Mark Kenly Domino Tan (Q3311)
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Mark Kenly Domino Tan is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Mark Kenly Domino Tan |
Mark Kenly Domino Tan is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
A visual tone poem. That’s what watching the models at Mark Kenly Domino Tan walk their final round in the vast courtyard of the Kunsthal Charlottenborg felt like. There was serenity in the palette that went from cream to brown, and from gray to black. The natural tones were typical of MKDT and also fit the season’s theme of earth. The collection marked the third in designer Caroline Engelaar’s trilogy, which has included her musings on water (spring 2024) and air (fall ’24).With this in mind, the circular pattern of the catwalk seemed to also represent the cycles of nature. A woven fringed fabric that looked a bit distressed, sort of like bark, was evocative of the living world, and models carried artworks made of straw by Sara Martinsen, which created a folksy, harvest feeling in contrast to the airy, dimensional floral appliqués that were used on the opening pieces.Such a decorative touch was surprising to see at MKDT, where minimalism usually reigns. It doesn’t mark a new direction, but rather relates to this earth theme, according to Engelaar. The designer explained that she wanted something loose and unfinished, in addition to the fringed materials, that represented the wildness of the outdoors.Countering that, and symbolizing the man-made, were tighter silhouettes, boat necks (see look 20, for example), and structured tailoring that nodded to the 1950s. Among the loveliest touches were the scallop edges that appeared as lapels and were used on bra tops. Overall, this outing felt different than the others in the trilogy, with more of an emphasis on prettiness and less on polish—not that the looks weren’t refined—but somehow the collection stayed on the surface rather than digging into the soil.
7 August 2024
Having dived deep into the sea to emerge in pearls for spring 2024, Caroline Engelgaar and her team at Mark Kenly Domino Tan took to the skies this season. Oh, to fly away! It’s the ultimate escapist fantasy. “You’re allowed to dream,” for the eight minute duration of a show, “even though the world is fucking hard right now,” the designer said backstage. “Some days you’re just like, ‘What are we doing in fashion?’ But for me, it’s very much about courage.”It makes sense then that Amelia Earhart was one of her references. The daring aviator, whose plane may just have been found 16,000 feet deep in the Pacific, connects to the airy theme and to the menswear aspects of this women’s collection, especially in the form of aviator jackets. Elsewhere, the Byronesque bows on shirts and pants-tucked-into-boots styling conjured characters from Tolstoy. The setting of the show, Hotel d’Angleterre, which dates to 1775, also influenced the direction of the design; the smokings looked especially appropriate in the space.It was a short jump from sartorialism to thinking about classics, like trench coats and LBDs. The brand’s going-out dresses were offered in a variety of colors with angular origami-like tops (in line with the jutting angles seen at Dior couture). In contrast to the crisp folds on those frocks, there were a number of ensembles that had a soft, blanket-wrapped look.A color-blocked knit dress, ivory at front and blue at back, somehow recalled a Doric column. Pillars, sculpture, classics—designers are grasping on to “constants” as the world continues to fragment. As Engelgaar grows in confidence, so do her clothes, which this season have subtle swagger that should set this brand’s reputation aloft.
