Few designers can happily and successfully entertain our flights of fancy. But for Cecilie Bahnsen, romanticising a woman’s life through her clothing is second nature. That’s why, over the years, the Danish designer has amassed a cult following of women who are redefining softness and sensuality on their own terms—via cocooning shapes like puff-sleeve blouses, paper-thin spaghetti straps and froufrou skirts and dresses they’ve come to know and treasure.
This collection set forth another case in Bahnsen’s central thesis that couture can and should be adapted for everyday wear. For fall 2023, she evidenced her handicraft via delicate ruching and patchworks of fabrics that produced asymmetrical and textural effects on dresses with bouncy skirts and balloon sleeves. In contrast to Bahnsen’s spring collection, where she worked within a palette of dark blues and greens, the designer dialled down her hues this season, opting for maize, baby blue and pink (with the exception of red, referenced in the collection’s title).
All materials were derived from resale platform Nona Source, pushing the bounds of Bahnsen’s creativity and enabling her forays into knitwear, velvet and raw Japanese denim. Alongside her signature charismatic styles, the designer also offered simplified outerwear: a trench coat (albeit with blown-up sleeves), a jacket (with built-in peplums) and her take on a flight jacket—each paired with Asics x Bahnsen sneakers—exemplified that Bahnsen can do more with less.
It’s clear the designer is working to flex new muscles, while tending to old ones too. “This collection brings back remembrances of what I liked, or memories of clothes I did in the past experimenting on shapes,” Bahnsen told Vogue.com. “Everything now seems to come together in layers, like a diary written through the years. But you have to keep experimenting, keep elevating, keep challenging yourself, and turning it on its head.”
