Copenhagen Fashion Week has always been as much about the vibes as about the clothes. Tell a fashion person that you’re visiting the capital of Scandi style for fashion week, and they’ll reply with some variation of the following sentence: “Copenhagen is just so nice.” I got some variation of this at least four times before my departing flight from New York.
It's not just a platitude. In Copenhagen, designers understand that good clothes should have a life beyond the fashion week calendar. A large portion of the designers, like crowd-favorite Saks Potts and international juggernaut Ganni, are women-led–and it shows in the elegant functionality of their pieces. And this season, designers seemed to weave the feel-good attitude they’re known for off the runways, right into their collections. The biggest fall 2024 trends were proof that designers considered the actual feel of their clothes on the body, just as much as the way they'll look from afar.
“Designers offered up a warm hug through their designs, showing cocoon cape coats, voluminous layers, and cozy draping,” Nordstrom associate fashion director Linda Cui Zhang agreed. Collections shared an emphasis on lush textures and heavy layering; viral trends like briefs-as-pants and tomato red tights were in scarce supply.
Backstage at Skall Studio, models wore monochromatic layered outerwear and thick knitwear—classics for a Copenhagen Fashion Week fall season.
Copenhagen is also a hotbed for emerging brands with an art school renegade energy. (Think: Runways that double as dance performances and garments whose unusual proportions defy the laws of gravity.) Yet over the course of the week, a uniquely Scandinavian sense of function fused with everyday luxury ruled the narrative. “There is a sense of overall wearability in the fashions that were presented,” noted Julie Gilhart, president of Tomorrow, a fashion consulting firm. “Maybe a bit more ‘practical’ and less fantasy this season, but always containing the sense of craft that permeates the collections shown.”
Copenhagen is the first city on the fashion month calendar, and its elegantly understated collections set an agenda to dress for yourself—not an algorithm—next season. Read on for five fall 2024 trends emerging from Copenhagen Fashion Week that aren’t just for observing through your phone screen. They’re for real life people.
Fall 2024 Trend: Sweeping Statement Coats
Coats at Mark Kenly Domino Tan, Rotate, and The Garment came with sweeping shawl and scarf attachments.
Copenhagen Fashion Week guests walked away from the fall 2024 runways with one piece bookmarked to shop when collections finally arrive in stores. "A statement coat is high on my wishlist after seeing beautiful iterations from Saks Potts and Stand Studio," Zhang said.
While some designers dabbled in faux fur jackets and others favored leather trenches with trimmed collars, the dominant outerwear look came in muted wools and cocoon-like shapes made for bundling up. Coats with detachable scarves are already staples at brands like Helsa and Toteme; for fall 2024, Danish designers took the swaddle-adjacent template and dialed up the proportions. From my seat in the front row, I counted at least seven designers who coordinated an oversize double-breasted coat with a scarf or shawl draped over the model's collarbone and down the back of the piece. Highlights included Rotate's dark glamorous mafioso take in faux fur, plus a deep gray trench with extra-large lapels from Mark Kenly Domino Tan.
Fall 2024 Trend: Touches of Silver
The understated accessory of choice at Aeron, Mark Kenly Domino Tan, and Skall Studio: a hammered silver brooch.
Attend Copenhagen Fashion Week for a few seasons in a row, and styling patterns will start to emerge. Nordic designers love layering a flouncy skirt over coordinating pants or jeans—the better for riding a bike along Copenhagen's winding canals on a chilly day—or pairing a frothy, cloud-like dress with bulky sneakers. The best styling, Nordstrom's Zhang notes, provides warmth and dimension at once.
This season introduced a new trick to the Scandi styling lexicon: securing a color-coordinated sweater or a draping shawl over a base knit with a hammered silver brooch. Artfully deployed touches of bold, metallic jewelry at Skall Studio, Aeron, and Lovechild1979, among others, "[brought] a light buoyancy to cold-weather layers," Zhang noted.
If doubling up on knitwear doesn't appeal, touches of metallic jewelry with a strong jacket can create the same effect: "Lié Studio had gleaming cuff bracelets that look great worn over a soft jacket sleeve," the Nordstrom expert recommended.
Fall 2024 Trends: Gloves Go On
Collections by Gestuz, Rotate, The Garment featured several models up their elbows in leather and taffeta opera gloves.
Every rule has its exceptions, including fall 2024's lean toward understated styling and sophisticated basics. When so-called everyday dressing feels uninspiring, designers offered a one-step prescription: a pair of opera gloves.
Elbow-length gloves fit for an Edith Wharton anti-heroine have crept back into red carpet styling over the past few years. (Taylor Swift spent her historic Grammys night in a black velvet pair by Schiaperelli.) For fall 2024, opera gloves are bringing drama to more dressed-down outfits. Copenhagen designers pulled semi-sheer versions up over the sleeves of longline overcoats (at The Garment) and scrunched them beneath crewneck sweatshirts and lace skirts (Gestuz). But it wasn't all proverbial day-to-night styling: Rotate reserved their gloves for after-hours styling with plunging denim tops and semi-sheer beaded dresses.
Fall 2024 Trends: New Look Suiting
Stine Goya, Ganni, and Remain reversed the trend taking over workwear for the past several seasons.
On the eve of Apple TV's series The New Look, chronicling Christian Dior's rise in mid-twentieth century Paris, it seemed like Copenhagen designers had the house's classic Lady Jacket on their minds. Or, they were simply fatigued with season after season of slouchy blazers and trousers that dragged to the floor.
On the Copenhagen Fashion Week runways, fall 2024 suiting arrived tightly tailored with a ladylike bent. Midi skirts replaced single-and double-pleat pants; blazers were cinched at the waist and cut close to the body. Even designers that aren't known for 9-to-5 suiting tipped their hat to vintage tailoring. Ganni, opting for a sustainable virtual look book instead of its usual blow-out runway, cut a sophisticated double denim set with a nipped-waist cropped blazer.
Fall 2024 Trends: Toughed Up Outerwear
Several runways made the case for slick biker jackets, including Lovechild1979, Saks Potts, and Remain.
On one end of the fall 2024 outerwear spectrum lies a pile of the aforementioned scarf coats, exaggeratedly oversized and possessing the energy of a cuddly Alpaca blanket. On the other end, a fresh batch of leather bomber jackets awaits.
Copenhagen Fashion Week's designers understand that plans don't freeze when the thermostat does. Their runways responded with slick, collarless leather jackets—proportioned for highlighting a great pant or a slinky dress when the wearer is out somewhere fun. Saks Potts dressed Stella Maxwell in a mini navy slip dress, fringe suede boots, and a boxy bomber jacket fit for a late night concert in Bushwick; at Lovechild1979, a final bomber jacket layer toned down the buttoned-up feel of an Oxford shirt and slouchy trousers. In Remain's case, the jacket style even brought sex appeal to a sweet, ankle-length dress with first day of work. (Contrast!)
Whichever coat style speaks most to you, the important takeaway is this: Plummeting temperatures don't have to be an excuse to stop getting dressed.
Meet the Experts
Linda Cui Zhang is the associate fashion director at Nordstrom. She works with the Nordstrom team to curate the store's range of contemporary and emerging designers.
Julie Gilhart is the president of Tomorrow Projects and CDO of Tomorrow, Ltd. She has held a range of roles in the fashion industry, including fashion director of Barneys New York.
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