Cecilie Bahnsen (Q4056)
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Cecilie Bahnsen is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Cecilie Bahnsen |
Cecilie Bahnsen is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Cecilie Bahnsen has always embraced collaborations, reflecting the strong sense of community that has been central to her practice from the very beginning. Over several of her shows, she has worked with various artists and musicians, and this time she has expanded her references even further. She enlisted Japanese photographer and artist Takashi Homma to perform his tonal music live, while his photographs of the mountains around Tokyo were projected on the walls; more fashion-focused was a partnership with The North Face that produced a series of hybrids fusing sturdy outdoor backpacks and duffel bags with Bahnsen’s ethereal style.The mountaineering theme extended to the show’s casting, which featured three professional rock climbers: Bahnsen referred to their sport as “vertical ballet.” The athletic, outdoorsy spirit ran throughout the collection, crossbred with whimsy. The designer’s signature pouf and cloudlike silhouettes were adorned with functional details like drawstrings, technical buckles, and pullers, some in the form of flat-shaped flowers. These floral motifs, often with a sheer sheen, were appliquéd on fitted technical organza silhouettes or embroidered with a 3D fil coupé effect on bustiers, airy balloon skirts, and lightweight outerwear made from recycled nylon. Bahnsen cited the skeleton flower as her inspiration, a bloom that becomes transparent in the rain, revealing its skeletal structure—a fitting reference, as the relentless rain over Paris made us empathize with the shivery, wet state of those skeleton blossoms.
25 September 2024
Cecilie Bahnsen says her brand is growing up with her, and the resort look book images support that claim. The silhouettes might be familiar (the frilled pouf dress, the denim jacket with peplum godets), but things felt a bit more pared back. There was a shimmering gray set with gray flower appliqué, and another tonal reverie, in inky black, consisting of a zip-front and a short bustier dress. The choice to include wrap styles resulted in a shift in mood. Their tie and untie easiness went in a direction that was more sensual than the usual fairytale narrative, as did the sheer embroidered floral trims peeking from décolleté necklines.Slightly simpler shapes also allowed the materials that Bahnsen spends so much time developing to enjoy the spotlight. Note the confetti-like floral sequins and the sprigged fil coupé on dresses that seemed destined for many midsummer nights.
17 June 2024
At today’s Cecilie Bahnsen show, a large-scale green apple created by Danish artist Casper Sejersen was smack in the middle of the catwalk. It hinted at finding beauty in simple, honest things; yet the shape of an apple, so perfectly round and smooth, is somehow extraordinary. Making the ordinary extraordinary and elevating the mundane into a transporting dimension has been an underlining theme in many collections this season—we cannot escape the harshness of today’s reality, so we try to forge our own soothing realm of comfort somewhere over the rainbow.Bahnsen’s creations inhabit a world of romance and whimsy, where women are fairies who have been given access to the fountain of eternal youth. “But we have to grow up,” she conceded. Indeed. Her poufy creations with tutu skirts this season were darker and moodier, in somber tones of black and deep navy, made in glossy black leather or sturdy blue nylon, and more radically short that ever. Silver vinyl pierced into a myriad of floral cutouts introduced a jarring metallic note—as if growing up were a reluctant, turbulent process of friction. Virginal dresses in floaty white ruched organza with trailing tendrils peeked out from quotidian Mackintoshes—the ordinary protecting the extraordinary, like a shell hiding its vulnerable inner core.“I wanted the collection to have a bit of an edge, taking a step away from innocence and sweetness,” Bahnsen said. The cast had a broad variety of characters and personalities—dancers, artists and singers who are part of Bahnsen’s artistic community came to support the designer. “The world is a tough place for an independent brand, yet I feel it’s my duty to fight for my creativity and to protect my craft,” she said. “My collection is intended as a celebration of different women: in a moment like this, we have to put our voices out and make ourselves heard.”
