George Gorg on Copenhagen Fashion Week as a trans model

It’s hard to put Copenhagen Fashion Week into words – it’s chaotic, magical, and unlike anything else. After seasons in Paris, Milan, and London, I finally gave CPHFW a try. It was Emma Chamberlain’s Ganni moment, Verona Farrell’s street-style videos, and meeting Emilia Silberg and Amalie Star in Paris, who are now some of my closest friends, that did it for me.

When I got the chance to walk for Stine Goya and Rotate in 2023, I felt like I was in the right place – seen and celebrated without needing to explain myself. I knew I had to come back. That high, of course, crashed when my relationship ended on the flight home that same week, but I’m not here to talk about boys.

Now on my fourth season, with over 50 shows behind me, I want to take you through the CPHFW experience – through the eyes of a model, a trans girl, and someone who loves fashion.

The plane lands. It’s 10AM, I’m well-rested, focused, ready. First stop: a podcast interview with Julie from The Female Effect. On the train, I check my route – and realise I’m outside of Copenhagen. Panic. I rush off, only to remember that I had left my luggage on the previous train.

I call Julie for comfort, report the luggage at the station, pop a half-dissolved paracetamol that immediately turns my mouth dry and bitter, and move on. By the time I get to, and then leave Julie’s studio, we’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve yapped, and we’re running late.

Next stop: the Alectra Rothschild / Masculina fitting. I step into what might be the queerest studio in Copenhagen – trans men, women, lesbians, gays, girls, and theys, all locked in and working. The warmth, the sisterhood, the joy of being in a space where I don’t have to explain myself made the missing luggage feel irrelevant. That night, I fell asleep cuddled next to my friend Luiza Cordery with whom I shared an apartment for the week, scrolling through the beautiful Scandinavian people on Hinge.

I wake up to an outpour of support – brands and PR teams offering clothes, shoes, skincare, to help me recover from the loss. I go to Baum und Pferdgarten’s HQ where we get some nice clothes for their upcoming show, which we will be attending front row later on in the week, and we grab a huge coat to keep us warm in the weather that can singlehandedly prepare someone for the Ironman Triathlon.

Then a quick fitting at The Garment, where my friend Emilia Silberg and I, with whom I once fan-girled over the brand, and attended last season’s show wearing the same dress (in different colours) were now both walking the show. A full-circle moment. I try to maintain my cool, but quite poorly, as I end up sharing my excitement with everyone from The Garment's team. I'm just a girl at the end of the day.

We wrap up the fitting with some liquorice candy then head to Stine Goya’s HQ. The team there is like a big family. We hug, I try on my look for the show, and leave with a gifted black gown for the parties. The team at Stine Goya is such a family, a group of insanely talented (predominantly) women from all fields, and not to mention the absolute divinity that is Stine herself, and a gentle shout out to their new intern, who is a tall and pretty boy! Yippee!

At this point I'm overflowing with excitement. Dressing up and talking with my girls all morning covers all my needs. Next, ROTATE HQ — where Jeanette and Thora are busy preparing for the show, I do my fitting, more hugs. Then, I'm suddenly interrupted by a call from my agent at Scoop Models. I need to be at a last-minute fitting for ALIS’ comeback show. OK! I'm there five minutes after the call, seven huge bags in hands. I'm greeted by the head stylist Pernille Teisbaek, who goes, “Look who went shopping!” Girl – I wish!

We finish the fitting and hop in a car to end the day with my first show: Alectra. I get into my heels and hop into rehearsal. The show is building up to be very emotionally charged, with a genuine and clear message of trans liberation. We finish the rehearsal, most of the team in tears of relief and the collective pain of living life as a queer person. We share the silent looks of understanding as we head onto makeup, hair, and styling. The show starts. We stomp down the runway, the energy of the room is insane – buzzing with adrenaline, cheers, liberation and power. The show ends and I feel so empowered that we got to express this pain and transform it into a healing emotion through art. This is fashion. And what a crazy way to start off the season.

Finally I go grab tasty dinner with my girls, shout out to Donna for the tasty ravioli and desserts. Highly recommend to anyone visiting Copenhagen.