1 February 2024
With a measured and serene collection set to the sweet sounds of Christine and the Queens’ “Shine,” Mark Kenly Domino Tan designer Caroline Engelgaar transformed the Glyptotek Musuem’s sculpture grounds into a Zen garden. Within the brand, this collection was like the calm after the storm. Following the departure of the house founder, Engelgaar, who had worked with Tan, created last season’s collection somewhat on the fly. Since then she’s assembled a skilled team and developed a made-to-order atelier offering alongside the ready-to-wear, and she continues to build upon the house aesthetic. Of this lineup the designer said: “It’s simple even though it’s really rich in terms of the fabric. A lot of the things are maybe a bit more feminine than what Mark did, but I think it’s still casual in a couture way.”The opening looks, dresses with asymmetric hems in a silk/technical mix, which had a stiffness not usually seen at the house, seemed to nod to Cristóbal Balenciaga, but Englegaar explained that these, as well as other elements were actually inspired by the Haenyeo, who were female Korean pearl divers. With the garden setting and the chaste prettiness of some of the outfits, one would never guess that the team was preoccupied with the sea this season, but wavy hems and ripple-like peplums were indeed patterned after waves. Pearls are also watery treasures. Mixed in among the more formal dresses were easier looks made in shirting fabrics for women; the counterparts for men were cotton pajama-like pieces. Many of the former were styled with headscarves and the effect ranged from “fashion nun” to rustic.Tailoring remains the heart of MKDT, and you couldn’t go wrong with a cropped blazer or a collarless linen coat in sand with a richness akin to softest suede. It was rainy in Copenhagen, and one imagines if the side-buttoned trench with cape-sleeves had been in store it would have sold out. A men’s Mac featured patch pockets. A slope shouldered suit with long shorts, worn with flats, was an untraditional take on masculine suiting, elegant but not stuffy. Engelgaar was after a gentlemanly feeling, and for women, a ladylike one. The “too casual [look] is not really me,” she said laughingly. “One of the things that distinguishes the brand is that you really do make an effort [to get dressed] and everything is really thoughtful.” And, it should be added, extremely desirable, especially with those who prefer their minimalism with a Danish twist.
10 August 2023
The sun flooding through the windows and across the stone floor at Mark Kenly Domino Tan’s show felt like an auspicious sign as the house embarked on a new chapter after a stormy passage. It was Caroline Engelgaar who took a bow this season, having stepped into the role of creative director when the brand’s namesake became ill. Tan is much loved, not least by Engelgaar, who has worked by his side. The designer spoke of “having Mark in her stomach,” and her collection honored the path he set.It’s not incorrect to describe the MKDT look as minimal, but it might be more accurate to say it has a kind of purity. Tan was as concerned with the making of clothes as with the final garments, and as a trained tailor, sartorialism is a trademark of his brand. And so it continues to be. The opening look was a sweaterdress with a blazer hem, a nice mix of softness and structure, which was a theme that ran through the collection. There were plenty of great coats in the usual vein, some sleeveless, but newest were jackets with defined waists. Also drawing the eye to the middle was a series of half-apron looks. The finale was a black coat with a floating panel that poetically drifted behind the model. The train in look 19 is actually a trench, with arms that fell like streamers down the back.A few of the white looks in the collection—an ivory coat and two dresses with a poufy volume that looked like they were made of paper (it was a fine Japanese textile)—stood out as marking another new direction. Engelgaar described them as having “couture silhouettes” and explained that they were meant to look like sketches, as if to reveal their preparatory state. Dresses coming into being—this could work as a metaphor for her role at the house right now.
3 February 2023
Mark Kenly Domino Tan’s spring 2023 show was presented in the sparkling white interior of the Nikolaj Contemporary Arts Center. The organ was the room’s only reminder that the space was once a holy one, St. Nicholas Church. But I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Tan’s collection had a touch of the divine; it could be read as a homily on elegance.The opening look, a crisp white cotton underdress and pinstripe overskirt with tassels that hung from the pointed hems of both, introduced the themes of asymmetry and layering. For Tan, layering is a way to create a lasting wardrobe as it allows you to combine what you have in new ways. Later in the show, a tie-on apron skirt hit at the thigh and fell into a beautiful drape over a shirt dress.Tan says he is preoccupied with “the relation between clothes and the body,” and has been exploring having more space between the two, or what the Japanese call Ma. A two button coat with a fringe hem is an example of this. The back is open except for two straps which create a shape like that of the kanji symbol for sun. According to the websiteUnique Japan,Ma is a combination of the symbols for sun and “a door that is open to light, thus enabling growth, sparking creativity, permitting freedom.” It’s a beautiful and optimistic concept.The designer also worked with a certain type of Japanese kimono sleeve in order to “merge [an] everyday kind of feeling with the kimono traditions.” Some of these were paired with Tan’s perfectly tailored suits (he worked for many years as a tailor for Christian Dior). Bolero jackets and pleated trousers with suspender straps that reached the breastbone brought the eye up. The bold chokers had the same effect.It’s funny, I first mistook the geode necklace in look one for a Victorian portrait choker. On further thought the geode might in some strange way serve as a kind of portrait of Tan’s work, which gets at the essence of design through a respect for craft.