28 February 2024
“I think our universe has been very floaty, and somehow I feel like this collection is grounding it but still in an elevated way.” So said Cecilie Bahnsen on a call about her pre-fall 2024 collection. It’s been four seasons since the Danish designer started expanding her offering in a distinctive way that makes sense for her brand. This time around, her pretty, romantic dresses mingle with confident separates, like an army green bomber with a bow back and pants and jackets made of stiff canvas and denim.“It takes time to make [a new category] your own and to learn it,” the Danish designer explained. “For me, canvas and denim have a whole other weight to anything else that I do. You need to find a way of creating volume, creating details within that, and that takes a couple of seasons, and then you kind of get it right.” It feels like Bahnsen has now cracked the code, and that’s a plus for fans as it allows for different price points and ways to play with the aesthetic without necessarily going in for the full look.Among the dichotomies at work in this collection are air and earth, expressed in terms of palette and the hand of the materials. The firmer fabrics introduce an element of geometry to complement the soft roundness of Bahnsen’s trademark poofy dresses. Hard is also played against soft, as in Look 8, a patent skirt worn with a bow-tie backward sweater.Duality was the starting point for the season. It so happened that at Bahnsen’s spring show in Paris, two models who are sisters but live in different cities walked their first show together. They appear together again in the pre-fall look book, which got the designer thinking of how she felt during the 15 years she lived in a country different from her own sister. “Seeing them together,” she said, made her “reminisce about what sisterhood is, both for the brand and also for me.” Together but different (as siblings are) defines the way Bahnsen approaches the season. Pre-fall, the designer said, is a “balance between the couture-y and the romance and the kind of princess-y storytelling” as well as more down-to-earth pieces. Her aim is to “both be a realist but also still be the dreamer and still create beautiful things because I think we still need that. But,” she added, “I think it needs to be in a way where you also bring [the dream] into real life.” There’s more than one way to walk on sunshine, in other words.
17 January 2024
Cecilie Bahnsen riffed on her familiar best-ofs for spring, sticking to her ethereal silhouettes, making them more slender, layered, and intriguing with plays of handmade, finely crafted decorative inlaid details. “It’s all about great craftswomanship,” Bahnsen said backstage, giving credit to the women in her atelier who are instrumental in bringing to life her beautifully fragile, romantic dresses.Presented in a raw industrial space that offset the delicacy of the Danish designer’s creations, the collection of everyday couture pieces, as she called it, blended the ease and effortlessness inherent to Bahnsen’s culture with the utterly Parisian flair for frivolous, flirtatious romance. Slender silhouettes played down the usually voluminous poufy shapes she is known for. Rendered in layers of transparent tulle in pale colors or in bright red and strawberry hues, with asymmetrical ruched swirls, they had a fresh, girly allure, and looked cool and fast-paced paired with black Asics trainers.The soundtrack suggested intimacy and romance. French singer Suki’s breath was laced over a composition by Danish composer August Rosenbaum. “We wanted to show the love that goes into making this collection,” said Bahnsen backstage, “the sense of excitement, raw emotion, and joy we feel when our creations come alive.”
28 September 2023
Cecilie Bahnsen took a new approach to designing her first post-COVID resort collection. Rather than consider it one of four separate offerings a year, she’s thinking of preseasons as a kind of introduction to a narrative that will be further developed and deepened in the main shows. This way, she said, “I get to really test, experiment, and work on the collection early on and then build onto it. It won’t be two different themes but a continuation of one.”The brand is on an upward trajectory;WWDreported that the company is expected to hit the $10 million mark this year, proving that fairy-tale-pretty dresses translate IRL. Bahnsen’s collaboration with ASICS has been a runaway success and allowed the designer to spread the love with a product that more customers can access. She continued that line of thinking for resort. “When I create a show, it’s so much about this one perfect note, and this collection is much more about embracing loads of different small stories but still making a whole universe of that,” she said. A good number of those tiny tales were told via separates rather than dresses. This means there will be more ways to incorporate CB into your wardrobe and mix it with what you have. Bahnsen and her team wear their dresses this way, and it balances their sweetness.When this designer looks for inspiration, she often finds it close to home and in the everyday. Some of the separates and dresses were offered in denim or a lighter knit in addition to the fabrics Bahnsen is known for. She used one fil coupé inside out and made good use of smocking, bows, and ruffles. The mood of the collection, the state of “becoming a woman,” was influenced by Bahnsen’s appreciation for Sofia Coppola. When it comes to the appeal of this Danish brand, nothing is lost in translation.
