Cecilie Bahnsen walks the runway at her Fall/Winter 2023 present.
Bahnsen started her profession as an assistant to John Galliano in Paris, obtained her grasp’s diploma in womenswear from the Royal Collage of Artwork in London and labored for 3 years at British label Erdem earlier than launching her eponymous model in her native Denmark in 2015. The road gained on the spot acclaim and she or he has since moved from main the Copenhagen Vogue Week program to exhibiting within the main leagues at PFW, the place she is now in her third season.
Bahnsen calls her physique of labor “on a regular basis couture” – a physique of labor that mixes the romanticism and craftsmanship of Parisian ateliers with the inventive power of London and Denmark’s heritage in design and structure. When you can draw comparisons to London designer Simone Rocha for these pumped-up volumes, it is Bahnsen’s clear, fashionable Scandinavian aesthetic and infinite lightness that units her aside.
The label, unbiased partly because of the assist of the Danish Arts Council, is on monitor to succeed in $10 million in gross sales this 12 months, with world shops akin to MatchesFashion, and moved into new headquarters in Copenhagen’s design district in Might (“when the climate is evident, you possibly can see all the best way to the ocean,” says Bahnsen.) It lately opened an workplace in New York, relocating two members of the workforce, together with the worldwide head of gross sales.
A glance from Cecilie Bahnsen Fall/Winter 2023.
The newest assortment locations a higher emphasis on wearability – retaining Bahnsen’s whimsical DNA of shade and prospers – with a extra mature, elevated look.
“This season, the silhouettes have been loads slimmer, so it had a extra refined femininity, nevertheless it was additionally extra grown-up, with a bit extra angle than earlier than,” Bahnsen says of layered pencil skirts that embrace a number of physique shapes — her signature organza gathered and smocked for stretch and luxury.
Likewise, the vary has grow to be rounder and extra expansive, with refined utilitarian items of Japanese uncooked denim – jackets that get a kick from pannier pockets, and tailor-made tailor-made trousers with pleated entrance pleats – plus delicate knitwear in recycled cashmere and merino wool. The objective, says Bahnsen, is “to proceed what we’re doing and hold our universe evolving.”
How her personal workforce shapes her clothes types is a continuing supply of inspiration. Bahnsen determined to launch denim when she noticed women in her workplace carrying their clothes over denims, whereas the concept for final season’s asymmetrical designs got here from somebody who would use a ribbon to tie her skirt to the aspect as she cycled to work.
Asics x Cecilie Bahnsen.
After launching baggage for Spring, Fall 2023 will function a full sneaker assortment that includes Japanese sportswear outfit Asics. Final season, she embellished upcycled inventory with floral appliqués, creating 50 one-of-a-kind items that offered out inside two minutes of touchdown on her web site. “The sneakers are such a technical product, however Asics actually embraced the femininity of our model with the florals and the transparency,” says Bahnsen.
Sustainability is an integral a part of Bahnsen’s model, which more and more works with leftover supplies from earlier seasons – manipulated and put collectively. “It is about taking one thing two-dimensional and making it 3D by including quantity,” she enthuses. “It permits us to place our personal contact on one thing that already exists.”
In reality, a number of fall organzas and taffeta comes from Nona Supply (the LVMH-backed initiative that centralizes extra inventory from the group’s properties, making it out there to be used by youthful labels), which Bahnsen lately began working with . She is going to then supply materials from Dior and a few of the group’s different companions, planning so as to add resale to the combination later this 12 months, in an effort to “create items to like and cherish and cross on, akin to furnishings and design.”
Suki acting at Cecilie Bahnsen’s Fall/Winter 2023 present.
The Palais de Tokyo present featured a dwell efficiency by French musician Suki, recognized for her “bed room dream doll” confessional, and a easy however efficient LED lighting idea that modified shade in response to the outfits that appeared on the catwalk. The thought, derived from the German understanding of Whole art workthat means “whole murals”, displays the ethos of the Cecilie Bahnsen model – a residing, respiration, biking organism, firmly anchored in on a regular basis life.