With the emotions from yesterday still rolling around my body, I get ready to go to the STAMM presentation. It's my first time doing a presentation as I'm much more of a “show or shoot” kind of girl. I knew presentations weren't for me, but I trust in STAMM, and have been a loyal fan of the brand for years now, I’ve attended three of their shows and they have been consistently powerful, I had been hopeful I’ll get to take part, so I had to take my chance. The presentation was relaxed and slow, so I had some time to process, unwind, and recharge my social battery.

Then, onto ALIS’ comeback show. I arrived and the energy was completely different. Think buzzy backstage fashion week energy. Everyone completely immersed in doing their thing. We were freezing at the line-up, but then felt so relaxed on the runway. Not a shiver in sight, just floating through it. The show ends, everyone's happy and we're onto what could simply be described as one of the best nights of my life.

I go home and quickly change my outfit (keeping the makeup and hair, my favourite thing about parties during fashion week is that you can just pull up and you're in a full look already). First to Samsøe Samsøe’s party – my girls, a neon green dancefloor, 2000s hip-hop, cocktails, and pretty people all around. So fun! Then, SØPAVILLONEN – tequila shots, beautiful strangers (perhaps, even some kisses). We end the night in true girlhood fashion - on a bench, melting down over how much we love each other, accidentally breaking Luiza’s camera, and then getting a warm slice of pizza at 7/11.

No time to wonder about what happened last night, because we need to be at The Garment's show in 40 minutes. Let's make a nice cup of matcha and get ready for our call time. As always, the brand's show is angelic, set in the renovated church Nikolaj Kunsthal. I reunited with my dear friend Juli Kocemba, a non-binary model with whom I shared a model apartment in Paris. If you've seen any Copenhagen Fashion Week show, you've probably seen them, sometimes on the runway with their dog, Bun. We’ve both started hormones since then and it is so sentimental to see each other growing into the versions of ourselves that we knew each other to be from the start. A sweet moment, but we only had about 20 minutes together before we had to be in the line-up. The show ends, we are over the moon, and Emilia [Silberg] did so great for her first-ever show. It all felt so right.

I head home to drop my things off and get ready for the Baum und Pferdgarten show. I know I've hinted to this already, but I’m so happy to be doing the shows with my friends. Life as a trans girl can get very isolating, scary, and lonely, and to feel seen for who you are, accepted, and included is something so deeply special to me that it moves me to tears just writing this. At the Baum show, dozens of street style photographers light our way to the entrance before we find our seats on a beautiful front row around huge inflatable heart structures. The music, the models, which walked out in groups of two for the finale, it was a room filled with unity. In a word, heartwarming.

Heliot Emil’s intimate dinner followed: caviar and oysters. I've had a professional crush on Heliot Emil since going to their presentation in Paris in 2024. The two brothers behind it, Julius and Victor Juul, are hard working, talented, with so much humility, and are both just so cool. Then, The Garment’s dinner, where I got my actual romance novel moment: a handsome CPHFW driver draped his coat over me and helped me find the entrance. My heart fluttered. I shared a gentle smile of gratitude, but I wish I shared more, such as my number. However, I’m still not here to talk about boys.

The afterparty felt a bit overwhelming that night – very packed. I decided to go home early and just as I turned to leave, confetti exploded from the DJ booth. I have to laugh at the comedic timing of this.

I wake up to a delivery – Gestuz sending a look for their show. I meet up with Julie from The Female Effect podcast again, and when she asks if I'm OK, I respond by tearing up? “I thought I was, but now that you're asking me maybe I'm not?” I needed a moment to breathe. Let's be real. Fashion week is exhilarating, but it’s also a lot. It felt lovely to be vulnerable for a minute.

Then onto the Gestuz show, I was sat down with my “sisters” Alana Hadid and Nadine Matar. We've grown quite close over the past couple of seasons – our connection was instant. I vividly remember meeting Alana and her saying "Are you my new best friend?". There's something unspoken that people hold in their souls, and we could recognise that within each other.

Onto the Han Kjøbenhavn show and, GIRL, oh my god. The chaos. The apartment was six minutes away, so we RUN home, change as fast as we can, and hop into a car. We aren't even fully dressed yet. I am tying Luiza's shirt in the taxi as we approach the show and we get off, and guess what. The doors are closed. The show had already started. I take a photo of Luiza in front of the door as a memory of us being losers, but someone from the team catches our flash in the mirror and opens the doors for us. After the Han show we saw Alana and Nadine in the crowd and grabbed each other, the same way a mother grabs her kid after losing sight of them in a supermarket, and all hopped in a car together, we change our outfits and, if we weren’t sisters before – we definitely were now.