23 June 2023
Today’s world, with its tough twists and turns, doesn’t seem to be an oyster for Cecilie Bahnsen’s sense of romance. Yet darkness can be lightened by grace. Her creations have it in spades.While not straying from for the poetry she infuses into her poufy frocks, which seem to inhabit an ethereal dreamland with no connection with any actual reality, for fall she let her Scandi side dictate a (slightly) more practical approach, expanding her expressive range. Backstage before today’s show, Bahnsen explained that she felt the time was right to explore new silhouettes, leaner and slender, and more vibrant color combinations —gradients from turquoise to cerulean, from sunflower to lemon yellow, or from pale pink to bright magenta. She called the collection “everyday couture,” and gently ventured into outerwear territory, giving her romantic take on a cropped bomber jacket with a billowy bow at the back, or an A-line duster with poufy poet sleeves. Raw Japanese denim was brought into the picture, and given delicate ruffling and peplum details. A collaboration with Asics produced upcycled sneakers with feminine cut-outs details, “technical but also whimsical,” she said.Ruching and smocking were the elaborate yet light textured leitmotifs which gave the collection an airy, breezy feel of transparency. The fabrics were sourced via the LVMH-backed resale platform Nona Source; their luxe surfaces were finely hand-worked with cloqué andgaufrétechniques, and then patchworked together to achieve balloon volumes or slimmer, layered shapes. Today’s presentation, staged in a small venue, made the audience appreciate Bahnsen’s imaginative craft up close.The designer said she wanted the show’s atmosphere to be intimate; the singer-songwriter Suki performed live, showcasing her blend of confessional ‘bedroom-dream’ pop, and lightning designer Jesper Kongshaug envisioned an installation of colors that changed according to the looks.Bahnsen fell in love with fashion when she saw images of a Comme des Garçons show when she was a student; it influenced her lovely, dreamy style. “This collection brings back remembrances of what I liked, or memories of clothes I did in the past experimenting on shapes,” she said. “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.”
1 March 2023
Cecile Bahnsen’s show, held for the second season in the City of Light, confirmed her status as the queen of romantic poufy frocks. A flow of flounced, cloud-like concoctions paraded under a gray sky around the elegant Cour Mansart in the Monnaie de Paris, meandering through an installation of 250 variously shaped clear glass bottles, handblown by artist Nina Nørgaard, displayed on a series of low mirrored plinths.The artworks were inspired by a Yoko Ono exhibition Bahnsen saw years ago at Copenhagen’s Louisiana Museum, where a row of glass bottles filled with water was displayed on a shelf, each bottle labeled with famous names—David Bowie, Sylvia Plath, Cindy Sherman, and others. “I found that message of oneness so meaningful,” said Bahnsen backstage. “We are different yet the same.” She called her collection “We Are Water.”Bahnsen sees fashion as a dream rooted in reality, inspired not by mood boards but by “how girls in my studio, or my friends, actually wear what we design,” she said. Her practical, effortless Danish side was combined with a sense of romance and whimsy, in what she called “everyday couture.” For spring, her airy creations were paired with one-of-a-kind trainers or were worn over loose, comfy pants. She also introduced a few pieces in ivory-colored Japanese denim, cut into high-waist, wide-leg trousers and tailored jackets, veiled by flowy organza dusters embroidered with florals or backed with inserts of crinoline.The idea of water was also the inspiration behind the organic, wavy feel of the textiles, suggesting the rippling of an undulating surface or the silvery reflections of liquid mercury. Glazed cutout fabrics and inlaid fil coupé were made into asymmetrical puffed shapes, shrouded in billowy, inconspicuous sheer overlays. Yet a sort of structured daintiness gave Bahnsen’s creations density and consistency. “It’s my Scandi effortlessness: We really want to wear these; they’re not occasion dresses,” she offered. “They have to be approachable, never too precious. There’s decadence and femininity and the dream of couture. But they’re also descaled and counterpointed by something simple. They’ve got some sort of old-school charm, but their silhouettes have been turned on their heads.”
28 September 2022
“Night Wandering,” a 1939 poem by Tove Ditlevsen, was left on the seat of each guest at Cecilie Bahnsen’s debut runway show in Paris. A voiceover of the poem provided the soundtrack to her show, because, the Danish designer said afterwards, “I wanted to bring home with me.” (She plans to continue to show in Paris, after this sweethearted debut.)Crammed onto tiny stools around the Palais de Tokyo, guests were treated to a tour de force of Bahnsen’s strengths. Her dresses, the most recognizable made of starchy cloqué, came in every color and shape, some bobbly short little poufettes, others asymmetrically hemmed as though the wearer had haphazardly hiked then up on one side. (Bahnsen has described the genesis of her askew silhouette to my colleague Laird Borelli-Persson as a reference to how Danish women tuck up their skirts while bicycling.) Tiny textural knits topped off some looks, a new development in her studio, and pansy appliques dripped off shoulders and hemlines.Seeing Bahnsen’s clothing in motion for the first time in years provided new dimension to her ideas. This season, inspired by Ditlevsen’s poem, she imagined oil slick dresses in shimmering materials that have the toughness and rigor to take a woman through all the hours of her day and night—sun showers to moon shines. Worn with sporty scuba shoes, the collection had a real forward verve; the Bahnsen girls were going somewhere. But where? Penetrating the simple sweetness of Bahnsen’s frocks can seem impossible at times, though maybe that edge-less beauty is the point. As Ditlevsen wrote: “All was beautiful: all gray and dusty pain / was washed away by heaven’s warm tears.”