11 August 2022
If an artist is someone who has a defined vision and a mastery of their craft, then Mark Kenly Domino Tan might be defined as one. The location of his fall show, in the Statens Museum for Kunst), invites the comparison, as does one of the designer’s starting points: American painter Georgia O’Keeffe.“I found an old image [of O’Keeffe] that I printed out many years ago…in my drawer, and I was like, ‘Oh, that cardigan!’ It totally looked like something we were working on at the moment. And then I started diving into the imagery that I could find around her and the environment she was in, and I got this feeling of trying to have a combination of a tailored silhouette, but bringing other traditions of craftsmanship and artisanship into to that kind of tale,” the designer said.Apart from two ethereal white pleated looks with circular silhouettes that could perhaps be likened to O’Keeffe’s flower paintings, Tan largely abstracted his inspiration and at the same time he broke a bit free. The rigor of a tailored coat, for example, was warmed by the romance of a sky-colored streamer. Vintage-feeling jackets had sleeves made of silky lining fabric. “I think for me, it’s moving a bit out of this kind of storm we’ve been in for a couple of years, and trying to find a new, normal way of doing things,” he said. “That’s also why [the collection] is a little more embellished.” (See: a couple of prairie-like skirts with decorative bands.)O’Keeffe’s 1931 painting,Cow’s Skull with Calico Roses, contrasts the austere and the romantic; similarly the decadence of Tan’s collection, this season, enhanced the restraint for which he is so well-known.
3 February 2022
Scandi-cool is a hot commodity and many of the brands showing at Copenhagen Fashion Week are successful because they are able to retain their regional Scandinavian identity in the global market. Mark Kenly Domino Tan operates with a different modus operandi; he makes clothes that feel worldly, though they are made locally.Always guided by craft and fabric, this season he indulged in a bit of daydreaming, conjuring what he called “visual imaginative postcards.” He explains: “I feel that everybody has been on hold, figuring out what is going on. Like almost everyone else, I’ve been very nostalgic about this summer.”In the lead up to his show, Tan was also very intrigued by workwear. “What is utility, what is workwear, what are functional clothes?” he questioned, “because it all depends on the context, the world situation, what’s relevant at the time.” The designer set himself the task of trying to create a hybrid between a 12-pocket utility vest and a classic French jacket at a time when we need protection but also crave comfort that has a bit of shape and substance. He delivered that in the form of a lapelless jacket with no stuffing and all the ease of a cardigan.Even with ideas of travel and worldliness in the collection, this aren’t exactly a clothes aimed at the girl from Ipanema. The layering and many protective elements added a certain guarded gravitas to some of the looks, yet so much about it felt right—and light—because Tan is always working to eliminate superfluous detail and let his materials, crafts, and beliefs shine. “I think you get more clear when you’ve [been] through a period of difficulties,” the designer said. “I think the human being has the ability to survive and see clearly and find what is right from wrong, and I feel that also has to reflect in the way that you dress and the way you appear in your daily life.”
