Copenhagen Fashion Week Spring 2014 Runway Review

The past few years have seen an increasing amount of shows and presentations being crammed into the schedule of Copenhagen Fashion Week. Shorten the concept “week” into 3 days and you have a schedule that’s so full you have to skip at least a fourth of the shows. This year, however, was a different story with the launch of an on-schedule and off-schedule program, known from international Fashion Weeks, with some space in between some of the shows and a later start to each day.

The central themes of the Spring 2014 collections seemed to be a mischievous play with typically feminine versus typically male, thus redefining gender dressing; a clash of sturdy neoprene versus fabrics so thin they almost looked invisible; boxy shapes and armor-like silhouettes versus dresses so body clinging they seem like a second skin; and laser-cut holes and intentional fabric rips which seemed to be present in a lot of the collections.

Asger Juel Larsen

One of the fastest rising stars within menswear, Asger Juel Larsen opened the week with his show “A Triple Distilled Dream” and it underlined the fact that Larsen is quite unstoppable. The collection was inspired by artist H.R. Geiger and rebellious youngsters that burst out of the bleak bubble that is day-to-day life and go for spontaneous raves in supermarket car parks…and consequently, are put away in mental institutions where they are forced into a modern form of lobotomy: watching daytime television, comfortably numbed in a psychotic bliss. It is precisely this bliss that was a central theme of the collection and gave Larsen’s previously very hard and edgy, to-the-point-of-disturbing, universe a softer edge with surgery-inspired jackets, straps that reminded of ones often used in strait jackets and softer lighter fabrics. The collection even saw an introduction of paisley patterns combined with tartan plaids, sheer garments and kaftans for men…all while also remaining true to Larsen’s unique aesthetic with bomber jackets, violent and biomechanic digital prints as well as punk and 90s references.