2 March 2022
The modern fashion industry is wired for speed, sound, and transmission to best perform in a global arena. While many brands are stacking amps and turning up the volume, Cecilie Bahnsen has chosen to play acoustic. This Danish designer delights in the feel and the sound of her fabrics, in “happy accidents,” and is open to sharing the stage, as she did this season.Bahnsen teamed up with Okay Kaya (the Norwegian-American singer Kaya Wilkins) for her digital presentation; she’s introducing her first line of bags, made in concert with the Japanese company Chacoli; and she sent a box of clothes to the photographer Takashi Homma to photograph as he saw fit in his world. The results, said Bahnsen on a call, not only complemented her work, but “it’s been such a great thing to learn how you as a brand, and as a young designer, get stronger by working together with people. And you get even more aware of your own identity, and your own handwriting in what you do, and you grow more confident in it.” All of these elements will be presented at a gallery in Paris; the 30 dresses on mannequins.Bahnsen’s cursive is a legible one, her universe well-defined. While there is a dreamy, fairy-tale quality about her dresses, they are also of this world, a point that was brought home when I visited the designer’s studio and discovered that most of the team live and work in these dresses. It’s wearing her own designs and seeing them in action that grounds Bahnsen’s work and frees it from being seen only as special-occasion wear. “It is really the beauty of the everyday, like the way you tuck up the dress when you go on your bike or roll up your sleeves to protect them when you’re working and these different kinds of drapes and folds accidentally happen,” she says. “These small accidents that change the silhouettes are just so beautiful and can inform so many new ideas, which was really the starting point this season.”The first sign of newness is the palette, which moves from black and white into sky blues, petal pinks, and a tart red. Among the raised, embroidered, and fluttering cutouts, there’s the shimmer of rubber, used to outline an abstract floral. Kaya appears in the video wearing only the underpinnings of a Bahnsen ensemble, a cutout drawstring top and pants, which brings home the way the designer builds her looks through layering. It’s a process she says she applied when approaching bag design too.
29 September 2021
Imagine a wintry industrial cityscape, empty of people. Does it make you feel liberated and free, or is your instinct to seek shelter and warmth? In Cecilie Bahnsen’s fall collection and film there are options for homebodies and adventurers both; they were achieved via intense material research through which the designer wanted to bring emotion and a sense of heart and tactility into a digital landscape that can feel barren and lonely.Happily this season’s pieces were conceived in the convivial atmosphere of the studio. Once Bahnsen and team were safely able to return to work, the designer dedicated a full month to play, working with materials on forms, “refining the most beautiful silhouettes,” she said on a call, “and alongside that working with all these fabrics that are so dear to me.”Quilted silks and cut-outs, coupé and drawstrings, florals and pleats were all revisited and pushed forward. Bahnsen was not only interested in evolution, though: For fall she was seeking to bring a kind of self-sufficiency into the garments. “One of the things that we are known for is these really airy, elegant, layered dresses, but I also wanted to resolve them as a complete look,” she said. She did this by creating dresses that look as if they are composed of different pieces, so that a dress with a quilted body, say, is supported by a knit top that looks as if it were a separate sweater. It’s a form of trompe l’oeil that is completely separate from Surrealism, and one that speaks to material coming together and a connectedness that has a parallel in the community the models form in the film.In her ongoing collaboration with Mackintosh, Bahnsen achieves a union of romance and utility by using waterproof material for coats with full sleeves held tight at the heart with a detachable bib. In a different vein to the delicate dresses are oversized outerwear pieces made of heavier coupė (which reads a bit granny) that are meant, said Bahnsen, to “contrast this really feminine universe and to build up your look.” This marks a shift from layering dresses over knits to coats over dresses that incorporate knits.Occupying a sort of middle ground between exterior (coats) and interior (dresses) are the looks featuring an exquisite pendant floral embroidery that bobs and sways, taking on a life of its own. These embellishments hint at the energy pulsing under the collection, one that urges freedom and movement.