ROTATE follows, and, again, I'm placed in a seat right next to all of my girls. At this point I must laugh. I feel like I am on a school trip with my best friends and we’re going to class together. There's not many things in the world as special as female friendships. We watch our other friends strut on the beautiful runway with live DJ music, wearing what looks like will be my outfits for the next upcoming autumn and winter. ROTATE never miss with partywear and evening outfits. The show is over, and it feels like we've just partied all night. As a matter of fact, we still haven't. However... we should!

We finish the night at SØPAVILLONEN, dancing in the DJ booth behind our friend Christian Anker. We completely lose track of time and before we know it the club lights are on and it's time to go home! It's past 5AM. This isn't great, because even though for most people fashion week was now over, for us, it wasn't. We had one final show to do and it wasn't even in Copenhagen. It was in Aalborg. Four hours' train ride away from Copenhagen. And my train was in three hours.

I wish I could say good morning, but there was no sleep that night. I couldn't tell you how, when and what I packed in my bag, but it was on my shoulder and I was walking to the station, when a thought came over me. "Maybe they found my luggage? I should check with Lost & Found."

I go to the office 30 minutes prior to my train to them saying, "We have no news, but there’s another office for Swedish trains that may have it, its an seven minute walk from here!" I say "Oh great, I'll check it out!", because what even is time at this point, but a construct. I go to the Swedish office that I then realise opens at 10 AM. Someone walks into the office at the same time I'm there – they seem to be working there, I ask them if they could check for my luggage and even though it is not in their work time, they understand my situation and are happy to help. Another reminder of how incredibly amazing Scandinavian people are.

They don't have my luggage, but it's ok! I know it will be safe and they will find it eventually. Then I realise I am late for the train. My head fills up with "Oh my god, I'm going to miss it" and I start imagining how I will call the Stine Goya team to beg for their forgiveness as I will be needing to book a new train. I stop this thought. I haven't done months of meditation and yoga, just to fall into a victim mindset. No! I RUN! I will make it! I'm at the station with a minute to spare. "EXCUSE ME, WHERE'S THE TRAIN TO AALBORG?" I exhale to a kind man with a DBS uniform - he points me to platform 4, luckily, right beside us. I run down the stairs in a way that should not be attempted unless you are a professional, when I hear train doors going "BEEP, BEEP, BEEP". I know this train is about to close the doors. I jump in using the inertia of my entire body and land on the floor of the train just as it closes it's doors. "God I hope this is the right train". I walk down the carriages. It is the right train. I had made it.

After some sleep on the train, I wake up to the most beautiful views a few hours later, close to Aalborg, in the middle of Denmark. the fields look like the Windows XP wallpaper, but in real life and... better. Cute and cosy houses over hills with nature so vibrant that you can feel it in your soul. It makes me want to run in the field. Yippee!

After arriving in Aalborg, I go to the Kansen Museum and am taken to hair, makeup and styling. My eyes are burning, but I'm so happy, and I'm surrounded by so much beauty that I can't find a bone in my body that wants to complain. A little nap as they're doing my makeup was just enough to pick me up on my feet, then I befriend the other models and we do our rehearsal. We do the show and it goes better than imaginable. The Stine Goya show’s atmosphere in this special museum felt so sacred, the AW25 collection is something I strongly urge you to see as it held some of the most beautiful pieces I had ever seen.

On the train back, I change into a party look because, of course, my friends Emilia Silberg and Amalie Star are hosting the YSL party at – you guessed it – SØPAVILLONEN. I made it back to Copenhagen at 2AM. We dance till morning. My flight home is at 6AM. 48 hours with no sleep isn’t new for a model, but it never gets easier. I don't know what internal clock my body works on now, but I will figure it out once I'm back home and resting. And still – I can’t wait to do it all over again.

Thank you for letting me in your world - Copenhagen, I love you. I will see you in a few months. Take care of one another and appreciate your beautiful city, because it certainly is magic. See you in the summer!