5 Collections Exploring Longevity and Fluidity at Copenhagen Fashion Week

As Copenhagen Fashion Week marks two decades, Spring/Summer 2027 reflects the values that have come to define the Danish capital’s fashion identity: longevity over novelty, restrained palettes over excess, and craftsmanship over spectacle. This season welcomed the return of By Malene Birger after six years, while Freya Dalsjø designed across generations alongside her mother, Anne Sofie Madsen explored desire through shifting silhouettes, TAUS contemplated the liminal hour between night and morning, and MKDT Studio examined the anticipation of summer. Increasingly, Copenhagen Fashion Week is establishing itself as the destination for refined, wearable collections that balance conceptual design with clothes made for everyday life.

Anne Sofie Madsen: The New Desire

One of the first shows of the Spring/Summer 2027 season, Anne Sofie Madsen‘s “The New Desire” collection also marked an important milestone for the brand as its final presentation within the NEWTALENT Programme. Desire becomes both concept and construction, exploring new possibilities for dressing through garments that negotiate, rather than dictate, the body. The square serves as the collection’s defining geometric form; without an inherent front or back, it resists conventional ideas of silhouette. Tailoring introduces structure, while added and removed panels disrupt familiar proportions, allowing shape to emerge through movement and layering rather than rigid definition.

Draped tops, skirts, and dresses feature waterfall necklines and bias-cut satin, softened by transparent chiffon and organza layered over satin slip dresses. Hand-smocked and hand-dyed silk organza creates softly graduated peach surfaces, while horizontal bands of sandwashed silk and chiffon transform geometric rigidity into fluid, organic forms. A handful of dresses reworked from Nike jersey T-shirts introduce a sportswear sensibility into the otherwise sculptural collection. Throughout the presentation, Danish recorder virtuoso Michala Petri performed live, animating the garments with sound and movement.

Freya Dalsjø Designs for Every Stage of Life

Moving away from last season’s study of leather, Freya Dalsjø turned toward a seasonless wardrobe defined by elevated textiles for Spring/Summer 2027. Developed in conversation with her mother, the collection draws on garments worn across different chapters of her life, creating a dialogue between generations and shaping timeless pieces for women at every stage of life. A restrained palette of black, white, and stone reinforces this enduring perspective, with every cut and detail considered with intention.

Natural fibers—including cashmere, cotton, wool, and silk—become the collection’s foundation, each chosen for the way its weight and movement interact with the body. Fine, layered silks create dresses that appear to float above the skin, while sculptural woven wool pieces introduce a sense of structure. The collection’s calm craftsmanship and thoughtful exploration of textiles found a natural home at Etage Projects, where an intimate audience and gallery setting reinforced its curation approach.

“My wish is that the work speaks to women in different stages of life,”

-Freya Dalsjø.

TAUS Contemplates the Liminal Hour

TAUS‘ Spring/Summer 2027 collection meditates on the fleeting space between late night and early morning—the same quiet, liminal hour that defined Eugène Atget‘s wanderings through the streets of Paris. Rather than serving as a direct reference, that atmosphere of stillness and transition becomes a useful parallel for understanding the collection. Through archival research, upcycled materials, lighter fabrications, and structured tailoring, TAUS continues to expand its own design universe. 

Corsets and sharply tailored jackets provide architectural precision, while a Bar jacket reconstructed from upcycled pieces, a mini dress crafted from a velvet silk scarf, and dresses made from vintage nightgowns showcase an inventive approach to materiality. Flowing silhouettes gracefully shape the body, offset by a single utilitarian bag and jewelry that keeps the focus on the garments. Three looks feature Pandora surplus jewelry, extending the collection’s upcycling narrative, while additional Pandora collaborations appear throughout the styling. A restrained palette of black and white is punctuated by denim, aqua, burgundy, and brown, with lace, sheer fabrics, pleating, fringe, crystal embellishments, and sculptural buttons softening the collection’s structured silhouettes. Presented at Møstings Hus, the collection is accompanied by Norwegian artist Oscar Eriksson Forunes‘ exhibition “GLITR,” exploring queer communities and extending the dialogue between fashion and contemporary art.

MKDT Studio: The Dark Light of Summer

Inspired by the quiet interiors of Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershøi and the atmospheric landscapes of photographer Kirsten Klein, Creative Director Caroline Engelgaar presented “The Dark Light of Summer.” Like Hammershøi’s restrained compositions, the collection embraces simplicity over ornamentation, placing tailoring at its core through collarless blazers, softly structured dresses, and fluid separates crafted in wool, linen, and hemp. 

Silhouettes remain elongated and relaxed rather than body-conscious, allowing fabric to drape, fold, and move naturally. Wide-leg trousers, slip dresses, silk blouses, and mohair knits introduce softness and transparency, while button details trailing down the spine reinterpret the painter’s recurring motif of the turned back. A blurred floral print recalls Klein’s landscapes, while fringe catches the breeze and floral embellishments inspired by household textiles appear across layered organza and crinkled silk. The palette remains muted—ecru, putty, stone, cloud, olive, deep plum, brown, and black—lifted by touches of lavender and sunwashed yellow. Scarves finished with tasseled ends complete the elongated, quietly romantic silhouettes.

“I design for women full of contrast, moving gently between wildness and calm,”

-Caroline Engelgaar.

By Malene Birger Returns to Copenhagen

Returning to Copenhagen Fashion Week for the first time in six years, By Malene Birger marked a homecoming with a presentation at Friheden, an intimate outdoor setting on the founder’s family estate, reconnecting the brand with both its heritage and future. Conceived during the depths of winter, the collection reflects a longing for warmth and light, embracing the anticipation of summer before it arrives, when long days and golden evenings exist only in memory and imagination. 

The sun becomes both muse and metaphor, symbolizing optimism, renewal, and the rituals of the warmer months. Under the direction of Creative Director Emilie Martinsen-Kønigsfeldt and Head of Design Sydney Roark, that sentiment materializes through softly draped silhouettes, sheer fabrics, fringe, crochet, stripes, contrasting piping, sun motifs, and sculptural sun-shaped buttons. Oscillating between ease and refinement, the collection balances nostalgia with optimism, looking toward the season ahead with confidence.