In the film the heroines escape from the shadows of the city, their chariot a vintage silver Volvo, and end up at a beach at dawn, fireworks bursting overhead. Like the season’s palette, which ranges from black to white, the narrative is about “moving out of the darkness into light.”It’s an optimistic message that speaks of the power to move us—with no wheels required. Bahnsen says there’s a fairy-tale aspect to her work as well as “a dreamy part. I think what fashion can do is transport you, now that you can’t even travel,” she says. “You can dream of the times to come.”
1 March 2021
Over the last several months, the act of strolling around our blocks, backyards, and neighborhoods became a necessity. For those of us who adhered to stay-at-home orders and quarantines, these daily walks were vital to our sanity. The act of wandering has new meaning now, largely defined as a meditative and hopeful experience to keep us moving forward even if the road ahead is rocky and unclear.Cecilie Bahnsen wandered a lot through quarantine, not only in her hometown of Copenhagen but also in her imagination. When she began to think about the direction for her spring 2021 collection, she visualized a woman on a journey across a natural landscape. She also looked to photographs by the 1970s artist Hashimoto Shoko, who was part of a group called Goze that included a blind troupe of musicians who traveled and played throughout Japan.Bahnsen cited a famous Danish painting by the artist P.S. Krøyer as well, which depicts women walking on the beach in the town of Skagen. Her designs this season are indeed fanciful: dreamy wandering clothes for women gliding through the current limbo state of the world. Bahnsen, with her billowy textured silhouettes, acknowledges that beauty can lift our spirits up and push us forward during dark times. That optimism was illuminated in some of her newer pieces, like a soft, sheer green 3D sequined dress and hot pink knitwear layered over organza frocks. Everything she made this season was designed to be moved in. The beads and sequins, she said, were placed to make subtle sounds and shine in the wind and sunlight. Bahnsen also added to the mix practical sweaters and a classic raincoat, which she created in her second collaboration with the British outerwear brand Mackintosh. These clothes would most definitely turn heads if they were worn on a typical weekday stroll.
29 September 2020
Cecilie Bahnsen could not host a show or presentation this season due to the coronavirus pandemic. In these extenuating circumstances, Vogue Runway has made an exception to its policy and is writing about this collection via photos and remote interviews.In her still-young career, the Danish designer Cecilie Bahnsen has made a name for herself on the global fashion scene with voluminous dresses that are bold, playful, sculptural, and full of fantasy. Recently she’s begun evolving into separates, knits, and more form-fitting silhouettes that bring an air of sexiness to an otherwise delicate and feminine aesthetic. Perhaps it’s because she just gave birth to a baby boy, but her new resort collection has a fresh air of practicality.Using 100% upcycled fabrics from previous collections—an inspired response to COVID-19 lockdown limitations—Bahnsen created corseted and peplumed dresses and tops decked out with lace, as well as witchy black coats and jackets. Other pieces combine patchworks of quilting, embroidered organza, and sheer silk faille. One of the most dynamic looks in the collection was a canary yellow frock with a spliced-up cable-knit sweater and a caged floral overlay on the skirt. Another was a hybridized white sweater top and dress featuring no fewer than five different fabrics from Bahnsen’s archive.The designer plans to continue experimenting with upcycling and will release smaller, monthly capsule collections made entirely from stockpiled fabrics under the name Encore. This month’s features not just dresses but also blankets and pillows. Speaking from her studio in Copenhagen, Bahnsen said she’s focused on accessibility: “I want the dresses and everything else to be worn in the streets, not just during special occasions. This was a creative challenge, as I normally work very clean and don’t like to mix too much. But I knew there were a lot of ideas hidden in these old fabrics, and I needed to reflect on them, to maybe be less precious and to give them new value.” Bahnsen has a distinct point of view. It was satisfying to see her play around with it a bit more freely here, mashing things up in a way she’s never done before and giving new life to old, beautiful materials.
