Taking shelter from the summertime showers within the great hall of Copenhagen’s Designmuseum Denmark, a follow attendee tells me that these off-guard moments in fashion week are as rare as rain in August. “It’s wedding season, you can always count on the first two weeks to be sunny!”
While a proviso wet weather plan may be wise for any upcoming bride, the same can’t be said for the slew of Danish designers looking to cop to the elements for their collection presentations.
Spring/Summer 2024 may have been the season Copenhagen’s emerging and established talents may have been designing for, but the climate quelled any hopes for a typical tranquil day.
So, later, in the cobblestone gated courtyard of the 18th-Century art museum, I found myself flanked under the kindness of two stranger’s umbrellas, watching as the first model, at the first show of the season took her first steps to officially open Copenhagen Fashion Week 2023.
It goes without saying that the opening show always sets the tone for the week ahead. So, if we are to take cues for the following four days from avant-garde knitwear designer A. Roege Hove, the mode to be followed is one that finds moments of reprieve and frivolity in the everyday.
For the uninitiated. A. Roege Hove is the conceptual label from local Danish designer Amelia Roege Hove.
Eschewing and expanding the vocabulary under knitwear operates, Roege Hove, approached the technical execution of this season with a sense of playfulness that can only be experienced by gathering international press, buyers and creators in a downpour for the sake of fashion.
Indeed, a moment Drew Barrymore in her ‘inner healing child’ era would appreciate, given her attitude towards “never missing an opportunity” to run out into the rain.
This season, Roege Hove encouraged a quotidian silhouette through her conceptual designs, with her collection underpinned by a sense of everyday ease.
Amongst these, a 90s-style softly pleated midi skirt that appeared so sumptuous they looked to be woven from the most delicate of silk, grey ribbed boleros most of the audience were were craving to don atop their summery sets and almost feathered dresses truncated by light-weight midsections and protruding sculptural bodices.
In a rather fresh way, the stripped-back aesthetic of the show felt apt for the climate.
Though some models walked the runway in just a bubblegum pink turtleneck, knitted nickers and sandals, it’s clear that the A. Roege Hove woman is one up for anything and doesn’t let a spot of bother like an unexpected shower stop her in her track.
In fact, quite the opposite, she moves through the world with ease, sporting strappy sandals with socks and two top-shoulder purses in her grasp.
A standout moment of styling came in the form of a studded belt adorning a silver-and-black vertical striped mini dress, channelling a 2005 Kate Moss at Glastonbury.
Little else is required, save for a stack of rings or sculptural studs from lauded Danish jeweller Pandora to compliment and accent the technical precision of the garments.
It must be said, that a rather unceremonious moment came halfway through the collection when a (clearly) inept attendee decided to cross the runway in hopes of securing a better vantage point for her content.
A word to the wise: never, under any circumstance, get up from your seat during a fashion show. Let’s hope this is a lesson learnt during the first show, and doesn’t get repeated during the week.