13 August 2021
Lockdown might have separated us from friends and far-away places, but it’s brought many closer to home. Several years ago Mark Kenly Domino Tan took the decision to leave Paris and reroot himself in his native Denmark, having left the country at a young age. He returned with years of work experience, including a stint at Dior, and saw he had “the opportunity to actually stand a bit out in the Danish crowd.” And he does.Bohemian dressing and streetwear have long been Copenhagen’s calling cards. Trained as a tailor, Tan comes at fashion from a different, continental tradition, placing him closer to Armani, say, than to any local brand. Having completely absorbed the metier’s unwritten rules, Tan can pick and choose which need to be broken to take a garment in a new, relevant direction.“I’m a no-bullshit kind of type,” he said on a call. “I like things being the way they are. I like the purity of materials.” For fall these include familiar fabrics like pinstripes and herringbone. The latter is used for the commanding opening look, an oversized women’s pantsuit worn with a white shirt with cuffs hanging well below the jacket cuffs. It’s a look that’s Wall Street and r/wallstreet bets; a tour de force of tailoring and disarray, evocative of Robert Longo’sMen in Citiesseries.Double-face capes and sculptural “abstract knits” (Tan’s words) followed, as did a robe coat with a slit in the button placket through which a belt might pass, and tops with mandarin collars made using banker’s stripes. Though given the Tan touch, a sweatsuit seemed to play to the crowd, which is out of character for this designer, whose stated mission is “to create products that at least have value to me.”The beauty of this stellar, co-ed collection is its material foundation and the designer’s dialogue with his fabrics. “I definitely believe that humans are really closely connected to material, or to textile in general; it’s more or less the first surface you meet when you’re born.” Fabric, of course, sits on the skin; as such getting dressed provides one of the few intimately tactile experiences of lockdown. In blowing up proportions, and gently cocooning the body in cloth, Tan is, in effect, offering us a warm embrace by sartorial proxy.
4 February 2021
Today, Mark Kenly Domino Tan opened a very different kind of Copenhagen Fashion Week. The pandemic has led to seismic changes within the industry on both the local and global scale. Designers everywhere are assessing how to move forward, whether that means skipping spring 2021 altogether, creating collection videos in place of runway shows, or proceeding with business as usual.In Copenhagen, there’s a little bit of everything going on. Tan, for his part, opted for a physical show and livestream. At the venue, the designer’s team handed out sanitizers and masks and socially distanced the audience, which was much smaller than usual. But neither the models on the catwalk nor the guests in their seats could be seen on the livestream wearing those masks, and that’s troubling with the number of coronavirus cases beginning to rise in Denmark. That said, all the safety measures under the country’s current mandates were observed.It’s unfortunate not to be able to see Tan’s designs in person, because his craftsmanship is exceptional. This season, he focused on an almost all-white lineup of easy tailoring and fluid, romantic dresses in cotton poplin. His clothes attract a sophisticated clientele, but his strong suiting was distinctly lighter this time around. The enveloping shapes of blanket cape coats and loosely cut layering pieces seemed adapted for our new lives in home offices. Models walked on the concrete floor of the show space barefoot and clutched straw sun hats as live piano music played. As a whole, the show was refreshing, airy, and hopeful.
10 August 2020
Mark Kenly Domino Tan staged his fall show inside Copenhagen’s oldest library, its circa 1482 hallway serving as the runway. Overhead, a local children’s choir sang a stirring hymn. The clothes that emerged first had vaguely monastic shapes: heavy wool capes in brown and black with matching long skirts. There were pussy-bow blouses tied primly at the neck, along with fluid, oversized suiting. A gray dress made of suiting fabric and pintucked at the waist stood out.This was a wardrobe fit for a particularly well-heeled bibliophile, a professional who only dresses in sharp clothes made well and with luxe materials.Tan doesn’t experiment much when it comes to his aesthetic, but he does play, subtly so, with proportion and silhouette from season to season. This offering had real depth and more warmth and modesty than the designer has pursued in the recent past. You might compare his ideas about how women want to dress now to those behind The Row or old Celine. In a town filled with bright and bubbly prints, Tan’s namesake label stands out for its well-executed tailoring and wearability in the real world.