16 June 2020
There was a dark romance to Cecilie Bahnsen’s fall show in Copenhagen. Darkness was, quite literally, all around: The empty gallery space was nearly pitch-black when guests arrived, save for the glow of a giant square screen displaying a wintry landscape. But then the music began, and once the lights came on, the romance was illuminated. Of course there were Bahnsen’s beautiful, blooming ball skirts and big sleeves, sculpted with delicate silk organza. Dreaminess is a prerequisite for her, but this time around things were a little bit different. There was a fresh edge to Bahnsen’s new work, thanks to the mix of metallic materials and to more form-fitting, corseted silhouettes that added a sensual and bewitching quality to her typically angelic designs.Crisp, fitted blazers were styled with cloudlike dresses and sheer A-line skirts, and Bahnsen also expanded into knitwear with ribbon- and ruffle-bedecked sweaters that could be worn as easily with jeans as they could be layered over one of her voluminous dresses. Outerwear was crucial to the collection. Bahnsen collaborated with British luxury heritage brand Mackintosh and showed minimal anoraks alongside cocooning quilted coats with floral embroidery. Steering the brand in a more everyday direction was a smart move. Bahnsen is a skilled designer, and this season she really pushed herself and her talents to the next level. It was a moody, magical lineup, but it was one of her most well-rounded offerings too.
30 January 2020
Rather than make the hop across the North Sea for her appointment in London this afternoon, Cecilie Bahnsen opted to present this collection via Skype. Covering such a no-show is contrary to Vogue Runway policy—if you’re not present to show your work, then don’t bother—however Bahnsen won a just-this-once pass for this first pre-fall review. Her excuse was that fall 2020’s edition of Copenhagen Fashion Week is just around the corner (six weeks away), and she was rushing to get ahead of that collection by Christmas.A tight edit from this one made the London trip, which amply illustrated why Bahnsen has emerged from her hometown runway to become a buzzed-about designer. Influence-wise, her clothes combine the floral-heaped surgical precision of Erdem and the historically inspired romanticism of Galliano (designers under whom she worked before founding her line in 2015). To the first-time eye there also seemed discernible overtones of Simone Rocha via Rei Kawakubo, especially the new-to-Bahnsen suiting (taking in field jackets) which she said was partially inspired by turn-of-the-century “Catholic-looking” school uniforms. Worn below Bahnsen’s wonderful ethereal-girl dresses, the stompy boots featuring flashes of hardware, Vibram soles, and floral laces felt closer to an ongoing Sarah Burton dichotomy than Bahnsen was to her London showroom.These are all great creative sources to draw from, but this designer is no mere remix artist. Her asymmetrical shirred harnessing and tie-fastened, vaguely 17th-century dress shapes in opaque Como-milled fabrics are straight-up gorgeous. The short-suits, whether in floral quilting or floral lace overlaid on nylon, might not have felt entirely original—perhaps there is a twisted refraction of Thom Browne in Bahnsen’s multifaceted mix—but like those dresses, there was a matter-of-factness to their precise execution that made them seem distinctly Danish, at least via the prism of this distant correspondent’s experience of that great nation. These are dreamy raiments for an Ærø beauty to wander in, unaware of both her own loveliness and that of her clothes.
19 December 2019
Cecilie Bahnsen is embracing change. For Spring 2020 she transferred her runway show from the kind of stark, concrete gallery space she usually favors to a long pier near Copenhagen’s floating neighborhood of houseboats. Since her namesake label debuted in 2015, Bahnsen has become known for her romantic, voluminous dress silhouettes. But now, as her popularity has grown and she’s become Copenhagen’s most decorated and recognized designer, Bahnsen is breaking from her own mold.This season’s hand-tied ostrich-feather minidresses in white, black, and pink were stunning on the pier, fluttering and giving off an aura that sent showgoers (and their Instagram feeds) into varying states of oohs and ahhs. Bahnsen’s use of texture was also better to witness in the fresh air and natural light, especially the silk-organza dresses, which were designed with an elastic smocking technique that rendered them spongy and clingy but still ethereal. Bahnsen showed more fitted silhouettes than ever before—she isn’t a one-note designer.Most compelling in her striving for newness was her new suiting. Bahnsen put her own spin on classic tailoring by creating a sheer white blazer and trouser from a triple-woven jacquard fabric. She also added a sheer organza sleeveless dress over a simple black suit, melding her dreamy sensibility with more structured pieces. Spring 2020 will open more doors for this talented young star because she pushed herself forward and let her vision run free.