29 January 2020
Mark Tan isn’t a self-promoter. He hasn’t received a wild amount of press abroad or locally, and while there’s a @mkdtstudio Instagram account, his face and personality aren’t part of the feed. Tan is a skilled designer with a razor-sharp vision; for him it really is all about the clothes and the women who wear them.Watching far from the political mess at home, this American found the show both empowering and uplifting. Wouldn’t Kamala Harris look spectacular in Tan’s white wool safari jacket and matching pencil skirt? What Twitter hell would AOC raise with the Republicans if she wore his navy trousers and sleeveless coat? And can you imagine Nancy Pelosi trading in her badass red Max Mara coat for Tan’s short-sleeve ivory trench with popped collar?That last look was modeled by a woman who appeared to be somewhere north of 40, suggesting that Tan endorses female strength at whatever age it manifests. The collection was an ode to the power woman with a power wardrobe, and it was conveyed with elegance. Evening pieces, like a strapless white column dress and a pink mille-feuille dress, likewise looked grown-up and not at all too sweet. Tan may stay behind the scenes, but his designs aren’t meant for any back office. Dressed in these clothes, his woman is bound to be front and center.
8 August 2019
After two seasons showing inside a spare, concrete industrial space that used to house the power supply plant for the Carlsberg brewery, Mark Kenly Domino Tan gave us some warmth. The designer’s Fall 2019 show was staged inside Copenhagen’s Thorvaldsens Museum, dedicated to Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. Guests were seated along one wall of a long, narrow hallway located near the front entrance. The adjacent wall was lined with Thorvaldsen’s Neoclassical sculptures and busts, Adonis and Napoleon among them. A deep blue vaulted ceiling painted with gold stars sat above. The show began with a soft serenade from singer Jeuru, and, even before the first look came down the runway, there was a palpable feeling that Tan’s latest Fashion Week appearance would be, for lack of a better word, major. But even with the stunning venue and the beautiful live music, the clothes, as they always tend to be, were alluring all on their own.Tan does Scandinavian minimalism well, and he does it in a way that doesn’t look dated. The entire Fall collection was designed in a neutral palette of white, black, and brown, but even so it remained striking in its refined tailoring. The angelic, loosely fitted white seersucker dress with tie sleeves was something to see come down that museum hall. So were the simple brown suede dress layered over trousers and the corseted blazers paired with long, asymmetric denim skirts. The oversize, textural knitwear and outerwear, some of which was designed in collaboration with fur label Utzon, were lovely too. No matter where Tan shows, whether in a chilly old factory or in a storied exhibition space, his signature sharp silhouettes—always crafted with a tweak in the form of something like a bold shoulder, a cinched waist, or an unusual shape—are what capture the most attention.
30 January 2019
Mark Kenly Domino Tan made a terrific return to Copenhagen Fashion Week today. Typically, this local designer skips this season in favor of doing small press appointments in Paris. Choosing an up-close-and-personal setting is an understandable impulse given that Tan’s designs are made with such fine detailing and care that you can often miss a knotting of fabric or an asymmetrical pleat as looks come swishing down the runway. Tan is quite good at making simple garments look complex, and his new lineup had plenty of his signature handiwork. The barely there silk halter dress with a mixed print that made the fine pleating on its skirt look kaleidoscopic was the collection’s most mesmerizing piece, but a gingham dress with knotting and pintucking at the bust was also nice, as was a tiered ruffle dress made with varying fabrics and topped off with a sharp cropped jacket.Then there’s the other side of Tan: the minimal side that makes mom jeans and jackets worn with loafers look insanely cool. His simple, subtle navy blazers and khaki trenchcoats are trending at the moment, but Tan says he doesn’t derive inspiration from street style, as many Copenhagen-based contemporary brands do. Rather, he “reinterprets” it. In this collection, he took the Scandi-favorite dress-over-pants look and elongated the silhouette, creating a peplum version with a high neck and nearly floor-length hems. Elsewhere, the popular pouf-sleeved top was given some structure. If anything felt out of place, it was a short belted romper that neither lured the eye nor showed off the designer’s tailoring skills. This was a strong collection overall. Even if the finer tucks, twists, pleats, and ruffles can be hard to spot on a runway, here’s hoping that Tan makes an appearance at Fashion Week here next year.