8 August 2019
Cecilie Bahnsen is soft-spoken and sweetly shy, and her designs are delicate and almost childlike. So it was surprising to learn that for Fall 2019, Bahnsen was eager to “let a little darkness in.” She said she wanted the collection to feel somewhat more mysterious, like a David Lynch film or a photograph taken by William Eggleston. Bahnsen, who was a finalist for the 2017 LVMH Prize, doesn’t veer far off her own aesthetic course from season to season, but her aim for Fall was to “unravel” herself just a bit, to give up some of her internal control and design a collection that felt undone.This she did, but those looser, unhinged guidelines Bahnsen prescribed for herself were blink-and-you-might-miss-it subtle. They were expressed through DIY-esque patchwork on one of her voluminous baby doll dresses and new, rougher textures like crochet and ribbing for knitwear. She also added constraint-like details, such as a crisscrossed bodice wrap top to one dress and high, sharp necklines on a few of the tops.To add to the broody nature of her agenda this season, she had the models stomp out and march around the square show space like a stirring army of dressed up G.I. Janes. Her version of going dark wasn’t exactly obvious, but it was pleasing to see her move, however slightly, in a strong new direction.
1 February 2019
There has always been a childlike quality to Cecilie Bahnsen’s designs. Despite her elevated techniques, the pieces are typically fanciful and soft, like they were dreamed up inside some luxurious dress-up box. The designer loves elements like pouf sleeves, a tie-back, peplums, and dramatically full skirts. The shapes and silhouettes are alluring, even in their repetition. For Spring, she tweaked her girly aesthetic just slightly by adding a few designs that fit more closely to the body than her usual flouncy separates. The best included a subtle flutter-sleeve day dress in a light white cotton and a pair of sheer frocks with tight bodices.Bahnsen smartly opted not to use black this season, which she often favors, and stayed away from velvets and heavy bow embellishments, though texture was still present. The palette mixed white with sweet blue and green floral embroideries.Prettyreally is the right word to use when discussing Bahnsen’s work. In a fashion world that continues to applaud all things ugly-chic, it’s satisfying to see a collection that celebrates femininity in the most magical of ways (the outliers being the pearl-decorated Suicoke sandals that nodded at Dadcore). There’s no irony or pretense here, just well crafted garments. It’s worth coming back to the dress-up box every season.
9 August 2018
In just a few seasons, Cecilie Bahnsen has carved out a fine space for herself in the fashion industry with clothes that are voluminous and pretty. She has been smart not to change up her signature aesthetic too much, only making slight tweaks to garments like the full-skirted baby doll dresses that she’s turned into core sellers for her burgeoning brand.This season, showing in the gallery space where she presented her Spring 2018 collection, Bahnsen made great use of rich black velvet and quilting for her favorite peplum tops. There were drama-filled dresses with the addition of piping, and heavier knitwear worn with another one of her favorites, a fil coupe skirt. Her sheer items were layered over cotton T-shirts and shorts, which gave them a sense of cool tomboyishness not necessarily associated with the Bahnsen DNA. Fresh hints of sexiness came by way of open-back dresses tied with wisp-thin strings.The most thrilling pieces in today’s lineup were the ones that showed the designer breaking from her own traditions. Bahnsen gave a baggy boilersuit balloon sleeves and a loosely tied bow. She also showed bags for the first time—chic little jacquard drawstring pouches with velvet ribbons worn as backpacks and bum bags. It felt like she was dipping her toe into new territory, which made for a feeling of anticipation. The designer is one of the most talented in Copenhagen right now, and though her slow-and-steady approach is clever, her Fall 2018 collection indicated that perhaps we’ll be seeing expansion sooner rather than later. That’s a nice prospect.
31 January 2018
It may be quite early to make such a prediction but here we go: It wouldn’t be a surprise if newcomer Cecilie Bahnsen turned out to have the most exciting show at Copenhagen Fashion Week. It’s only the Danish designer’s third season and already she’s been picked up by Dover Street Market—her nicely tailored, modern, and feminine frocks are the sort of obscure treasures we expect to see at the famous concept store.For Fall 2017, Bahnsen paraded her school-uniform-inspired wares in a windowed room inside the city’s modern opera house. Her technique, one which she honed as an intern for John Galliano, is truly impressive. Embroidered fishnet baby-doll dresses were paired with sculpturally tailored, crisp white shirts, while silk quilted trousers and vest combos looked sophisticated when paired with ruffled neck-collar blouses. There were also pretty little eyelet capelets styled with collegiate fisherman’s knits. The burgeoning designer’s collection was striking and smart.
2 February 2017