8 August 2018
It’s a shame that Mark Kenly Domino Tan doesn’t have a bigger presence on the international fashion scene. He cut his teeth at Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen, and he is one of Copenhagen’s most skilled tailors and a thoughtful designer whose clothes could stand on their own among the established luxury labels of Paris and Milan. He prefers to remain a bit quiet, however, often skipping the Spring shows in his hometown for intimate press appointments in Paris. Tan’s Fall 2018 collection—which he showed today in a chilly, stark rooftop space inside an old warehouse building—was proof that buyers and editors from around the world should pay more attention to him. Also, maybe it’s time for him to rethink the way he promotes (and doesn’t promote) his brand.Tan could start by pushing his brilliant suiting front and center. His jackets and trousers came in earthy tones and with loose, easy silhouettes. The designer styled them with vintage scarf-print pussy-bow blouses, which were modeled by clean-faced male and female models who wore their hair in slicked-back, low ponytails—a fine example of how to do unisex on the runway without it feeling contrived or trying too hard. It also felt a bit preppy and collegiate, considering the draped and frayed tweeds and knits, his signature sculptural shirting, and oversize wool trenchcoats. You could see a number of the pieces on a range of customers, whether she’s a Phoebe Philo worshiper or he’s a Børns kind of guy. Tan has the focus and ability to lure them all, as long as he is willing to start casting a wider net.
2 February 2018
There was an endearing lightness about the Mark Kenly Domino Tan collection this season. For Fall 2017, the designer stuck to neutral colors and with an organic palette as his base, he developed pieces that were exciting in their construction and bold, precise layering. Highlights included a white T-shirt worn underneath a thick, belted wool dress fastened at the side with a large silver pin, as well as a ruffled hem lavender wrap skirt tied over rust-color trousers and topped off with a black, billowed-sleeve blouse.The last look Tan presented was also one to note: an off-the-shoulder ivory zip-up sweater with a third sleeve tied at the side, worn over a pair of see-through, delicately beaded trousers that moved softly with the body.
5 February 2017
If Fall found high-gloss talentMark Kenly Domino Tanin fighting form, then Spring's lineup made for an even more persuasive conjuring of his powerful, ultra-glam woman. It was polished, sure (true technical precision is a hallmark of the line), but here Tan's languid gowns came bearing raw edges, and his trousers were tied offhandedly and just a bit bunched at the waist or knee. The staid palette and slightly more mannish touch palpable in the garments were just the jolt that the designer's brand of high femininity wanted for. His muse came to life in a new dimension this season; it added up to one of the week's strongest shows.
12 August 2016
Danish young gunMark Kenly Domino Tan’s brand of high-gloss glamour has made him a quickly minted favorite of Copenhagen Fashion Week.Yesterday’s outing found his Bergman-inspired beauties storming the runway in spindly stilettos (one, in an un-Newton-esque moment, even took a tumble); pussy-bow blouses; and gorgeous, slit-to-there cream trousers. But best of all was an effortlessly chic, floor-grazing silk shirtdress.
5 February 2016
Founder: Mark Kenly Domino TanYear established: 2012Known for: Sculptural tailoring in surprising materials, like fabrics from the furniture textile house Kvadrat, anchored in a love of midcentury dressmaking and ladylike statement silhouettesWorn by: HRH Crown Princess Mary, Joanna Vanderham, Josephine Skriver, Sidse Babett KnudsenStocked at: Isetan (Japan), Stylepaste, Lot29 (Copenhagen)Spring '16 inspired by: Pierre Paulin and sketches of ancient Rome, deliberately challenging silhouettes structured from industrial materials
6 August 2015
Founder: Mark Kenly Domino TanYear established: 2012Known for: Sculptural tailoring in surprising materials, like fabrics from the furniture textile house KvadratWorn by: Cecilie Christiansen, editor in chief of DanishElleFall 2015 inspired by: The art of Pierre Paulin, Dior silhouettes of the '50s and '60s, a dash of '70s aesthetics, and a more mature sensibility
28 January 2015